How did urban life form?

When people talk about “Urbanization” what immediately comes to mind is the big city of Chicago because of my close living quarters to it. But where exactly did our urban neighborhoods come from? How exactly did we form these big cities with skyscrapers so high they touch the clouds? Looking back 10,000 years it is easily noted how major towns and cities formed without the technology and capitalism that we have today. There were certain motives behind people migration patterns and this is important in looking at the first urban cities. Urban places throughout history have meaningful locations and aren't just spontaneous. Two of the earliest known urban areas were located in the Indus river valley in India and Yellow river valley in China. Rome is another example as it built major monuments dedicated to gods and past rulers. Members of urban life developed full time craft work and labor specialization as well as other social functions. It wasn't until the 14^th and 15^th centuries when major cities shed the religious codes and developed purely out of economic, political and social reasons. Agricultural surplus, specialization of labor, social stratification or hierarchy and long distance trade is what created some if the economic urban areas that we know today.  Urban areas that became populated and wealthy became sites of fortification and standing armies were important. Rome can be used again as an example as it was based on military power and it too was a wealthy city. As cities became heavily fortified they had could no longer spread outwards and instead moved up. Higher buildings were constructed giving these ancient areas of urbanization more of a modern look that we know today.

The reasoning behind these urban formations could be because of the close proximity to water which is a simple need for human life. The first urban centers that developed into major centers of trade and urban life all had spiritual, religious or ceremonial importance to people and it was a goal for pilgrimage which brought people to the city and kept them there. With people moving towards ancient cities everyday life formed there with agricultural production, short and long distance trade, military conquest, and the pursuit of arts and science all developed. With social and religious connections in these ancient urban settlements a sense of shared identity formed within them. These towns even based their locations of certain buildings on religious meaning and had them pointing in specific directions. For example towns in China had city gates with specific deities pointing in North, South, East and West directions and in the city of Athena within Greece, all buildings were based on a geometrical design.

 It is interesting that even social problems that we know today started occurring in these towns. Rome had overcrowding problems and traffic problems just like some modern cities today. The leaders of Rome attempted to fix these issues with redevelopment and its changes became the model for urban planning across the globe. The renaissance created a new sense of order within urban cities and towns while the medieval order brought some changes of its own. During this age in time the idea of open space at the center of cities was adopted with major buildings surrounding. The 17^th century is best known for the rise of capitalism and also the industrial revolution. Industrialization and capitalism brought with it the change of big towns into industrial cities and more rapid urbanization. Capitalism meant the “commodification “of urban space and legal justification of private property. As the feudal system broke down the serfs moved toward the city looking to trade their labor for a wage in this new economic society. This is where Karl Marx’s working class he called the “Proletariat” was born. This is the point in time in which the pursuit of profit overtook the religious and social order in which almost all major urban cities were built upon. The center of urban life became based upon economic expansion and the new modern age was born. With the privatization of land and real estate investments urbanization began increasing only because of the drive for pure profit. It really isn’t difficult to see how urbanization formed in the first place. Meaningful spaces, whether for religious, social, political and economic reasons, draw people to that location and create these big cities and spread its urban life outwards from that location. Land became tradable like other goods and anything that could be turned into a profit was, and cities became the economic hubs of the world.  Originally urban life came from religious and social meaning and identity but now we can say it comes from the pursuit of profit.