Towns and Capital Cities

Abstract

The main part of this chapter is devoted to towns and planned settlements of the Middle Ages and the Modern Era, up to the end of the nineteenth century. Although the medieval period, after the fall of the Roman Empire, is marked by urban decline, a slow process of re-urbanization takes place often due to a very large number of decisions by feudal lords to grant charters or immunities to commercial towns. With rare exceptions, we cannot speak of new towns as such, but we witness a gradual creation of an urban network which lasted for centuries. The process accelerates from the eleventh century onwards. After 1500 and during the rise of colonial empires there is a score of new town foundations all over the world which change the geography of vast regions. This experience is presented in the second section of the chapter, but in its first section the chapter deals with the creation of new capitals, which had lasting territorial consequences because of their strategic and symbolic significance. A range of new capitals is discussed, from Alexandria and Constantinople to St. Petersburg and Islamic cities.