Many people love city life. This has been true since the time of the very first cities. Ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese writers ranked city life above country life. For them, cities were places of learning. They saw the countryside as uncivilized. Still, many writers did note the problems of city life. Some preferred country living. For them, the countryside was unspoiled compared to the city.

For almost 6,000 years, people have divided their world between the urban life of the city and the rural life of the country. The two are usually seen as separate. Today, this is still true. Americans often talk about a “rural-urban divide.” Country people are thought to be very different from city people.

In 3000 BCE, the largest city in the world was the Mesopotamian city of Uruk. It had a population of about 50,000 people. Today, there are almost 50 cities in the world with more than 10 million people. Over time, cities have spread everywhere. They have profoundly changed the ways we live together.

The First Cities

The world’s first cities were in Mesopotamia and Egypt. They first appeared around 6,000 years ago. Then came cities in China, India, and Southeast Asia. These arose 5,000 years ago. Another wave of urbanization began around 4,000 years ago. It led to cities in the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa.

There was no single cause that made a city develop. But location certainly mattered. Cities developed in areas that were well-suited for farming or trade. Or, they arose in places that were easy to defend from enemies.

Cities were more crowded than the countryside. As a result, diseases spread faster in cities. On average, people in cities died earlier than those in rural areas. So why would anyone choose to live in a city? There are a few reasons. Apart from diseases, cities provide safety. Walls and soldiers protected people from enemies, bandits, and wild animals. Like today, young people moved from rural areas to cities to look for work. Rural communities offered little work other than farming.

Around the world, cities only kept growing. By 1200 BCE, China had some of the world’s largest. Anyang housed as many as 200,000 people. By 100 CE, Rome was the largest city in the world. It had over a million people.

Urban Hierarchy: Organizing Cities

Hierarchies were a key part of city life. A hierarchy is a social system in which people are ranked into different levels. The hierarchies of cities kept things running smoothly. They helped ensure that people would do their jobs. Priests convinced people that the gods wanted the king to be king. Soldiers enforced the king’s decisions.

The growth of cities led to many new inventions. People developed new kinds of buildings. They came up with new ways to store food. They built sewers. They even installed running water.

Division of Labor: Job Specialization in Cities

People in cities do not grow their own food. They depend on farmers who live outside the city. These farmers need to grow a surplus of food. In other words, they have to grow more food than they and their family need. Having a surplus of food frees up some people from farming. It allows them to take up other jobs. This is how you get writers, soldiers, and kings.

As cities grew, many conquered nearby rural areas. Farmers were forced to grow more and more food to feed people in the city. People in the city could focus on other jobs. They could trade with other people for what they needed.

In a city, everybody needs other people in order to live. This connects people to each other. A shoemaker, for example, needs leather from cowherds. He needs merchants to distribute his product. He needs protection from soldiers. On the other hand, all those people need shoes from the shoemaker.

Urban Archipelago: Cities Build Networks

Cities connected the world too. As some places got better at making particular things, cities traded more with each other. Different crops and animals were found in different places. If your city had too little wheat, you could trade for it. You could send some of your wool for another city’s surplus of food.

Conclusion: Rural-Urban Divide?

People often talk about urban and rural life as though they were two completely separate things. But the truth is, they’re not. As you have seen, city and country have always been deeply connected. Each has always depended on the other. Each is part of the same system.