Ancient and medieval world , a maritime city-state, was based in the
walled city of
Dubrovnik. Historical city-states included
Sumerian cities such as
Uruk,
Ur and
Nippur;
Ancient Egyptian city-states, such as
Thebes and
Memphis; the
Phoenician cities (such as
Tyre and
Sidon); the five
Philistine city-states; the
Berber city-states of the
Garamantes; the city-states of
ancient Greece (the
poleis such as
Athens,
Sparta,
Thebes, and
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
central Asian cities along the
Silk Road; the city-states of the
Swahili coast;
Ragusa and
Poljica in
Croatia;
Tbilisi in
Georgia; the medieval Russian city-states of
Novgorod and
Pskov; the
free imperial cities of
German-speaking Europe;
mueang of
Indochina;
barangay states of the
Philippines; and many others. Danish historian Poul Holm has classed the
Viking colonial cities in medieval
Ireland, most importantly the
Kingdom of Dublin, as city-states. In
Cyprus, the
Phoenician 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
autonomous 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.
Central Europe as of 1792 In the
Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) more than 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
confederacies – 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
Free and Hanseatic City of 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 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. In early Philippine history, the
barangay was a complex sociopolitical unit which scholars have historically considered the dominant organizational pattern among the various
peoples of the
Philippine archipelago. 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 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 Allies. 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 German Federal Republic, it never legally formed a part of it. ==Contemporary sovereign city-states==