1. Unit VII: Urbanization Cities and Urban Land Use

2. Agricultural Hearths
The fact that agriculture appears in isolated geographic regions across the earth at roughly the same point in history implies that fact that farming did not diffuse from one place to another. An idea independently developing across time and space is known as independent innovation. (It’s a history term, but it totally works for this class)

3. Hearths of Urbanization

4. The First Urban Revolution
Two components enable the formation of cities: 1. an agricultural surplus 2. social stratification (a leadership class)
Cities developed in/from:
Areas of early agriculture
Permanent village settlement
The development of new social forms
Urban life
Early people were nomadic hunters and gatherers who constantly moved

5. The First Cities
In agricultural villages, all inhabitants were involved in some way in food procurement
Cities were more removed, physically and psychologically, from everyday agricultural activities
Food was supplied to the city
Not all city dwellers were involved in actual farming
Another class of city dwellers supplied services — such as technical skills, and religious interpretation

6. Five Hearths of Urbanization
Mesopotamia, 3500 BCE
Nile River Valley, 3200 BCE
Indus River Valley, 2200 BCE
Huang He and Wei River Valleys, 1500 BCE
Mesoamerica, 200 BCE

7. Models for the Rise of Cities
Technical
The hydraulic civilization model
Large-scale irrigation systems as prime mover behind urbanization
Higher crop yields resulted
Food surplus supported development of a large non-farming population
Strong, centralized government, backed by an urban-based military
Farmers who resisted new authority were denied water

8. Religious
Knowledge of meteorological and climatic conditions was considered to be within the domain of religion
Religious leaders decided when and how to plant crops
Successful harvests led to more support for this priestly class
Priestly class exercised political and social control that held the city together
In this scenario, cities are religious spaces functioning as ceremonial centers
First urban clusters and fortification seen as defenses against spiritual demons or souls of the dead

9. Generally agreed first cities arose in Mesopotamia
River valley of the Tigris and Euphrates in what is now Iraq
Cities, small by current standards, covered one-half to two square miles
Populations rarely exceeded 30,000
Densities could reach 10,000 per square mile —comparable to today’s cities
Oldest city in the World: Ur (Southern Iraq)

10. Urban Hearths
Early cities of the Nile were not walled, suggesting a regional power structure kept cities from warring with each other
In the Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro was laid out in a grid that consisted of 16 large blocks
The most important variations in living conditions occurred in Mesoamerica Cities were less dense and covered large areas
Cities arose without benefit of the wheel, plow, metallurgy, and draft animals
Domestication of maize compensated for technological shortcomings
Maize yields several crops a year without irrigation in tropical climates

11. As cities grew
Cities would create specific places for religions (Burial Mounds)
Cities would add walls for protection (Jerico)
Cities would start to divide Religion and Business (Ancient Greece: Acropolis (Religion) & Agora (Market)
Cities would turn into empires, & empires would start to expand. (Rome)

12. There’s no place like Rome
Rome took many traits and ideas from other cultures that they conquered (Notably the Greeks and Etruscans)
As their empire expanded, the idea of urbanization spread with them
Most cities were established as military and trading outposts
They acted as supply centers for the expanding empire
Also served as communication/service centers for trade or the military
The Empire and its cities were connected by about 53,000 miles of roads, which were built & maintained by Rome
There’s no place like Rome

13. The Roman Empire used A Gridiron street pattern
The Forum (A combination of the Greek Acropolis and Agora)
The city elite were clustered around the forum
While things like fresh water and plumbing were available for the elite, it often did not extend to the poor.
The normal citizens lived in shoddy apartments, 4/5 stories high
The garbage of Rome was thrown into open pits, that often left the city vulnerable to disease and plague
As the empire fell the roads and cities of the empire fell into disrepair.
Some Roman cities survived, and still exist today