A 'city-state' is a region controlled exclusively by a
city, usually having
sovereignty. Historically, city-states have often been part of larger cultural areas, as in the city-states of
ancient Greece (such as
Athens,
Sparta and
Corinth), the
Phoenician cities of
Canaan (such as
Tyre and
Sidon), the
Mayans of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including sites such as
Chichen Itza and
El Mirador), the
central Asian cities along the
Silk Road (which includes
Samarkand and
Bukhara), or the
city-states of Northern Italy (especially
Florence and
Venice). More recently the neologism 'citistate' has been developed, referring to the city as the center of a 'city region' that includes relocated urban business like factory and company towns, and supply economies like agricultural, timber and mineral extraction whose commodities find a market in the city. The term "city-state" should not be confused with that of "
independent city", which refers to a
city which is not administered as part of another
local government area (eg, a
county).
Among the most creative periods in human history are those in which humanity organized itself in small independent centers. Modern Europe owes much of its civilization to two such periods -- the small Greek city-states, and the city-states of Renaissance Italy. However, these small creative groupings usually survived for only short periods of time because they lacked the size and strength to defend themselves against the onslaught of larger social entities. In addition, the success of small regional units coexisting as disunited parts of a loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy or Hellas (Greece), acted as a barrier to the creation of larger national units with greater staying power. Thus, they inevitably gave way to larger organizations of society, the empire and eventually the nation-state.
[1] Today, only
Singapore,
Monaco and
Vatican City arguably remain autonomous city-states.
Ancient city-states
City-states were common in
ancient times. Though sovereign, many such cities joined in formal or informal
leagues under a
high king. In some cases, historical empires or leagues were formed by the
right of conquest (e.g.,
Mycenae, or
Rome), but many were formed under peaceful alliances or for mutual protection (e.g., the
Peloponnesian League).
Examples include:
★
Cities of the Ancient Near East:
Mesopotamia (
Sumer,
Assyria),
Anatolia (
Hittites,
Mitanni),
Levant.
★ The ''
poleis'' of
Ancient Greece
★
Ancient Rome
★
Jericho, in the Levant
★
Mayan city-states
★
Phoenician cities (incl.
Carthage)
★
Troy, an Anatolian city state in
Asia Minor
★ The city-states of the
Shang and
Zhou dynasties
★ The
Yoruba city states of Eko (now
Lagos) and
Ibadan.
The Middle Ages and the early-modern era
In the
Middle Ages, city-states were particularly a feature of what are now
Germany,
Italy and
Russia. A number of them formed the
Hanseatic League, which was a significant force in trade for a number of centuries.
The Holy Roman Empire
:''For further details, see under:
Imperial Free City.''
During the long history of the
Holy Roman Empire, dozens of towns and cities obtained local independence. By the late
18th century, their number had slowly been reduced to around 50, but almost all were eliminated ("
mediatized") in
1803; in 1815 , once peace had returned at the end of the
Napoleonic era, only
Bremen,
Hamburg,
Lübeck and
Frankfurt remained independent. Those four cities became members of the
German Confederation (effectively the Holy Roman Empire's successor). Frankfurt was annexed by
Prussia in 1866 , while Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen joined the
North German Confederation in
1867 (and then the
German Empire). Hamburg and Bremen continued until today as states in the modern
Federal Republic of Germany, while Lübeck lost its independence in
1937.
Netherlands
In the time of the
Dutch Golden Age of the Seventeenth Century, many Dutch cities - and especially
Amsterdam, the biggest and richest of them - exhibited many of the characteristics of city-states, maintaining their own militias and navies and often conducting their own policies and pursuing specific political and commercial interests, with little regard for the rest of the Netherlands.
This was exemplified in the Amsterdam Town Hall erected at the time on the
Dam Square, which was sumptuous enough to be later converted into a
Royal Palace (which it still is), and having among its decorations a giant painting of Imperial Amsterdam depicted as an enthroned Queen, served by three female slaves representing Asia, Africa and America.
The recent past
In the
19th and
20th centuries, a variety of changing political circumstances left several self-governing city-states as
enclaves surrounded by the territory of another state. In Europe, they have included
Fiume,
Gdańsk,
Memel and
Trieste. On the edges of Europe they have included
Batumi and
Tangiers. Elsewhere in the world,
European colonialism resulted in a number of tiny colonies that were no bigger than a port and its immediate surroundings, such as
Hong Kong,
Pondicherry,
Singapore,
Weihai, and others.
Today, only a handful of political entities reflect the primary features of city-states of the past centuries, namely
Singapore,
Monaco and the
Vatican City. Each of these entities are designated as cities at some point in their existence (occasionally when they were still part of a larger country), and are currently fully sovereign.
Contemporary city-states
Singapore
Singapore is an island city-state in
Southeast Asia. About 4.5 million people live and work within 700 square kilometers, making Singapore the fourth most densely populated country in the world. The entire island functions as a single
metropolitan area. The
city centre in the south of the island is surrounded by
satellite towns,
parks,
reservoirs and
industrial estates, which are connected to the centre and each other by a dense network of
roads,
expressways and
metro railway lines. Singapore has a highly centralised,
unitary government with a
unicameral legislature. While there are so-called
town councils and
mayors in Singapore, these are essentially
property managers in charge of the maintenance of
public housing within their
constituency boundaries. They do not represent
local authorities with any
legislative or
executive autonomy from the national government.
Prior to the 19th century, Singapore was a minor part of various regional
empires, including
Srivijaya,
Majapahit,
Malacca and
Johor. From 1826 to the
Japanese conquest, Singapore was the
capital of the
Straits Settlements, a British colony that included the Settlements of
Malacca and
Penang along the
Straits of Malacca. After the
Second World War, Singapore was hived off as a separate colony while the other two Settlements joined the
Malay States to form the
Federation of Malaya. In 1963 , Singapore merged with Malaya,
Sabah and
Sarawak to form
Malaysia. However, due to a number of
problems, Singapore was expelled from the federation in 1965, becoming an independent republic.
Since 1965, Singapore rapidly industrialized and modernized, becoming one of the four "
Asian Tigers". In addition to the substantial
absolute and
per-capita size of its
economy, Singapore maintains a significant
armed forces. It ranks highly in terms of
defence spending and
troop size. Singapore may be a small country, but it is a medium to large sized developed city. Despite its small land area, Singapore therefore has a population, economy and armed forces that place it in a similar league to small but full fledged nations like
New Zealand,
Ireland,
Israel and the
Nordic countries, rather than semi-independant
micro-states. Singapore also maintains a network of
diplomatic representation around the world, including membership of international organisations like the
UN, the
Commonwealth and
ASEAN. Singapore places emphasis on self-sufficiency in basic needs, like water. The government also stockpiles other key resources, such as sand and oil. In this way, Singapore tries to avoid over dependence economically, politically or militarily on larger entities. As such, Singapore may represent the most complete contemporary example of a city-state, meeting the full definitions of both a
city and a fully
sovereign state.
Monaco
The
Principality of Monaco is a perfect example of a city-state:
Monaco-Ville (the ancient fortified city, which is not a city even though its name means "Monaco-City") and the well known area
Monte-Carlo are actually districts, not cities. The territory of the country corresponds to the city limits (one government and one town hall, each having specific powers): the Principality of Monaco and the city of Monaco. However, due to its small land area and population size, Monaco is not a fully sovereign state. In July 1918, a treaty was signed providing for limited French protection over Monaco. The treaty, part of the Treaty of Versailles, established that Monegasque policy would be aligned with French political, military, and economic interests. Only in 1993 did Monaco become a member of the United Nations, with full voting rights. In 2002, a new treaty between France and Monaco clarifies that if there are no heirs to carry on the dynasty, the principality will remain an independent nation rather than revert to France (which were the terms of the previous arrangement). Monaco's military defence, however, is still the responsibility of France. Monaco did not receive its first foreign ambassador, the French ambassador, until 16 February 2006. While Monaco cannot now be disputed to be a sovereign state in a ''de jure'' sense, its dependency on France means it can be regarded as a European microstate.
Vatican City
Until 1870 , the city of
Rome had been controlled by the
pope as part of his "
papal states". When King
Victor Emmanuel II annexed the city in 1870,
Pope Pius IX refused to recognise the newly-formed
Kingdom of Italy. Because he could not travel through a place that he did not admit existed, Pius IX and his successors each claimed to be a "
Prisoner in the Vatican", unable to leave the 0.17-square mile (440,000 m²) papal
enclave once they had ascended the papal throne.
The impasse was resolved in 1929 by the
Lateran Treaties negotiated by the Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini between
King Victor Emmanuel III and
Pope Pius XI. Under this treaty, the Vatican was recognized as an independent state, with the pope as its head. The
Vatican City State has its own citizenship, diplomatic corps,
flag, and postal system. With a population of less than 1000, it is by far the smallest sovereign country in the world, and widely recognized internationally as such.
Other examples
As well as the above sovereign states, the term "city-state" can also refer to states within federations such as the
German states of
Berlin,
Bremen, and
Hamburg, the
Austrian state of
Vienna, the
Russian cities of
Moscow and
Saint Petersburg, the
Ethiopian
chartered cities (''astedader akababiwach'') of
Addis Ababa and
Dire Dawa, and the
Spanish ciudades autónomas of
Ceuta and
Melilla. Constitutionally, the British overseas territory of
Gibraltar is a city.
In
China, the term is sometimes used for the
Special Administrative Regions of
Hong Kong and
Macau, due to their long histories as
colonies of the
British and
Portuguese respectively; while neither are legally defined as cities, they enjoy an equivalent status to a province within China, with a high degree of
autonomy.
Countries that have a very high proportion of their population within a single city, such as
Kuwait and
Djibouti, are sometimes referred to as virtual or near city-states, especially when they are relatively small in total land area; however, city-states are not small Nation-states.
Whereas the Nation-states rely on an invented or real common heritage--commonly linguistic, historical, religious, economic, etc--the city-state relies only on the common interest in the well functioning urban center. The urban center and its activity supplies the livelihoods of all the urbanites who inhabit the city-state and its region.
See also
★
State
★
Nation-state
★
Microstate
★
Colonies in antiquity
★
Consolidated city-state
★
List of fictional city-states
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