looking towards the future of world urban development, cities of the global south will quizlet

population lived in rural areas in 1800 by 1900, this number had dropped to 60 percent. The United States Census Bureau indicates that more than 94 percent of the U.S. For instance, more than 90 percent of the global population lived in rural areas in 1800 C.E. Indeed, urbanization is a relatively recent phenomenon until recent years, the vast majority of people lived in rural areas. (In fact, the population of Rome stood at nearly three million in 2017.) Throughout history, people have been drawn to cities as centers of trade, culture, education, and economic opportunity, but the resulting urban population growth has not always been steady. These are exceptions, however most of the world’s cities continue to grow, and some are experiencing growth at unprecedented rates. For instance, in the first century B.C.E., Rome, Italy, topped one million people, making it the largest city in Europe its population declined to just 20,000 during the Middle Ages. Some of the cities that were once among the most populous in the world, like the largest cities of Mesopotamia, no longer exist, and others have experienced a decline in population.

Some of the world’s largest cities have grown steadily for hundreds of years, while others appear to blossom overnight. For the next several millennia, cities continued to grow in number, size, and stature. Settling along waterways also provided a much-needed transportation system that facilitated trade. Agricultural production in these fertile areas meant that people could give up a nomadic lifestyle as hunters and gatherers to take advantage of food surpluses.

Cities also formed along the Nile River in Egypt, the Indus River Valley on the Indian subcontinent, and the Yellow (or Huang) River in China, as people began to cultivate crops and settle in communities. These cities were among the many communities between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (the so-called Fertile Crescent). The first cities appeared thousands of years ago in areas where the land was fertile, such as the cities founded in the historic region known as Mesopotamia around 7500 B.C.E., which included Eridu, Uruk, and Ur.

Looking towards the future of world urban development, cities of the global south will quizlet