BRIEF HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION AND URBANIZATION

 

Urban sociology syllabus

Urban sociology course documents
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Carl Sagan’s concept of the cosmic calendar

Imagine entire history of our planet compressed into a single calendar year:

January 1st – date of Big Bang until December 31 – no homo sapiens

December 31st, homo sapiens appeared (100,000 years ago)

Last minute of year first cities appeared (90,000 years ago passed until permanent settlements in the form of small villages existed)

Last second world acquired sizable urban population

 

 

HUMAN HISTORY

Factors Affecting Social Organization During Prehistory: Climate--it became warmer & new methods and technologies for producing food

 

Paleolithic Period

Old stone age

Period referred to as the old stone age, period prior to 10,000 BC

Humans lived as nomads, wandering hunters and gatherers

Egalitarian societies, people did different tasks but all equally important

No permanent settlements

No food surplus, lived day-to-day

 

Mesolithic Period – after last ice age & Neolithic Period

Middle to new stone age, 10,000 to 5,000 years ago

Population density grew and began to deplete natural resources

Changing climate contributed to emergence of new plants and animals

Small widely dispersed semi-permanent settlements and nomads, everyone knew a bit about everything

First permanent settlements

Development in fertile crescent which included present day Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, northern Iraq, and western Iran

Village life was becoming more sustainable and common

 

Bronze age & Iron age

5000 years ago

Division of labour became more complex and hierarchical power structure developed with some form of administrative leadership

Agricultural revolution - new technologies and modes of subsistence contributed to a food surplus, domestication of plants and animals

Productive surplus or agricultural primacy, i.e. growth dependent upon agricultural surplus

 

Overgrown Villages

Early forms of human settlement

Covered 5-10 acres and supported a population of about 5,000

Transition from settlements during the neolithic period to the emergence of the first cities

 

Urban Preconditions: Gordon Childe

Permanent Settlement in dense aggregations

Nonagricultural Specialists

Taxation and Wealth Accumulation

Monumental Public Buildings

Ruling Class

Writing Techniques

Predictive Science

Artistic Expression

Trade for Vital materials

Decline in importance of Kinship

 

Evolution of urban areas

1.  First Urban Revolution – city states and urban empires

 

1.1) Near East Mesopotamia and Egypt

New social organization – creation of city-state with some type of ruler

Favorable ecological conditions

Some sort of trade or food surplus

Complex social structure with sophisticated division of labour and power hierarchy

 

Mesopotamian Cities

About 4,000 BC

Located in Middle east in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley

Agricultural Cities (wheat, barley, sheep, goats)

Walled cities with populations of about 25,000

Wheeled Vehicles

Houses of dried or fired mud brick

Winding Streets, narrow and unpaved

Poor sanitation, refuse thrown into streets

Farmers lived just outside city walls within walking distance of fields

Poor lived at periphery but inside walls

Merchants and Craftsman closer to center

Nobility, Priests, Warriors lived at center

Vulnerable and Plagued by major problems

Fire, out of control cooking fires

Disease, linked to poor sanitation

Famine

Threat of invasion by enemies

 

Egyptian Cities

3,300 BC along the Nile river, little is known about Egyptian cities prior to 2,000 BC

Similar to Mesopotamian cities but were not walled

Slightly smaller than Mesopotamian Cities

 

1.2) The Indus region – present day India and Pakistan

Cities of the Harappa Civilization

Emerged around 2,500 BC

Along Indus river in what is now western Pakistan

Important Cites were Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

Streets were straight and laid out in a gridiron pattern forming rectangular blocks

Precincts/areas distinguished by specific economic activities

Western edge of city was religious, political and educational center

City had sewer system and system for collecting trash

First cities to show signs of planned development

 

Mycenaean and Minoan Cities

Emerged around 2,000 BC (Athens about 800 BC)

Radial Structure, with streets starting at center and extending straight out from that center

Sections of city also radiated out from center (so everyone would be equal distance from center)

 

1.3)  China

China along the Yellow river, 2000-1500 BC

 

1.4)  Americas

Mesoamerica (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador), about 200 BC

 

1.5)  Crete and Greece

1800 BCE

Athens, Corinth, Sparta independent Greek city-states

More egalitarian cities

Good life of city founded on principles of moderation, balance, human participation

 

1.6)  Ancient Rome - 700-500 BCE

Good life was based on celebration of excess and domination, human debasement and militaristic cruelty

Development of sophisticated road systems – pavement, and waterworks – aqueducts – engineering and technical achievement

 

1.7)  Middle ages or "Dark age" – 500 BCE – 1100 CE – only in Western world not Eastern world

Barbarism

Feudal system

Age of the Vikings and Islam

 

1.8)  Renaissance or Medieval age

Importance of church life crucial, Roman Catholic

Crusades: armed marches by Christian European groups

Emergence of complex and competitive commercial class at center of trade dominated by craft guilds

Conflict between church, landed gentry and feudal royalty for power

Center of city was cathedral, marketplace or guilds or town halls

Interest in art, literature and architecture, learnings in these areas were path to human virtue, dignity, freedom and happiness, i.e. becoming perfect human being, in reality vision for upper classes

 

Factors Contributing to Ancient Urbanization

Population pressures

Forces of Natural Environment--Topography, climate, natural resources

Technology--tools and techniques

Emergence of Agriculture

Organization--arrangement of population into functional institutions

Trade Between Villages

Division of Labor

Organized Religion

Organized Government

Transportation Technologies

 

What led to the emergence of cities

Technological advances: agricultural techniques, construction, smelting of metals

Higher productivity in agriculture

Food surplus sufficient to feed non-farmers, i.e. craftsmen, traders, soldiers, warfare, religious leaders, politicians

Increased geographical mobility and diffusions of goods, technologies, ideas

Concentration of population:  trade hubs, political centers and massive public projects drainage and irrigation

Occupational diversity and specialization ΰ interdependence

Some functions/skills are more "important" than others ΰ complex social organization and hierarchy

Cities as centers of imperial power

Cities as cultural centers: literacy, arts, religion, science

City and the countryside: First-political, then also economic domination of cities over rural areas

 

2.  Second urban revolution: the rise of modern cities

birth of capitalism

death of feudalism

commerce replacing agriculture as dominant mode of making a living

new middle class – the bourgeoisie comprised of shopkeepers, traders, bureaucrats, government officials, and others engaged in commercial ventures

industrial revolution began

 

Urbanization and Industrial Revolution

Western Europe/North America (from the 1760s--mid-1800s)

Why Europe/North America? Capitalism originally developed there.

Industrial Revolution

Improvements in industrial machinery, utilization of the steam engine, use of coal in iron smelting

Specialization and division of labor in manufacturing

Non-economic changes: decline in mortality, population growth and concentration.

 

Industrialization/Urbanization and colonial expansion

the countryside supplied cheap labor

colonies (territorial expansion--in the case of the U.S.) supplied raw material for industries

Result--rapid growth of urban centers and of the proportion of the urban population, due to migration from rural areas (not natural increase!)

 

Composition of urban population

The biggest growth--industrial workers (proletariat), who did not own any means of production and had to sell their labor to factory owners

Self-employed petty craftsmen and traders

Bourgeoisie--owners of the means of production

Bureaucracy--need to manage complex organization of production and distribution

The unemployed poor--underclass

 

Working and living conditions in cities

Work in the factories-monotonous, 15-16 hours a day

Child labor

Women--limited to certain industries and earned lower wages

No security as in the countryside

But concentration of workers in factories set the ground for workers' solidarity and (later) labor organizations.

Industrial urbanization was largely spontaneous

chaotic housing construction, overcrowding, filth, no sewer, running water ΰ

Urban policies to address these problems

Despite improvements in nutrition and medicine, relatively high mortality and disease prevalence in urban centers

Other urban problems: pauperism, crime

 

System of cities

Larger cities dominated smaller cities--politically, economically

Interdependence and hierarchy among cities

National economic and political unity, nation-states

 

Urban growth in the 20th century

In richer countries:

Rate of growth has slowed and the proportion urban has stabilized at 70-80%

The boundary between urban/industrial and rural/agricultural is unclear.

In poorer countries:

Rapid growth of urban population due to migration and natural increase (especially in the second half of the century)

Relatively little industrial growth in cities

 

 

 

Urban sociology syllabus

Urban sociology course documents
Return to MAINPAGE