Emma MacDonald

Mr. Malone

11/10/18

AP World History

Development in Urbanization

The beginning of urbanization was based off of small farming communities that

developed into cities but have further been developed since then. Urbanization was encouraged

by a multitude of factors over the course of period three. One of these contributing factors would

be the sometimes, frequent and drastic rise and fall of empires due to certain factors within each

of the empires. The creation and collapse of empires spurred urbanization through the

developments of religion in the case of the Islamic civilization, the creation of new laws in many

Italian cities in Western Europe, and the effect of using a political system during the Tang and

the Sui dynasties.

Religion had a major impact on the growth of urbanization and that is very clearly

exhibited through the Islamic civilization. Since so many people were converting to Islam, and in

many places, conversion involved relocating to an Arab governing center, since religion was

such a crucial aspect of people’s lives and then they would not be discriminated. These Arab

governing centers called Kufa and Basra flourished into cities and became crucial aspects of the

Muslim religion. Many other cities were developed because of the same Islamic motive, such as

Baghdad, Mosul, Aleppo, Damascus, and Cairo. Through the creation on the Islamic Empire,

with Muslim being the dominant religion, aided the development of urbanization through their

religious centers becoming flourishing cities.

 The new laws in Western Europe in the Byzantine Empire were only effective in the city

limits. Depending on a person’s status, moving and living in the cities could benefit them. For

example, there was a law that was enacted that granted the serfs freedom one they entered the

city, which inspired many of the serfs to move into the cities and gain their freedom. The cities

relied largely on trade and continued to grow such as Pisa, Florence, Brescia, Pavia, Siena, and

Florence. Most of these cities had been restricted within walls, but as a result of the growth, they

had to expand due to the growing populations.

During the time period of the Tang and the Sui dynasties, a political system was put into

effect and was the cause of a population boom within the capital named Chang’an. This system

was called the tributary system and it gave independent countries the ability to not be under

direct control of the empires in China, so long as they recognize the dominance of the Chinese

emperor and pay tribute. Chang’an was the largest city in its time with a population of about two

million people. Chang’an was a very sophisticated, organized, and flourishing city in period

three. Its success was due to the Sui and the Tang Empires putting the tributary system back into

use, along with the diversity and openness to new religions, and its attractiveness to those

looking to study abroad.

Another example of urbanization being spurred by the creation of new laws in more

modern times could be in the United States, around the 1850s when slaves were trying to escape

the southern states and move into the northern states and cities for their freedom. Laws in the

North had abolished slavery, which encouraged the slaves working on the southern plantations to

move to the Northern cities for their freedom. This caused population growth in the northern

cities and forced the cities to continue to develop and get larger. The new law about the freedom
of slaves is just like the law about the freedom of serfs and in both cases, it caused population

and development of cities.

Urbanization is something that continues to be developed today and will always continue

to develop so long as cities are still flourishing and growing. In period three, empires and the rise

and collapse of them was in large part, a factor in the development of urbanization. Key factors

in these empires such as belief systems, the creation of new order, and the use of certain

techniques in the way of ruling cities were the specific reasons. Since the beginnings of the

development of urbanization, it took off and increases even through things we don’t necessarily

contribute to as a factor. It may even be viewed that the development of urbanization could be

the cause and lead to the rise and collapse of certain empires.