Civilization and Urbanization

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Chapter 17

• Civilization and Urbanization

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Introduction

• Migration to cities - too fast to monitor.
• Shenzhen, China -fastest-growing city during
  second half of the 20th century.
• 21th Century, more urban residents than rural
• Urban areas are centers of political power,
  industrial might, higher education and
  technological innovation, artistic achievement
  and medical advances.
• Not until 8000 years ago, human began settling
  into larger places

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For your information

• BoyGirl Baby born 117 100 (China)
• Threshold ratio 106100 (world)
• 8 male without female partner (China)
• Single male family/gay, crime rate high
• 41 million more male than female in China
• source Chinese official newspaper, 3-29-01

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Ancient Cities and Early Civilization
Egalitarian Societies - Village form with no
government authority no public buildings and
workshops
Formative era-7000 B.P. and 5000 B.P.,
development of states and urbanization, end of
this ear, city groups formed (Mesopotamia), with
public building,army barracks, temples, called
stratified society
Early state, proposed by Henry Wright and Gregory
Johnson, 5000 yrs ago - Central City with least
three levels of administration
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Function and location of ancient cities

• Irrigation led the formation of organization.
• Durability of certain towns depended on Water
  accessibility, proximity to productive farmlands,
  defensibility of the site
• Writing - crucial element in the development of
  systematic administration in Mesopotamia and in
  the evolution of its religious-political ideology
• Functions of ancient cities - 1) As centers of
  power 2) as religious centers, theocratic
  centers 3) as economic centers 4) as education
  centers, and 5) cultural centers
• Size - 10,000 to 15,000 - maximum size sustained
  by existing systems of food gathering and
  distribution.

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Figure 17-2 Maya and Aztec America

• God-kings in Maya and Aztec Kingdom
• Figure 17-3 The earliest civilizations

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The Ancient Mesopotamian City
Over 100ft high Temples at the city center
Priest and authorities lived in palace
Poorest inhabitants live outside the city limits
Ordinary people live in mud-walled house packed
together
No sanitary system, garbage dumped into streets
which left the clues of the life
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Greek Urbanization

• During the 3000 B.P. Greece was one of the most
  highly urbanized areas on Earth. Mid- 3000B.P.
  Greece had more than 500 cities and towns. Athens
  and Sparta were Greeces leading cities and
  Athens may have been the largest city in the
  world at the time with 250,000 population.

Mesopotamian
Greece
Roman Empire
Process of Urbanization
Western Europe
All over the world
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Acropolis (acrohigh point, poliscity)

• No need for a an earthen mounds to build temples,
  religious building in Greece were built on hill,
  Parthenon in Athens, designed by Phidias.
• Public places-open, spacious squares in a low
  part of town with steps leading down to theme. On
  these steps the Greeks debated, lectured, judged
  and socialized each other.
• Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
• Great theaters transmitted from Greece to Romans

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Socrates (470 -399 BC)

• Although Socrates (470-399 BCE) is the central
  figure of these dialogues, little is actually
  known about him. He left no writings, and what is
  known is derived largely from Plato and Xenophon.
  
• Socrates was a stone cutter by trade, even though
  there is little evidence that he did much to make
  a living.
• It appears that Socrates spent much of his adult
  life in the agora (or the marketplace) conversing
  about ethical issues. He had a penchant for
  exposing ignorance, hypocrisy, and conceit among
  his fellow Athenians, particularly in regard to
  moral questions. In all probability, he was
  disliked by most of them. However, Socrates did
  have a loyal following. He was very influential
  in the lives of Plato, Euclid, Alcibiades, and
  many others. As such, he was associated with the
  undemocratic faction of Athens. Although Socrates
  went to great lengths to distinguish himself from
  the sophists, it is unlikely that his fellow
  Athenians made such a distinction in their minds.
  
• Socrates is admired by many philosophers for his
  willingness to explore an argument wherever it
  would lead as well as having the moral courage to
  follow its conclusion.

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Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

• Writer of The Republic
• Founded Academy 387 BC, last 900 years,the
  longest surviving university known.
• Let no one unversed in geometry enter here over
  the door of Academy - emphasized the importance
  of mathematics especially the idea of proof
• Aristotle (384 BC to 322 BC)
• Not primarily a mathmatician but made important
  contribution by systemizing deductive logic. He
  wrote on physical subjects some parts of his
  Analytica posteriora show an unusual grasp of the
  mathematical method.

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Roman

• Urban System formed during the Roman Empire.
  Places linked by transportation network, either
  by road, river or sea. Selection of urban
  locations and grid-connections shows the
  Efficiency was a Roman hallmark.
• From Greek theater to Roman first great stadium
  -the Colosseum in Rome
• Wild animals were killed in front of crowds in
  the Colosseum, later Christians were attacked and
  eaten by hungry lions.
• Rich and poor in the same city like the city of
  today
• Colosseum seated about 50,000

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• The Forum was Romes political center
• Ercolano (Herculaneum)was a town of wealthy
  citizens, with streets of curbed sidewalks and
  two-storied houses with balconies and overhanging
  roofs for shade
• Trajans Column in Rome and Hadrians Wall

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Post-Roman Decline

• Empire failure due to misrule, corruption, and
  environmental degradation. Invasion of Iberia
  made the urban tradition disappear from Roman
  Empire and brought new architectural and
  scientific ideas and Islam into the Roman
  regions.
• Chinas Xian was known as the Rome of East Asia
• Timbuktu-became a major city in West Africa
• Meroe in Nile River-manufacture of weapons.
• Maya and Aztec urban cities.

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The Great Wall of ChinaCheck the link

• A total length of 3,750 miles (6,000 km).
  Construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th
  century B.C. The vassal states under the Chou
  Dynasty in the northern parts of the country each
  built their own walls for defence purposes.
• The Great Wall was renovated from time to time
  after the Chin Dynasty. A major renovation
  started with the founding of the Ming Dynasty in
  1368, and took 200 years to complete. The wall we
  see today is almost exactly the result of this
  effort
• Xian - Tang Dynasty
• 700 ad

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Preindustrial Europe

• Urban Environments - only a few peoples who
  controlled labor forces and oversea commerce
  enjoyed the four- or five-story homes, the rest
  of the general folks had to live in a
  slum-ridden, unsanitary and depressing
  environment and many of them, decided to leave
  for America, Australia and other parts of the
  world

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Models of Urban Places

• Sjoberg city should be viewed as products of
  their societies and could be divided into 4
  categories 1) folk-preliterate 2) feudal 3)
  preindustrial 4) urban-industrial
• Prior to the industrial age, all cities shared
  certain basic characteristics, which can Primate
  City that expressed the culture and ideology of
  its society. Wealthy and Powerful had homes near
  the center of the city

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The Modern Western City

• Merchantile City- from colonial era. Center
  square as focus of the city, streets leading to
  the squares formed the downtown.
• After the industrial revolution, a new type of
  cities- manufacturing city emerged. First in the
  British Midlands and soon in Western Europe.
  Paris and Amsterdam managed to retain the
  character of their historic centers, others were
  totally/partially destroyed

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The Law of the Primate City

• Mark Jefferson 1939, - dominant city as a place
  that reflects the culture of its region. The
  law states that a countrys leading city is
  always disproportionately large and exceptionally
  expressive of national capacity and feeling.
  Kyoto - represents
• Old Japan and Tokyo-new
• Paris - France
• London, Athens, Lisbon, Prague and Amsterdam
• Beijing in China, Lahore in Pakistan, Ibadan in
  Nigeria and Mexico City in Mexico

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Primate Cities in other countries
Agricultural countries Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia
Recent colonized countries Kenya,
Zimbabwe,Senegal
Distant Colonized countries Sri Lanka, Liberia,
Nicaragua
But they dont necessarily express national
capacity and feeling because of past foreign
influence
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Introduction

• Migration to cities - too fast to monitor.
• Shenzhen, China -fastest-growing city during
  second half of the 20th century.
• 21th Century, more urban residents than rural
• Urban areas are centers of political power,
  industrial might, higher education and
  technological innovation, artistic achievement
  and medical advances.
• Not until 8000 years ago, human began settling
  into larger places