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A city-state is a geographic area that has one major central city containing a concentration urban residents. Each city-state does have a suburban and/or rural fringe, whose population are tied to the central city.
The concentration of urban citizens in a central city are made possible from a commercial agricultural sector that creates sufficient storable food that can be consumed by the urban non-food producing residents. Thus, a city emerges, not simply in conjunction with, but as a direct result of advances in agriculture. Where there is no agriculture, we find only a very thin concentration of population (Bairoch, 1991, p. 1). Urbanization cannot take place without a concentration of population.
Athens, Greece provides one of the first examples of a city-state in the ancient world. Ancient Rome also influenced the urban architecture and urban planning for Europe over the centuries. There is no doubt that the Graeco-Roman world exhibited an extremely urbanized way of life.
In addition to technological advances in ancient Greek agriculture, there were several other factors that contributed to the success of urbanization of the Athens city-state:
· Greece had a written alphabet by 700 B.C.
· The ancient Greeks invented coined money.
· Central banks were invented by the ancient Greeks.
· The city conducted a variety of cultural functions for its citizens.
· The Agora, as a place for public functions, became the focus of urban life.
Communications are obviously enhanced with the ability of citizens to read and write a common language.
Money is of utmost significance for economic activities in general and for urban life in particular. Coined money is certainly an advantage over the barter system which prevailed in the rest of the ancient world.
The use of coins made exchange easier and thus favored the growth of cities by giving them the additional function of issuing currency.
Classical Greece had a type of city-state in which the cultural functions of the city became important to its citizens.
At its inception, the agora was a place where public assemblies gathered. The agora became the focus of urban life because of such cultural functions as the theater, religion, and city administration.
One can argue that the achievements of the ancient Greek civilization are, in effect, the positive results of Greek city-states, particularly Athens.
2 The economy of Greece is the 51st largest in the world with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $209.853 billion per annum.[35] In terms of purchasing power parity, Greece is the world's 53rd largest economy, at $348.349 billion per annum.[36] As of 2019, Greece is the sixteenth-largest economy in the 27-member European Union.[37] According to IMF figures for 2020, Greece's GDP per capita was $18,168 at nominal value and $29,045 at purchasing power parity.[6]
Greece is a developed country with an economy based on the service (80%) and industrial sectors (16%), with the agricultural sector contributing an estimated 4% of national economic output in 2017.[1] Important Greek industries include tourism and shipping. With 18 million international tourists in 2013, Greece was the 7th most visited country in the European Union and 16th in the world.[38] The Greek Merchant Navy is the largest in the world, with Greek-owned vessels accounting for 15% of global deadweight tonnage as of 2013.[39] The increased demand for international maritime transportation between Greece and Asia has resulted in unprecedented investment in the shipping industry.[40]
The country is a significant agricultural producer within the EU. Greece has the largest economy in the Balkans and is as an important regional investor.[41][42] Greece was the largest foreign investor in Albania in 2013,[43] the third in Bulgaria, in the top-three in Romania and Serbia and the most important trading partner and largest foreign investor in North Macedonia.[44][45][46] The Greek telecommunications company OTE has become a strong investor in certain former Yugoslav and other Balkan countries.[44]
Greece is classified as an advanced,[47] high-income economy,[48] and was a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). The country joined what is now the European Union in 1981.[49] In 2001 Greece adopted the euro as its currency, replacing the Greek drachma at an exchange rate of 340.75 drachmae per euro.[49][50] Greece is a member of the International Monetary Fund and of the World Trade Organization, and ranked 34th on Ernst & Young's Globalization Index 2011.[51]
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