More Notes on Urbanization

• When people started growing things, they didn't have to keep moving
• 2 components enable the formation of cities: Agricultural surplus and social stratification (leadership class)
• 5 Hearths of Urbanization: Mesopotamia (Iraq) 3500BCE, Nile River Valley (India) 3200BCE, Indus River Valley (Egypt) 2200BCE, Huang HE and Wei River Valleys (China) 1500BCE, Mesoamerica (Guatemala) 200BCE
• Mesoamerica; many ancient cities were theocratic centers where rules were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings
• Diffusion of Urbanization:
• The Greek Cities:
• By 500BCE, Greeks were highly urbanized
• Networks of more than 500 cities and towns
• On mainland and on islands
• Each city had an acropolis and agora
• Roman Cities:
• A system of cities and small towns, linked together with hundreds of miles of miles of roads and sea routes
• Sites of Roman cities were typically for trade
• A Roman city's forum combined the acropolis and agora into one space
• Roman cities had extreme wealth and extreme poverty (between 1/3 and 2/3s of empire's population was enslaved)