Cities

Cities are large permanent dwellings or settlement which would include a large urban settlement.

There appears to be no strict definition of what separates a city from a town although most all cities have legal, administrative and historical status given to them by local law.

The local active legislature of the state can approve an article of incorporation that would separate a town from city government and give rights, duties and privileges as a city. This appears to be the general method of distinguishing a city in many parts of the and notably in the colonies of the United Kingdom.

An urban settlement with a cathedral in Europe was considered a city and in the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Kingdom a settlement that had a royal charter was called a city.

Systems for utilities, sanitation, housing, transportation and land usage where more advanced in the cities. People and business benefited from this concentrated development and the interaction it created between business and people.

A metropolis or a big city is connected by regions and suburbs which creates a large number of business commuters traveling to urban centers for employment from the metropolitan and urban sprawl areas.

A region that has large cities that are blending together is called a megalopolis or conurbation.

There are many theories has to what conditions caused the development of cities in the history of the human race.

Some believe that the Neolithic revolution brought about agriculture that supported a denser population. This encouraged them to abandon their nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who practiced agriculture which was the chief factor in the rise of cities.

Others believe cities formed because of natural resources in certain areas that the local people controlled and traded for other food or supplies which brought others in from distant areas to trade for those needed supplies or food. Then through this trading or bartering, ideas and skills where developed and exchanged among the people such as learning to plant and harvest crops with other essential survival skills.

Another idea is that people learned to live together for protection and safety. They learned to build walls around them and work together to keep out marauding armies and bandits.

The most commonly used pattern of how a city should look is called the grid used by the Romans, China for thousands of years, and parts of the Americas. In 1613 the first planned city in Ireland called Derry was started and completed five years later.

The grid pattern with its central diamond shape within a walled city that had four gates was a good design for defense.

Many other cities developed a radial plan where main roads joined at a central point. This form of growth took place over a long period of time with added concentric town walls and citadels that would form a new circle with each new expansion of the city.