City states

Quick Facts: Who was City states?

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City states

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An independent urban center encompassing all its sovereign territory, contrasting with modern nation-states.

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2Day Chrono-Wiki & Primary Historical Archives

Origins & Early Life

A city-state is an independent city that encompasses the totality of its sovereign territory. This concept stands in contrast to that of a regular state or country, which typically encompasses a capital city and additional urban centers, in addition to the countryside. Throughout history, numerous city-states have emerged in various regions of the world, including prominent examples such as Rome, Carthage, Athens, and Sparta, as well as the Italian city-states that flourished during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, such as Florence, Venice, Genoa, and Milan. With the rise of nation states worldwide, there remains some disagreement on the number of modern city-states that still exist; Singapore, Monaco and Vatican City are the candidates most commonly discussed. Out of these, Singapore is the largest and most populous city-state in the world, with full sovereignty, international borders, its own currency, a robust military, and substantial international influence in its own right.

Career & Major Achievements

The Economist refers to it as the "world's only fully functioning city-state". Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a high degree of autonomy and are often considered to be city-states, such as Hong Kong and Macau. Cities of the United Arab Emirates, most notably Dubai, have been cited in similar terms. Additionally, certain non-sovereign overseas territories, such as Gibraltar, are also sometimes called city-states. Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Uruk, Ur and Nippur; Ancient Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the Phoenician cities (such as Tyre and Sidon); the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-states of the Garamantes; the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth); the Roman Republic (which grew from a city-state into a vast empire); the Italian city-states from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, such as Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Milan (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and Genoa and Venice, which became powerful thalassocracies; the Mayan and other cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including cities such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copán and Monte Albán); the central Asian cities along the Silk Road; the city-states of the Swahili coast; Ragusa and Poljica in Croatia; Tbilisi in Georgia; the medieval Russian city-states of Novgorod and Pskov; the free imperial cities of German-speaking Europe; mueang of Indochina; barangay states of the Philippines; and many others.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Danish historian Poul Holm has classed the Viking colonial cities in medieval Ireland, most importantly the Kingdom of Dublin, as city-states. In Cyprus, the Phoenician settlement of Kition (in present-day Larnaca) was a city-state that existed from around 800 BC until the end of the 4th century BC. Some of the best-known examples of city-state culture in human history are the ancient Greek city-states and the merchant city-states of Renaissance Italy, which organised themselves as independent centers. The success of regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy and Greece, often prevented their amalgamation into larger national units. However, such small political entities often survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states (such as Roman conquest of Greece).

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: City states

True or False: “The Roman Republic was always a small city-state that never expanded beyond its immediate urban area.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): While it began as a city-state, the Roman Republic famously grew into a vast empire through conquest and expansion.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 — Chrono-Wiki Encyclopedia Entry: Landmark U.S. law outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
• Civil rights movement — Chrono-Wiki Encyclopedia Entry: A pivotal U.S. social movement (1954-1968) to end legalized racial segregation.
• Civil rights movement (1865–1896) — Chrono-Wiki Encyclopedia Entry: The struggle to eliminate racial discrimination against African Americans post-slavery.
• Civil rights movement (1896–1954) — Chrono-Wiki Encyclopedia Entry: A pivotal era of nonviolent struggle for full legal equality in American society.
• Civil rights movements — Chrono-Wiki Encyclopedia Entry: Worldwide political movements demanding equality before the law, peaking in the 1960s.
• Civil war — Chrono-Wiki Encyclopedia Entry: A violent conflict within a country fought by organized groups aiming to change power or policy.

Frequently Asked Questions about City states