Urban Geography Notes

Today we got more done on this unit, and I have the notes this time:
*cities- a city is a conglomeration (a gathering(like an agora)) of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.
*Urban- the build-up of the central city and the suburban realm- the city and the surrounding environs connected to the city.
*(test question) in the last few years, the first time in human history, more people living in urban areas than rural areas... over 1/2 of the population is urban.
*modern process of urbanization- a rural area can become urbanized quite quickly in the modern world.
*THE FIRST URBAN REVOLUTION*
*agricultural villages
^ before urbanization, people often clustered in agricultural villages
^a relatively small egalitarian (equal) village, where most of the population was involved in agriculture. about 10,000 years ago, people began living in agricultural villages.
*two components enable the formation of cities:
1. an agricultural surplus
2. social stratification (a leadership class)
*5 hearths of urbanization
1. Mesopotamia- 3500 BCE
2. Nile River Valley-3200 BCE
3. Indus River Valley-2200 BCE
4. Huang He and Wei River Valleys-1500 BCE
5. Mesoamerica- 200 BCE
*in each of these hearths, an agricultural surplus and social stratification created the conditions necessary for cities to form and be maintained.
* Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were two of the first cities of the Indus River Valley
^intricately planned
^houses equal in size
^no palaces
^no monuments
*Mesoamerica-Mayan and Aztec civilizations-
*many ancient cities were theocratic centers where rulers were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings.
*between 300 and 900 CE, Alton Ha, Belize served as a thriving trade and distribution center for the Caribbean merchant canoe traffic.
*DIFFUSION OF URBANIZATION*
*the Greek cities
*by 500 BCE, Greeks were highly urbanized
^network of more than 500 cities and two towns
^on the mainland and on islands
^each city had an acropolis and an agora
*THE ROMAN CITIES*
*a system of cities and small towns, linked together with hundreds of miles of roads and sea routes
^sites of Roman cities were typically for trade
^a Roman city's Forum combined the acropolis and agora into one space
^Roman cities had extreme wealth and extreme poverty (between 1/3 and 2/3s of empire's population was enslaved)
and that was all the notes for the two days...