Bairoch: From the Birth of Urbanism to the Beginnings of the Great Civilizations Mihalache Sabina, MFL, MSP I

 The birth of urbanism is one of the major turning points in the history of humanity.  Not exactly known if the cities appeared as a result of civilization, or if civilization appeared after the emergence of cities, the two are strongly bound together.  Although closely connected with the Neolithic, the first phases of urbanization cannot be dated exactly and it is not really known if urbanization can be traced back to a single origin or a number of autonomous sources.

Urbanism and the Economy  An important aspect of urbanism is the strong relationship between the cities and economy, more exactly certain socioeconomic conditions associated with agriculture.  Cities emerge as a direct result of the advances in agriculture. With no agriculture, there is a thin concentration of population, and without large population there cannot be urbanization.

The Neolithic Revolution  Neolithic (starting around BC) signifies “new stone”  The “Neolithic Revolution” means the progression from an economy based on hunting, gathering and fishing to one based on farming and raising livestock. It basically refers to the invention of agriculture.  The production of food per unit of land increases. This makes possible the exchange of food surplus and the growing density of the population, which ultimately implies the abandonment of nomadism and adoption of a sedentary type of life.

Stages in the Rise of Agriculture  The same as with the apparition of cities, it is not known if agriculture evolved from a single or from several sources. Some specialists admit the emergence of several autonomous centers, while others believe agriculture appeared in one place and then spread or diffused to other zones.  The earliest known site of agriculture is the Middle East where the appearance of farming and the raising of livestock is dated between BC. Other sites: Asia BC, Africa 5000 BC, New World BC and Europe BC.

 Some of the causes of the invention of agriculture are considered to be the effects of chance, the changes in climate or the need engendered by the demographic pressure, the last one being the most important.  In the context of an economy based on hunting and gathering, it is easy to understand why the population growth would have been impossible without some radical transformation of this economy, in other words, without the use of agriculture.

Origins of Urbanization  Conditions for settlements to be seen as urban at that time:  The existence of full-time craftsmen, evidence of a division of labor;  The existence of fortifications or walled enclosures, this distinguishing the city from the village, which remains open;  A population of sufficient size and density;  A specifically urban habitat: houses built of durable materials, existence of streets, etc;  Permanent settlements, not nomadic ones.

 Villages are dependent on the natural resources of the place, a great distinction from the reshaping of the environment characteristic of cities.  Some specialists do not consider the Neolithic settlements to be real towns, they see them as “preurban cities”, as part of “protourbanization”  The most important preurban cities lie in the Middle East: Jericho, Catalhuyuk and Jarmo.  Jericho is often regarded as the first preurban city to have appeared.

Challenges of Transportation  One of the most important challenges of the time was transportation of the surplus of agricultural products that were used in trading, hence resulting what is called as the “Tyranny of Distance”: the high cost of transportation.  The domestication of animals and use of beasts of burden partially solved this problem, bringing important economic gains.  Another challenge was the provision of potable water, solved with the construction of cities in fertile regions and downstream in river basins. This solution offered not only potable water, but a reduction in transportation costs as well.

What If the City Invented Agriculture?  Jacobs (1969) proposes a different approach, that maybe the city determined the emergence of agriculture, not the other way around. The thesis suggests that maybe the large concentration of people in cities may have driven them to seek new sources of food, in this way inventing agriculture.  No matter who determined the apparition of whom, what remains important is that the agriculture was, in fact, essential for the development of cities, so for the urbanism.