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Early European cities rose as major commercial, political, and cultural centers. Largest cities at this time period includes Rome, Paris, London, Florence, and Cologne. Most of them were centers of kingdoms. Population of early cities ranged from 40,000 to 275,000. Many of those cities were in forms of city-states in which a city is a self-governing political entity.
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The Black Death is thought to be originated from central Asia. Its first appeared in1347 at Greece. Through international trade, bubonic plague arrived at Italy. Later, it rapidly spread via trade and major port cities were affected by the Black Death. One third of the total population died because of the Black Death. Urban areas where people are clustered in and live close together, knowing the poor sanation of cities at this time, urban residents were mostly killed.
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Italy's mountainous terrain restricted growth of large kingdoms. Instead, small city-states with independent governments emerged. Those cities were governed by councils of aristocrats or elected leaders.
Italian city-states were the nexus of trade; Milan traded with northern Europe through land route, Genoa traded with western Europe and north Africa through Maritime trade, Florence controlled Papal finance, and Venice traded with East via maritime trade. -
Based on wealth accumulated through trade and finance, leaderships of Italian city-states patronaged art to celebrate their wealth and power. Medici family of Florence was the first to patronage art. Starting witn Folrence, Geona, Urbino, Venice, and other city-states started to patronage art as a method to express respective cities' wealth and prowess.
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Johannes Gutenberg's movable type was a remarkable invention that enabled mass printing of books and other types of publishments. His first printing press was constructed at Mainz in Germany. Later, adjacent cities built printing press and by 1482, major cities in western Europe including those in Italy, Spain, England, and France had their own printing press. They spread through cities because most of the literate populatoin, middle class or aristocrats, lived in cities.
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The first sewage in Europe was introduced in Paris as a form of crude connection of sewage pipe. However, it did not function properly and sewage and wastes were piled up around the streets, creating unsanitary and vulnerable environment to countless dieseases inclding cholera, thypoid, and thypus. It was 19th century that people recognized the importance of sewage system.
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Urban economy was controlled by guild system in which controlled the production and protected artisans. Its grew rapidly in Paris from 60 in 1672 to 129 in 1691. Guilds were criticized by enlightenment philosophers such as Adam Smith that they are inefficient and unproductive compared to freemarket. In spite of those criticism, guilds remained as major source of tax revenue of monarchs and provided employments to urban workers.
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Since the invention of movable type, the number of books published significantly grew over several decades. Between 1700 and 1780, the number of books published increased from 600 to 2,600. Increase in literate population in urban areas resulted in reading revolution, a shift from patriarchal and communal reading to individual reading. Reading revolution and increase in literacy became the basis of establishment of general education in urban areas.
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After his expedition to Western Europe, Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, founded Saint Petersburg to construct a modern city based on western models. Peter the Great encouraged artists and merchants to live in St. Petersburg and he himself sponsored art and music by building museums and concert halls. St Petersburg was a remarkable step over from pre modern Russia to modern Russia. However, other than St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia as a whole was not urbanized.
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Intellectual discussion and debte played critical roles in the Enlightenment. Salons in cities provided space for Enlightenment philisophers. to proceed on intellectual thinkings. Started in Paris, salons spread throughout the Europe. With development of Salons, cities developed to become the center of intellectual activities.
