Early Cities
• Urban Hearth Areas– Follows the same pattern as agricultural
hearth areas– Areas: Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Huang He
River Valley, Egypt, & MesoAmerica
• First Urban Revolution– Leadership class developed– Population of cities was 10,000-15,000
• Ancient Cities were centers of religion, power & economics
Urban Hearths
Classical Cities:
• Athens – population 250,000• A global city, rather than regional• Urbanization diffused from Greece• Had acropolis & agora
• Rome • Combine acropolis & agora = forum
• Urban Morphology- form & structure of cities, incl. street patterns, size and shape
The Diffusion of Urbanization
Medieval Cities
• Europe – see map (Knox 398)
• Decreased in size and importance
• Non-European – see map– thriving
Colonial Cities
• Pre-Colonial– Cities tend to be inland
• Colonial (see map Knox 402)– Cities on coast– “Deliberately established or developed as
administrative or commercial centers by colonial or imperial powers” (Knox 404)
– Gateway Cities – “serve as a link between one country or region and others because of their physical situation” (Knox 400)
Industrialization
• Second Urban Revolution prompted by second revolution in agriculture
• Increased urbanization• Location choice based solely on power
source• Industrial Cities – fundamental reason for
existence was to simply assemble, fabricate & distribute manufactured goods
• Urban Sprawl – unrestricted growth of housing, commercial developments and roads
Industrialization- Shock Cities
Manchester, England
1750 15,000
1801 70,000
1861 500,000
1911 2,300,000
Chicago
1850 30,000
1880 500,000
1900 1,700,000
1930 3,300,000
U.S. Urban Growth Stages
U.S. Urban Growth Stages
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