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