Success of Capitals and Large Cities

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London today

You forgot

>British agricultural revolution and industrial revolution make London the largest city since the days of the Roman Empire

>>3182816
Yeah I was just going with the stuff I knew off hand

Step one: Be near water
Step two: Don't be a corrupt nigger
Step three: Encourage international trade

Bam! Major world city.

>>3182866
>Don't be a corrupt nigger

This is nearly impossible in any human society.

>>3182867
There's a difference between average corruption and the actions that destroyed places like detroit and flint.

>>3182890
I have no way of confirming this, but I'm betting that 18th century London was more corrupt than modern day Detroit.

>>3182801

>William the Conquerer
>British anything

>>3182907
Corruption has a bigger impact on people's lives when such a great proportion are dependent on public services.

>>3182920
He was from Normandy but he established what we know as the British Empire.

>>3183451
No he did not. He became the King of England. There have been many kings of England before him. He did not rule over a united Britain (Stuarts) or Ireland (Henry II). Semantics are important when we are discussing legal titles of nobility.

>>3183464
>There have been many kings of England before him

William was the first king to make England significant and advance it into the Medieval era. England was small and weak as an empire before his reign.

>>3183464
But the Kingdom of England that became the British Empire is more-or-less continuous from his rule. He also conquered Wales

>>3183464
He may not have united the British Isles, but he did start the conquest for them. He established the borders to the regions we recognize as Wales and Scotland.

>>3183575
You keep throwing around that word, empire.
Yes he centralized the kingdom and broke the power of the Norse and Germanic earls, and distributed lands to his loyal Norman retainers to create a strong military but England was still shitty compared to France or even Denmark. Furthermore, his dynasty's grasp on England didn't even outlive his children. The Plantagenets are far more significant in English history and for far longer than the House of Normandy. Claiming that he made England great is like crediting Hrolfr for founding Normandy and making it great when it was the policies of his successors that were far more influential than his mere conquest.

>>3183584
This is literally not an argument. See above.

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Paris:

>originally inhabited by local Celtic tribes, was conquered by the Romans in 52 BC for its important location along major land and river trading routes
>Paris basin was garrisoned and made into an important strategic military location
>Christianity is introduced which spawns a ton of art and unique church and cathedral architecture
>accumulation of wealth attracts a lot of immigration by the Franks
>Paris is sacked by the Vikings but is spared too much damage thanks to strategic advantages
>the Franks take over and Hugh Capet makes Paris huge and prosperous
>a shit ton of conquest
>a shit ton of art and wealth accumulation
>Paris becomes one of the world's top tourist attractions and has an enormous economy
>the French are stuck up self righteous assholes just because of their history

Pic related: Paris then

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>>3183715
Paris now

>>3183642
You're failing to understand my point. William advanced England to a point where they could actually keep up with empires like France and Denmark. He introduced then-modern castle building techniques and set the boundaries for what is now known as England. I'm not saying he was a good king or that he made England into a superpower. I'm saying he put them on that track because otherwise it would have remained broken and up for grabs to the Franks or the Danes.

Generally speaking, the key to the success of a major city is to become a geographically advantaged metropole, someplace that is logistically capable of supporting a large population and volume of trade while also being more legally, politically, economically, and culturally privileged over other cities. Being the capital of a colonial empire, a powerful centralized state, the seat of government power, the nexus of regional trade, all of these things tend to create very impressive cities. But all of them essentially raise the status of these cities above what might otherwise be equal-ranked neighbors.

So, most of OP's story about London doesn't matter. William the Conqueror simply helped establish London as the undisputed center of English government with his work on Westminster, but how it became wildly successful has more to do with the rise of Antwerp and Amsterdam, the two major cities of the Low Countries in the Middle Ages and later which became the northern trade node of trade between the North Sea and the Mediterranean. And once all the accumulated financial capital was threatened by continental instability, London was the nearest and safest harbor for that trade to relocate.

>>3182801

> World's largest financial center

That doesn't sound like New York City...

Objectively most visited is Bangkok and largest financial hub by institution size or market is NYC.

One or two things happen for a city to grow large
>Volume of trade flowing through it
>Seat of government
These two are the primary things which draw people from the rural to the urban. They are coming for the jobs, since cities allow more specialization of labor. They typically were privileged to a certain extent to, but that depends on the context so isn't a very good general point.

As for cities that got big through trade, London is a good example since it was situated close to the coast and cash flowed through since it had the docks and such to ply trade across the channel to the lowlands.

For a city that got big and rose to prominence due to being the seat of government see any african primate city, or the city of Prague. Prague got big because a holy roman emperor decided to set up court there. That usually involves quite a bit of investment in the infrastructure as well as the need to support all those government officials and the nobility around them. See Chalres IV who became HRE and had a university set up.

>>3184024
London and NYC battle for the number 1 spot pretty often. London just barely beats NYC with 782 on the Global Financial Centres Index while NYC has 780 as of March.

NYC does however take the top spot on the International Financial Centres Development Index putting London in 2nd place.

>>3184043
London is the most visited city in the world as measured by international arrivals.

Can you explain Mexico city next?

>>3182816
What about Peking?

>>3184103
>african primate city

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>>3184301
Mexico City:

>be Aztec
>human sacrifice god tells us we must build a city in the middle of this lake system
>build Tenochtitlan
>one of the biggest and craziest cities in the ancient western hemisphere
>(also one of the only ones)
>we have water so we're better than pretty much all the surrounding regions
>be chillin and sacrificing my nephew one day when some big wooden fish shows up
>oh shit that's not a fish, that's a big boat
>[you mean like a canoe that we go fishing in?]
>[stfu it's nothing like that]
>some men that don't look like us get off of it
>they have white skin, so they're gods
>and they have big dogs that they call 'horses'
>[we've been blessed! the gods have come to share their bounties with us!]
>oh shit they're killing us all with diseases and sticks that make explosions
>get razed
>RIP

...
>be Cortés
>these shitskins don't even realize the strategic importance of this city
>centrally located, good for trade, surrounded by fresh water
>fast forward to 1800s
>alright there's a fuckton of war going on here and we don't even know what the government is doing but we wanna be more involved in global business so we're gonna do that so America doesn't capture the city again
>fast forward to today
>rest of the country sucks but it would kinda suck for everyone if Mexico City stopped existing

Pic related: Mexico City then

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>>3184769
Mexico City now

Also sorry if my history seems rather abridged. I find Mexican history pretty fucking dull so hopefully someone else can come along and do it better.

>>3184024
Because he's not talking about the number 2 financial centre in the world

>>3182812
Disgusting tbqhwy

>>3184796
I like it. It's better than fucking Paris anyway.

>>3184802
London is a fucking mess. At least Paris has a containment quarter for modern shit.

>>3184834
So you've never been to Paris.

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>>3184769
>>3184777

Read this, bruv. An anthropophenomenological analysis of the mindsets of Columbus, Moctezuma and Cortez. A lot of the events of the conquest can be explained as products of a complex game of mutually affecting cosmovisions.

>>3182801
>strategic access to the most trade
simlpified that for you

>>3184550
founded by the mongols, and co opted by the ming emperors who decided to build the grandest palace on earth there.
its also in a really dense area of northern china

>>3184582
It's amusing in that sense, but primate cities is a geography term to describe cities on which the entire country depends on for culture, economic activity etc. Most former colonies have primate cities. Like Manila in the Philippines.

>>3184834
>implying boulevards aren't modern shit