A city-state is an independent sovereignty city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory.
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, and is generally considered to be the last real city-state left in the world, with full sovereignty, international borders, its own Singapore dollar, a robust military, and substantial international influence in its own right.
Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a high degree of autonomy and are often considered to be city-states, such as Hong Kong and Macau.[Kotkin, Joel. 2010. "A New Era for the City-State?" In Forbes.] Some non-sovereign overseas territories, such as Gibraltar, are also sometimes called city-states.
Historical background
Ancient and medieval world
Historical city-states included
cities such as
Uruk and Ur;
city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the
cities (such as Tyre and
Sidon); the five
Philistines city-states; the
Berber people city-states of the
Garamantes; the city-states of
ancient Greece (the
poleis such as
Classical Athens,
Sparta, Thebes, and
Ancient 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
cities along the
Silk Road; the city-states of the
Swahili coast; Ragusa in
Croatia; Tbilisi in Georgia; the medieval Russian city-states of Novgorod and
Pskov Republic;
the free imperial cities of German-speaking Europe;
mueang of Indochina;
Barangay of
Philippines; and many others. Danish historian Poul Holm has classed the
Vikings colonial cities in medieval
Ireland, most importantly the Kingdom of Dublin, as city-states.
[Holm, Poul, "Viking Dublin and the City-State Concept: Parameters and Significance of the Hiberno-Norse Settlement" (Respondent: Donnchadh Ó Corráin), in Mogens Herman Hansen (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures . Denmark: Special-Trykkeriet Viborg. (University of Copenhagen, Polis Center). 2000. pp. 251–62.]
In Cyprus, the 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 most well-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 autonomy 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). Thus they inevitably gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation-state.[Sri Aurobindo, "Ideal of Human Unity" included in Social and Political Thought, 1970.]
Central Europe
In the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) over 80 Free Imperial Cities came to enjoy considerable autonomy in the Middle Ages and in early modern times, buttressed legally by international law following the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Some, like three of the earlier
Hanseatic cities –
Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck – pooled their economic relations with foreign powers and were able to wield considerable diplomatic clout. Individual cities often made protective alliances with other cities or with neighbouring regions, including the
Hanseatic League (1358 – 17th century), the Swabian League of Cities (1331–1389), the Décapole (1354–1679) in the Alsace, or the Old Swiss Confederacy ( 1300 – 1798). The Swiss cantons of Zürich, Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg, Solothurn, Basel, Schaffhausen, and Geneva originated as city-states.
After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, some cities – then members of different confederation – officially became sovereign city-states, such as the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (1806–11 and again 1813–71), the Free City of Frankfurt upon Main (1815–66), the Hamburg (1806–11 and again 1814–71), the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck (1806–11 and again 1813–71), and the Free City of Kraków (1815–1846). Under Habsburg rule the city of Fiume had the status of a corpus separatum (1779–1919), which – while falling short of an independent sovereignty – had many attributes of a city-state.
Italy
In
Northern Italy and
Central Italy during the medieval and Renaissance periods, city-states — with various amounts of associated land — became the standard form of polity. Some of them, despite being
de facto independent states, were formally part of the Holy Roman Empire. The era of the Italian states, in particular from the 11th to the 15th centuries, featured remarkable economic development, trade, manufacture, and mercantile capitalism, together with increasing urbanization, with remarkable influence throughout much of the Mediterranean world and Europe as a whole. During this time, most of the Italian city-states were ruled by one person, such as the
Signoria or by a dynasty, such as the House of Gonzaga and the House of Sforza.
Examples of Italian city-states during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
-
Republic of Florence, Duchy of Milan, Duchy of Ferrara,
[
]
San Marino, Duchy of Modena and Reggio, Duchy of Urbino, Duchy of Mantua and the Republic of Lucca.
-
The powerful maritime republics: Republic of Venice, Republic of Genoa, Republic of Amalfi, Republic of Pisa, Republic of Ancona and Duchy of Gaeta.
Southeast Asia
In the history of Mainland Southeast Asia, aristocratic groups, Buddhist leaders, and others organized settlements into autonomous or semi-autonomous city-states. These were referred to as
mueang, and were usually related in a tributary relationship now described as mandala or as
over-lapping sovereignty, in which smaller city-states paid tribute to larger ones that paid tribute to still larger ones—until reaching the apex in cities like Ayutthaya,
Bagan,
Bangkok and others that served as centers of Southeast Asian royalty. The system existed until the 19th century, when
colonization by European powers occurred. Siam, a regional power at the time, needed to define their territories for negotiation with the European powers so the Siamese government established a
nation-state system, incorporated their tributary cities (
Lan Xang, Cambodia and some Malay cities) into their territory and abolished the mueang and the tributary system.
[
][Winichakul, Thongchai. 1997. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press][Baker, Chris and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand: 2nd ed. Sydney: Cambridge University Press]
In early Philippine history, the Barangay state was a complex sociopolitical unit which scholars have historically[ , .] These sociopolitical units were sometimes also referred to as barangay states, but are more properly referred to using the technical term polity.
20th-century cities under international supervision
Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-
autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the
Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk,
Poland) and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920
under the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I.
Fiume
After a prolonged period where the city of
Fiume enjoyed considerable autonomy under
Habsburg rule (see Corpus separatum (Fiume)), The Free State of Fiume was proclaimed as a fully independent free state which existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of comprised the city of Fiume (now in
Croatia and, since the end of World War II, known as
Rijeka, both names meaning "river" in the respective languages) and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to
Italy.
Jerusalem
Under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine of 1947, Mandatory Palestine was to be partitioned into three states: a Jewish state of
Israel, an Arab state of
Palestine, and a
corpus separatum (
Latin language for "separated body") consisting of a Jerusalem city-state under the control of United Nations Trusteeship Council. Although the plan had some international support and the UN accepted this proposal (and still officially holds the stance that Jerusalem should be held under this regime), implementation of the plan failed as the 1948 Palestine war broke out with the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, ultimately resulting in Jerusalem being split into
West Jerusalem and
East Jerusalem. Israel would eventually gain control of East Jerusalem in the
Six-Day War in 1967.
Memel
The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors. The Memel Territory was to remain under the control of the League of Nations until a future day when the people of the region would be allowed to vote on whether the land would return to Germany or not. The then predominantly
ethnic German Memel Territory (Prussian Lithuanians and Memellanders constituted the other ethnic groups), situated between the river and the town of that name, was occupied by
Lithuania in the Klaipėda Revolt of 1923.
Ottoman
Some proposals for the partition of the Ottoman Empire envisaged international zones at
Istanbul/Constantinople or the wider
Turkish straits,
and possibly also at İzmir/Smyrna.
Although the allies of World War I occupied both after the 1918 Armistice of Mudros, the British-led occupation of Istanbul recognised Turkey as de jure sovereign, while the Greek occupation of Smyrna was an attempted annexation. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne re-established Turkish control of both areas.
Shanghai
The Shanghai International Settlement (1845–1943) was an international zone with its own legal system, postal service, and currency.
Tangier
The international zone within the city of
Tangier, in North Africa was approximately . It was at first under the joint administration of France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, plus later Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. The international zone was initially attached to Morocco. It then became a French-Spanish protectorate from 1923 until 29 October 1956, when it was reintegrated into the state of Morocco.
Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent territory situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the north part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II, from 1947 to 1954.
West Berlin
In the 20th century
West Berlin, though lacking sovereignty, functioned from 1948 until 1990 as a state legally not belonging to any other state, but ruled by the
Western Bloc. They allowed – notwithstanding their overlordship as occupant powers – its internal organisation as one state simultaneously being a city, officially called Berlin (West). Though West Berlin maintained close ties to the
West Germany Federal Republic, it never legally formed a part of it.
Contemporary sovereign city-states
Vatican City
Until September 1870, the city of
Rome had been controlled by the
pope as part of his
Papal States. When King Victor Emmanuel II seized the city in 1870, Pope Pius IX refused to recognize the newly formed Kingdom of Italy.
Because he could not travel without effectively acknowledging the authority of the king, Pius IX and his successors each claimed to be a "Prisoner in the Vatican", unable to leave the papal enclave once they had ascended the throne.
The Roman Question 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, Vatican City was recognized as an independent state, with the Pope as its head. The Vatican City has its own citizenship, diplomatic corps, flag, and postage stamps. With a population of less than 1,000 (mostly clergymen), it is by far the smallest sovereign country in the world.
Monaco
The
Monaco is a very small independent city-state bordering France.
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. Though they maintain a small military, largely for ceremonial purposes, they would still have to rely on France for defence in the face of an aggressive power.
Singapore
Singapore is an island city-state in
Southeast Asia bordering Malaysia to the north and Indonesia to the south. 6 million people live and work within ,
making Singapore the 2nd-most-densely populated country in the world after Monaco. Singapore was part of the Federation of
Malaysia for two years before it was expelled from the federation in 1965, becoming an independent
republic, a city and a
sovereignty country.
The Economist refers to the nation as the "world's only fully functioning city-state".
In particular, it has its own
Singapore dollar, a large commercial
Changi Airport, one of the busiest trans-shipment maritime ports in the world, and fully fledged armed forces to safeguard the nation's sovereignty against potential regional aggressors.
Singapore is also referred to as the only island city-state in the world by WorldAtlas.
Contemporary non-sovereign city-states
Some cities or urban areas, while not sovereign states, may nevertheless be constituent states of a
federation, or enjoy a high degree of autonomy. As such, they function as "city-states" within the context of the sovereign state to which they belong. Historian Mogens Herman Hansen describes this aspect of self-government as: "The city-state is a self-governing, but not necessarily independent, political unit."
A city with more limited self-government may be referred to as an
independent city.
Some non-sovereign cities which have a high degree of autonomy, and have been described as city-states, include:
Some cities that are constituent states in a federation, and as such can be accurately described as non-sovereign city-states with a high degree of autonomy, include:
States with similar characteristics
A number of other small states share many of these characteristics, and are sometimes cited as modern city-states.
Luxembourg,
Djibouti,
[ "Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Volume 2." United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs. April 15, 1992. Page 239: "The Republic of Djibouti is in effect a city - state, with few natural resources, few trained workers, no permanent streams and very little arable land. Some 75% of the population live in the capital city, the economy of which is focused on the port, airport, railway, the French garrison, and the re-export of consumer goods."] Qatar,
[Parker, Geoffrey. 2005. Sovereign City: The City-state Through History Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 219][Roberts, David. 2014. Qatar: Securing the Global Ambitions of a City-state. London: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd.] Brunei,
,
[El-Katiri, Laura, Bassam Fattouh and Paul Segal. 2011 Anatomy of an oil-based welfare state: rent distribution in Kuwait. Kuwait City: Kuwait Programme on Development, Governance and Globalisation in the Gulf States] Bahrain,
and
Malta are each politically and economically centered on a single city; in the cases of Luxembourg, Djibouti and Kuwait, this
primate city is so dominant as to give its name to the country. These countries are distinct from true city-states such as Singapore in that they comprise both their primate city (such as
Luxembourg City) and a number of peripheral cities and towns (such as
Esch-sur-Alzette and ten other towns in Luxembourg) with autonomous
Municipality, and may also include substantial rural areas (such as the sparsely populated Éislek forest of northern Luxembourg).
Occasionally, with high population densities such as San Marino are cited as city-states, despite lacking a large urban centre.[Hansen, Mogens. 2000. "Introduction: The Concepts of City-States and City-State Culture." In A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures, Copenhagen: Copenhagen Polis Centre. Pg. 19][Parker, Geoffrey. 2005. Sovereign City: The City-state Through History Chicago: University of Chicago Press. . .][Mogens, Hansen. 2002. A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures: An Investigation p. 91]
Proposed city-states
London
The London independence movement seeks a city-state separate from the United Kingdom.
Hong Kong
Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order
The Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order is a proposed city-state in
capital of
Tirana which will be established if approved by the Albanian Parliament and a national referendum.
The state, which would be led by the
Bektashi Order, is planned to be similar in structure to the
Vatican City. The idea has been proposed by Albanian Prime Minister
Edi Rama and leader of the Bektashi Order
Baba Mondi in the hope that sovereignty would help promote moderate Muslim values instead of radical ideologies. The Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order would be surrounded by the suburbs of eastern Tirana and would be the
microstate.
See also
Further reading
-
Mogens Herman Hansen (ed.), A comparative study of thirty city-state cultures : an investigation conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2000. (Historisk-filosofiske skrifter, 21). .
-
Mogens Herman Hansen (ed.), A comparative study of six city-state cultures : an investigation, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2002. (Historisk-filosofiske skrifter, 27). .
-
Geoffrey Parker, Sovereign City: The City-State Ancient and Modern, London: Reaktion Books, 2004. .
-
Tom Scott, The City-State in Europe, 1000-1600: Hinterland, Territory, Region, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
External links
