Urbanism

The Urbanization of Europe

In Europe during the early Middle Ages, the country-side, economically and socially structured by feudal ties, prevailed against the cities. Towns and villages were dependent on it; they needed men and resources to feed their expansion and in return, they ensured its protection. But a drastic shift in this process took place between the twelfth century and the fourteenth century, first in what is now Italy and later in what is now Germany: Burghers began purchasing land in the country-side and became landlords, which gave them a new type of authority over farmers. From then on, city inhabitants were at the same time landowners and middlemen marketing agricultural produce. Not only the poor but also the wealthy sought to live in cities. For the latter, the possession of an urban residence was a symbol of an enviable social position and prosperity. Gradually, rural towns and hamlets came to import their expressions, beliefs, and ways of thinking from urban society.

As a result, during the Renaissance cities enjoyed a very positive image. Urban landscapes continued to become more important through the seventeenth century, but it was not until the eighteenth century that cities escaped the confines of walled fortifications, remnants of earlier eras when walls protected the inhabitants from invaders. Prior to the eighteenth century, European cities grew concentrically, with continual building of bulwarks that were subsequently outgrown. The urban population contained within could grow only slowly, and urban identities formed in the confrontation between the inside and the outside of the city walls.

A major change in the process of urbanization occurred at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first industrial revolution, with its steam engines and its revolution in coal mining and metallurgy, led to sharp population increases in already densely populated cities. A housing crisis developed, with high rents, appalling sanitary conditions in large pockets of poverty, and consequent [Page 1429]epidemics. Above all else, the rootlessness of country newcomers contributed to quick deterioration in urban life. Urban morphology had to change. The nineteenth century saw continuous building of wide boulevards and avenues for pedestrians, public parks and gardens, and other public amenities. City walls disappeared gradually, and the city spread beyond its traditional limits. Suburban areas also developed; in them were concentrated activities excluded from the cities, including craft industries, workshops, and polluting and dirty industrial plants. These areas on the outskirts of the cities offered cheap but comfortless apartments.

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