Introduction
Urban revolution can be defined as the emergence of urban life and how the settlements have been transformed from a simple life to a more complex life that may include trading and other manufacturing activities. The second urban development is a major signal of how urban centers rose to dominance and how some of this centers fell leading to their collapse. Rome, for instance, is a major example of the ancient emperors that were great but due to the second urban revolution it later collapsed. In this article, we have evaluated how some of these ancient emperors and trade routes rose to dominance but later some of the collapsed (Kasekamp 2010).
Rome, for instance, was a great emperor that was so dominant during its reign but later collapsed as a result of a combination of related factors. It remains a controversial debate about the collapse of Rome, but some of the factors for the collapse of Rome are discussed below:
Rome had bad emperors. These emperors are accounted for the collapse of the Rome. There were no good leaders leading to poor organization and management of the emperors. The increase in civilization also meant that soldiers continuously grew weak. The people in the Empire gradually grew civilized leading to the collapse of the kingdom. Later on, the economy of the emperor declined to mean that very little resources were available for proper management of the kingdom. These factors grew with time, and the deadly blow to this kingdom was the emergence of plagues (Murphy 2008). As a result, people migrated in large number thereby greatly affecting the number of the top management and even the soldiers started realizing the collapse.
Secondly, the emergence of the trade routes greatly impacted the development of the urban centers. Crusades, for example, developed rapidly due to the second urban development. The growth was attributed to the union of different factors that in the long run led to the development of many trade routes, Crusades being one of them. These trade routes led to rapid development of the neighboring centers. Some of the benefits are the transformation in shipbuilding, trade eventually returning to exploration. There was also cross-cultural exchange among the people and the communities that were involved in the trade. The military failure resulted in the cultural success along the trade routes.
The urban renaissance can be defined as the period in which there were repopulation and the regeneration of most urban cities. In the second urban development, there was a general repopulation and regeneration in the cities that existed in the 20th century. The regeneration was attributed to many initiatives that also included the tax initiatives. There was an effort that included revitalizing urban areas to ensure that there was urban growth in most parts of economies. These factors can be attributed to the second urban development.
Industrial Development
Industrial development refers to the process of planning and setting up news industries in special areas. Therefore in the second urban development, the capitalist epoch had distinct epoch, and the capitalism had various characteristics. The collapse of Roman emperor and the rise and fall of major cities in the trade routes seems to provide the foundation of analysis on the current urban existence about revolution of major urban cities. Through this article, we will exploit some of the theories that explicitly provides a case study on this issue.
The statistics provided on the existence of urban cities and the condition of living that people experience remains our core area of study to explore the revolution of major urban cities about ancient kingdoms. An urban area is first defined as a human settlement with high population density. However, it is important for any urban area to have adequate resources about population density to ensure that it can thrive well and sustain the human welfare in it. Any urban area that has limited resources is likely to collapse and may cause a shift in population to other urban centers. Therefore it is a good practice to ensure that we try our best to eradicate the most common urban problems that may lead to the collapse of the urban center. Let us now see some of the famous individuals who have developed theories to aid in the study of the urban settlements and revolution. Marx has a famous passage that seems to support his say of “no social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient to have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society.” According to Marx, the most significant issues that need to be addressed in capitalism is the issue of whether capitalism is in its advanced stage or progressive stage (Ferguson & Dickens 2011).
Therefore for an urban center to rise to prominence and grow, it has to undergo a revolution that will bring changes to its structural setup. The issue of urban existence has to play a significance role in the general growth of the urban center.
Let us now, consider the view of Marxism on the division of labor about urban existence. According to him the division of labor has played a significant role in his framework theory. He relates property to labor where he emphasizes on his vision for a perfect human society. Under Marx’s system of alienated labor, he argues that a man’s labor is stolen from him without his knowledge and that man’s immediate difficulty is the division of labor. He further relates labor to class welfare where he argues that individual’s desire to property is the division of labor. According to Marx, the existence of separate social classes is a major indicator of the division of labor.
In 1893 Burkman, laid some of his views on the mechanical solidarity and the organic solidarity. He distinguished the relationship between mechanical and organic solidarity. He said that mechanical solidarity existed in less complex societies while the organic solidarity existed in industrialized societies. Social cohesion and integration existed in mechanical solidarity whereby people felt that they are connected through similar work that was based on the kinship ties of a familial network. He then identified organic solidarity as a social cohesion that was based on the dependability of each in a more advanced society. However, this two solidarity could be differentiated by the demographic features and the content of the conscience collective intensity.
Let us now study what Louis Wirth says concerning the urban revolution. He tries to evaluate the social segmentation of the urbanization and the division of labor and the resistance of the cultural equality and the effect they have on the revolution of the urban centers. He says that people cannot know all other urbanites because of the city size. He further says that the urban usually interact with other people in certain roles, therefore, shifting the primary relationship to secondary relationship. (Goff, Mandel, Drescher& Andersen2007)
He further tries to evaluate the social segmentation that involves the division of individuals based on their social status. The social segmentation has both positive and negative impacts of the development of the urban centers. There is a possibility of creating a tense environment among the various urban classes.
Louis Wirth further evaluates the effects of the division of labor. According to him, labor is a sensitive organ that needs to be taken into deeper consideration. He quotes on the advantages and the bitter outcomes of the division of labor. Labor needs to be equally divided to avoid any form of satisfaction of the individual needs.
Conclusion
The development of the second urban revolution has resulted in some experiences that have hit the urban areas with both economic and social experiences resulting from various experiences. In this article, we try to evaluate what effects the development of the second urban revolution had especially in the urban areas and even what interpersonal relationship it had with the individuals involved in the urbanization and the entire community. The urban experiences that were gained vary from both social, economical to interpersonal relationship. To start with the major experiences gained we have learned that there was the general growth of the urban centers and cities that were involved in the trade union. The Roman emperor, for example, led to the growth of the neighboring cities, and even towns emerged as a result of the interaction. This led to a stable economy as more resources were realized and were used for the general growth of the cities. There was also improved awareness within the urban areas. This led to the realization of the society’s power and therefore led to the disbandment of the military oppression. There was improved interrelationship between the individuals involved, and unity was created. This led to the eradication of discriminatory acts like tribal discrimination (Yigitcanlar 2009).
Therefore it remains a clear indication that the development of the second urban revolution had greater impacts and experiences that strengthened the union among the societies even up to date.
References
Ferguson, R. F., & Dickens, W. T. (Eds.).(2011). Urban problems and community development. Brookings Institution Press.
Goff, B. A., Mandel, L. S., Drescher, C. W., Urban, N., Gough, S., Schurman, K. M., …& Andersen, M. R. (2007). Development of an ovarian cancer symptom index. Cancer, 109(2), 221-227.
Kasekamp, A. (2010). A history of the Baltic states. Palgrave Macmillan.
Murphy, C. (2008). Are we Rome?: The fall of an empire and the fate of America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Yigitcanlar, T. (2009).Planning for knowledge-based urban development: global perspectives. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(5), 228-242.