city-state

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City-states were autonomous, self-governing states led by a city. They controlled land outside the walls, from a few square miles, for many of the imperial free cities of Germany, to the huge land-and-sea empire of the Republic of Venice. All city-states had collective governments, usually a narrow or broad oligarchy. With the exception of the largely rural Swiss city-states, their economies were based on trade and manufacturing. A vital part of European politics, economy, and culture in 1500, city-states declined in importance in the next three centuries.

City-states rose in the Middle Ages in areas of Europe lacking strong territorial monarchies. North Italian towns won their independence from the Holy Roman Empire in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Geographical remoteness and mountains protected the Swiss city-states from outside rule. In Germany many towns had achieved the status of imperial free city by the end of the Middle Ages. They governed themselves but were expected to follow the lead of the Holy Roman Empire in foreign policy and to provide financial support when necessary.

Italian City-States

Venice, Genoa, Florence, Siena, and Lucca were the best known, largest, and most important Italian city-states. Venice and Genoa were the leading trading powers of the Mediterranean Sea in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and Venice remained important through the seventeenth century. Trade led to manufacturing and banking. Venice was a printing and glass manufacturing center, while Genoese bankers lent money to monarchs, especially Spain. Florence was a commercial and banking center and a renowned wool manufacturer. Siena was an influential commercial city in central Italy, and Lucca had an important silk industry.

All five Italian city-states had republican forms of government. They viewed themselves and their institutions as the heirs of the city-states of ancient Rome and Greece, despite some considerable differences. A series of interlocking councils made major decisions in the Italian city-states. Leading adult male citizens, except for clergymen, were elected or chosen through lot to fill seats on executive and legislative councils. Terms of office ranged from two months to one year. The franchise and the right to hold office was broad but did not extend to all the inhabitants of the town. The Republic of Venice had a unique form of government. Only adult male nobles whose legitimate ancestry could be traced back to 1297 were eligible to hold office. But this still included about 2,000–2,500 men in a total population of about 175,000 in the late sixteenth century. The gerontocratic nature of Venetian politics further encouraged consensus. A young noble began the climb to high political office in his early twenties under the watchful eyes of his elders and, if found able, reached the most important councils in his mid-fifties. In Genoa a number of prominent families shared governmental responsibility. Both Venice and Genoa elected doges to be ceremonial heads of government with limited authority. Florence was more democratic. In the years between 1498 and 1512, about 3,000 adult males were eligible for public office in a population of about 70,000. The smaller Siena and Lucca were ruled by relatively broad oligarchies drawn from the leading citizens. However, none of the Italian republican city-states offered significant political rights to the inhabitants of their subject territories outside the capital city.

German City-States

Some sixty-five cities in what is now called Germany enjoyed the title and privileges of free imperial cities. Not ruled by prince or bishop, they were self-governing states who recognized only the remote overlordship of the Holy Roman emperor. Along with princes, prince-bishops, and knights, the free imperial cities had their own representation in the imperial diet, the consultative body which met periodically to discuss imperial affairs and to grant financial support to the emperor. The most important free cities were located in southwestern Germany. Augsburg had 50,000 people in the early sixteenth century and considerable importance as a commercial center, although its territory was small. Nuremberg had about 20,000 inhabitants inside the city walls and another 20,000 in over 400 villages in the fields and forests ruled by Nuremberg. Other important free cities included Magdeburg, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, and Strasbourg. Ulm, much smaller in population than Augsburg, controlled some 500 square miles of territory outside its walls. Hamburg, with 20,000 inhabitants in 1550, which rose to about 60,000 in the late seventeenth century, was the most important city-state in northern Germany and a center for shipping, publishing, textile production, and banking. The Hanseatic League cities of Lübeck, Bremen, and Gdańsk (Danzig) were also imperial free cities in northern Germany and Poland.

Oligarchical city councils dominated by leading merchants and professional men from wealthy established families governed the free cities. Although some cities had limited-franchise elections, seats in the city council were often hereditary: When a council member died, his son or nephew succeeded him. By the sixteenth century artisan guilds had almost no formal role in government. Nevertheless, artisans made their views known, and city council members took them into account, because they feared civil unrest. Because both wealthy merchants and modest artisans saw their personal well-being dependent on that of the city, German free cities had a strong communal identity.

Swiss City-States

The thirteen independent cantons of the Swiss Confederation made up the third group. The Swiss Confederation grew from the three original forest cantons of Uri, Schwys, and Unterwalden, then added Lucerne (1332), Zurich (1351), Glarus (1352), Zug (1352), and Bern (1353). Solothurn and Fribourg were added in 1481, then Basel and Schaffhausen in 1501, and Appenzell in 1513. Geneva won its independence from the House of Savoy in the sixteenth century but did not become a member of the Swiss Confederation until the end of the eighteenth century. Swiss cities and towns were small in population: Geneva had 13,000 people, Basel had 10,000, and Zürich had 7,000 in the early sixteenth century. But compared with the German free cities, they controlled considerable surrounding territory. The cantons of Glarus, Grisons, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Uri, and Zug were rural, mountainous, and forested, with tiny, isolated populations. Some cantons ruled additional lands outside their borders, while the Swiss Confederation as a whole also held land. However, the Confederation was only a loose association organized to pursue common interests, such as defense against invaders, rather than a central government. It could not prevent wars between cantons. By 1500 the Swiss cantons enjoyed de facto independence from the Holy Roman Empire, a condition recognized in 1648. Councils composed of prominent citizens, either elected or semi-hereditary, ruled individual cantons. The independent city-state of Geneva elected its officials.

Religion and the City-States

City-states approached religious matters collectively. Leaders and people believed that the entire city-state was responsible to God for the actions of its inhabitants. Plague, flood, and military defeat were seen as God's punishment on the city as a whole for its sins. Consequently, leaders and people sought agreement on religious issues.

This also meant that city-states approached the local church and its clergymen in a possessive way. They believed that the local church should be responsible to them more than to the papacy. In Italian city-states the leaders of the local church came from prominent local families. In Venice the Senate chose the Venetian patriarch, the leader of the local church. Occasionally the Senate chose a prominent member of the government, who, upon being designated patriarch, became a clergyman. Once in office, the patriarch was expected to follow the lead of the civil government in disputes with the papacy and matters affecting the civil government.

German and Swiss city-states had similar attitudes in different circumstances. Before the Protestant Reformation the bishop was often a non-resident outsider, rather than a member of the ruling group of the city. This produced disputes, anticlericalism, and a receptive audience for the first Protestant preachers. When townspeople began to support the preachers, city councils had to make decisions about the religious direction of the city-states. Since they wished to affirm the unity of the city-state before God and to keep the peace, they often moved the city-state into the Protestant camp. They moved cautiously, usually orchestrating a step-by-step, orderly, and reasonably peaceful transition to Protestantism. German and Swiss city-states were among the first states to embrace the Protestant Reformation. Zurich and Nuremberg are much-studied examples. Geneva won its independence from the House of Savoy and its bishop in the mid-1520s, then became Protestant between 1532 and 1536.

However, as religious differences generated warfare between Protestant and Catholic states, the German free imperial cities were vulnerable. Religious and political warfare was a three-way struggle between empire, princes, and cities. The cities that became Protestant were obliged to form alliances with German Protestant princes, who ruled stronger states and commanded larger armies. These alliances also incurred the vengeance of the emperor, who retaliated against Protestant cities. The free cities that remained Catholic also became weaker, because they had to rely on the emperor for protection and were bled white to support him. After the sixty-year truce following the Religious Peace of Augsburg of 1555, the free cities again suffered during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). An imperial army brutally sacked the free city of Magdeburg and murdered twenty thousand of its inhabitants in 1631. Münster and Erfurt, not imperial free cities even though their bishops exercised no control, lost their independence to nearby princes, and Strasbourg came under French domination in the later seventeenth century. The Swiss city-states retained their independence because they were difficult to invade.

Decline

Some city-states were already losing their independence in the sixteenth century. In 1532 the Florentine Republic became the Duchy of Tuscany, ruled by the Medici family. Spain conquered Siena in 1555 and then sold the city to Florence in 1557. Genoa became a subservient ally of Spain in 1528, a move that enabled it to survive until 1798. By the eighteenth century the remaining independent city-states were fewer in number and weaker in every way compared with their condition in 1500. When the Holy Roman Empire was formally abolished in 1806, the free German city-states hardly existed except in law. Venice, the largest and most important city-state, lost Cyprus in 1571 and Crete and the rest of its eastern Mediterranean Empire in a series of wars with the Turks between 1645 and 1718. But it remained independent and the ruler of a sizeable part of northeastern Italy. Although its commerce waned, Venice remained a major European cultural, intellectual, artistic, and musical center through the eighteenth century. Then in 1797 the twenty-eight-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte, no respecter of age, conquered the 1,000-year-old Most Serene Republic of Venice. The much smaller Lucca emerged from the Napoleonic period still an independent city-state in 1817, but it was ruled by members of the Bourbon family, until it voted to join the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. The Swiss city-states maintained their independence.

In 1500 the city-states played essential roles in European politics, economy, and culture. But they could not afford the money and manpower to defend themselves against aggressive territorial monarchies and princedoms. They could not compete against national economies. And with the exception of Venice, their artistic and intellectual greatness faded. The city-states were major losers in the centuries between the Renaissance and the French Revolution.

Bibliography

Berengo, Marino. Nobili e mercanti nella Lucca del Cinquecento. Turin, 1965. Classic study of the city-state of Lucca.

Friedrichs, Christopher R. The Early Modern City, 1450– 1750. London and New York, 1995.

Grendi, Edoardo. La repubblica aristocratica dei genovesi. Bologna, 1987. Politics, trade, and poor relief in Genoa, 1500–1700.

Lane, Frederic C. Venice: A Maritime Republic. Baltimore and London, 1973. The best one-volume history of Venice.

Mackenney, Richard. The City State, 1500–1700: Republican Liberty in an Age of Princely Power. Atlantic Highlands, N.J., 1989. A brief account.

Moeller, Bernd. Imperial Cities and the Reformation. Edited and translated by H. C. Erik Midelfort and Mark U. Edwards, Jr. Durham, N.C., 1982. First published in 1972. See pp. 41–115 for the title essay. Argues for the importance of free imperial cities in the Reformation.

Monter, E. William. Calvin's Geneva. New York, 1967. Excellent short account of Geneva in the sixteenth century.

Strauss, Gerald. Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century. New York, 1966. Good history of all aspects of Nuremberg.

Walker, Mack. German Home Towns: Community, State, and General Estate, 1648–1871. Ithaca, N.Y., 1971. Classic, pioneering study.

—PAUL F. GRENDLER

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

A city-state is an independent country whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as part of another local government.

Where as the nation-states rely on a common heritage, be it linguistic, historical, economic, etc., the city-state relies on the common interest in the function of the urban center. The urban center and its activity supplies the livelihoods of all urbanites inhabiting the city-state.

Contents 1 Historical city-states 2 Contemporary city-states 2.1 Sovereign city-states 2.1.1 Monaco 2.1.2 Singapore 2.1.3 Vatican City 2.1.4 Others 2.2 Non-sovereign city-states 2.2.1 Cities that are component states of federations 2.2.2 Federally-administered cities 2.2.2.1 Washington, D.C. 2.2.3 Autonomous cities in unitary states 2.2.3.1 Hong Kong and Macau 3 References

Historical city-states

Further information: List of ancient Greek cities

Examples include the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth), the Phoenician cities of Canaan (such as Tyre and Sidon), the Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia (such as Babylon and Ur), 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), and the city-states of Italy (especially Florence, Genoa, Siena and Venice) and Croatian city-state of Ragusa (Dubrovnik).

Within the transalpine part of the Holy Roman Empire the Free Imperial Cities enjoyed a considerable autonomy, buttressed legally by the Lübeck law which was emulated by many other cities. Some cities — though also members of different confederacies at that time — officially became sovereign city-states in the 19th century — such as the Canton of Basel City (1833–48), the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (1806–11 and again 1813–71), the Free City of Frankfurt upon Main (1815–66), the Canton of Geneva (1813–48), the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (1806–11 and again 1814–71) and the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck (1806–11 and again 1813–71). Another city-state, though lacking sovereignty, was West Berlin (1948–90), being a state legally not belonging to any other state, but ruled by the Western Allies. They allowed — not withstanding their overlordship as occupant powers — its internal organisation as one state simultaneously being a city, officially called Berlin (West). Though West Berlin held close ties to the West German Federal Republic of Germany, it was legally never part of it. A number of the aforementioned city-states — though partly with altered borders — continue to exist as city-states within today's Federal Republic of Germany and today's Swiss Confederation (see below: 'Cities that are component states of federations').

Among the most well-known periods of city-state culture in human history include ancient Greek city-states, and the merchant city-states of Renaissance Italy, who organised themselves in small independent centres. The success of small regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy or 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. Thus they inevitably gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation state.^[1]

Contemporary city-states

Today there are only a handful of cities that exercise authority akin to a sub-regional state, and even fewer that are sovereign states in their own right.

Sovereign city-states

Monaco

Main article: Monaco

The Principality of Monaco is an independent city-state. Monaco-Ville (the ancient fortified city) and Monaco's well-known area Monte Carlo are districts of a continuous urban zone, not distinct cities, though they were three separate municipalities (communes) until 1917. The Principality of Monaco and the city of Monaco (each having specific powers) govern the same territory. On 28 June 1919, 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.

Singapore

Main article: Singapore

Singapore is an island city-state in Southeast Asia. About 4.8 million people live and work within 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi), making Singapore the 3rd-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 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 Battle of Singapore in 1942, 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, because of a number of problems, Singapore left the federation in 1965, becoming an independent republic.

Since 1965, Singapore rapidly industrialised and modernised, 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.

Despite its small land area, Singapore 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 (i.e., Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), rather than semi-dependent microstates. Singapore also maintains a diplomatic corps and has memberships in international organizations such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

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 overdependence 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.

Vatican City

Main article: 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 recognize 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 0.44 km² (0.17-square mile) papal enclave once they had ascended the papal thrones.

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 postage stamps. With a population of less than 1,000, it is by far the smallest sovereign country in the world, and widely recognized internationally as such.

Others

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. Likewise, cities with their own quasi-sovereign states in larger nations or federations, like Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, do not technically qualify as city-states.

The United Nations lists seven small jurisdictions as having exclusively urban populations. Apart from Monaco and Singapore, the list contains Nauru and four British overseas territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar.^[2]

Non-sovereign city-states

Some cities or urban areas, while not sovereign states, may nevertheless enjoy such a high degree of autonomy that they function as "city-states" within the context of the sovereign state that they belong to.

Cities that are component states of federations

Some cities or metropolitan areas are component states of federations. Examples include:

• Austrian state of Vienna
• Belgian capital Brussels
• Ethiopian chartered cities (astedader akababiwach) of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa
• German states of Berlin, Hamburg and, though consisting of two separate cities, Bremen
• Russian cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg
• Swiss cantons of Geneva and Basel-Stadt.
• Argentina - Buenos Aires (formally known in English as the "Autonomous City of Buenos Aires" (coterminous with the Argentine Federal Capital))

Federally-administered cities

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (August 2009)

A federal country may also have one or more cities that are federally administered:

• Brazil – Brasília (coterminous with the Brazilian Federal District)
• India – Delhi and Chandigarh (Union Territories)
• Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (Federal Territories)
• Mexico – Mexico City (being the Mexican Federal District)
• Pakistan – Islamabad (being the Islamabad Capital Territory)
• United States – Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

See also: D.C. statehood movement, District of Columbia home rule, and District of Columbia voting rights

The John A. Wilson Building houses the offices of the mayor and council of the District of Columbia.

Not being part of any U.S. state, Washington, D.C.'s government operates under authority derived from the U.S. federal government. The city (generally referred to as "the District") is run by an elected mayor and a city council. The council is composed of 13 members: one elected from each of the eight wards and five members, including the chairman, elected at large. The council conducts its work through standing committees and special committees established as needed. District schools are administered by a chancellor, who is appointed by the mayor; in addition, a superintendent of education and a board of education are responsible for setting some educational policies. There are 37 elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners that provide the most direct access for residents to their local government. The commissioners are elected by small neighborhood districts, and their suggestions are given "great weight" by the city council and city agencies. However, the U.S. Congress has the ultimate plenary power over the District. It has the right to review and overrule laws created locally and has often done so. The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants to states all rights not belonging to the federal government, does not apply to the District. Residents of the District do not have voting representation in the U.S. Congress.

Autonomous cities in unitary states

In nations without a federal administrative structure, cities may sometimes enjoy a greater degree of autonomy, e.g.:

• Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China: Hong Kong and Macau
• Ceuta and Melilla, Spain
• Davao City, Philippines

Hong Kong and Macau

See also: Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China

Because of Hong Kong's and Macau's long histories as colonies of the British and Portuguese empires, respectively, and the unique "one-country, two-systems" policy, the two former city-states are given a high degree of autonomy even after their return into the People's Republic of China. While geographically they are cities, having legal systems, police forces, monetary systems, customs policy, immigration policy that are independent from China, makes their status almost equivalent to independent nations.

References

1. ^ Sri Aurobindo, "Ideal of Human Unity" included in Social and Political Thought, 1970.
2. ^ Indicator: Urban Population - 2005

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - bystat

Nederlands (Dutch)
stadstaat

Français (French)
n. - état-cité

Deutsch (German)
n. - Stadtstaat

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ιστ.) πολιτεία, πόλη-κράτος

Italiano (Italian)
città-stato

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cidade-estado (f)

Русский (Russian)
город-государство

Español (Spanish)
n. - ciudad estado

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fri riksstad

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
城邦

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 城邦

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 옛 그리스의 도시국가

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 都市国家

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دوله من مدينه واحدة فقط كموناكو مثلا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עיר-מדינה (בעבר)‬

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