L'urbanisation dans l'histoire
In: Etudes rurales: anthropologie, économie, géographie, histoire, sociologie ; ER, Band 49, Heft 1, S. 10-13
ISSN: 1777-537X
Urbanization in History.
Whatever approach is used to study the relationship between towns and the countryside, a crucial point in the problematic of French history for over a quarter of a century, it is necessary to observe carefully the origin and evolution of urban and rural contacts. Historians are concerned with determining when and how towns came to dominate the countryside, financially, administratively and culturally. An historical study of urbanization is essential to understand the evolution of present forms of "inurbation" and their regional variations. Western Europe, especially France, is divided into two sectors: areas where important villages served as mediators between towns and the countryside, and areas where traces of pre-Roman urbanism influenced rural life.