Editing City-state (section)

=== Ancient and medieval world ===
{{Further|List of ancient Greek cities|List of Phoenician cities|Cities of the ancient Near East|Italian city-states|Maya city|Polis|Altepetl}}

[[File:Dubrovnik crop.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Republic of Ragusa]], a maritime city-state, was based in the [[Walls of Dubrovnik|walled city]] of [[Dubrovnik]]]]

Historical city-states included [[Sumer]]ian cities such as [[Uruk]] and [[Ur]]; [[Ancient Egypt]]ian city-states, such as [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] and [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]]; the [[Phoenicia]]n cities (such as [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and [[Sidon]]); the five [[Philistines|Philistine]] city-states; the [[Berber people|Berber]] city-states of the [[Garamantes]]; the city-states of [[ancient Greece]] (the [[poleis]] such as [[Classical Athens|Athens]], [[Sparta]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], and [[Ancient Corinth|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 [[Republic of Florence|Florence]], [[Republic of Siena|Siena]], [[Duchy of Ferrara|Ferrara]], [[Duchy of Milan|Milan]] (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]] and [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], which became powerful [[thalassocracies]]; the [[Maya civilization|Mayan]] and other cultures of pre-Columbian [[Mesoamerica]] (including cities such as [[Chichen Itza]], [[Tikal]], [[Copán]] and [[Monte Albán]]); the [[central Asia]]n cities along the [[Silk Road]]; the city-states of the [[Swahili coast]]; [[Republic of Ragusa|Ragusa]] in [[Croatia]]; [[Emirate of Tbilisi|Tbilisi]] in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]; states of the medieval Russian lands such as [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorod]] and [[Pskov Republic|Pskov]];<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alcock |first1=Antony Evelyn |title=A short history of Europe: from the Greeks and Romans to the present day |date=1998 |publisher=MacMillan |location=Houndmills |isbn=978-0-333-64830-8 |page=84}}</ref> [[Free imperial city|free imperial cities]] of  [[Geographical distribution of German speakers#Europe|German-speaking Europe]]; [[mueang]] of [[Mainland Southeast Asia|Indochina]]; [[Barangay|barangay states]] of [[Philippines|the Philippines]]; and many others. Danish historian Poul Holm has classed the [[Vikings|Viking]] colonial cities in medieval [[Ireland]], most importantly the [[Kingdom of Dublin]], as city-states.<ref>Holm, Poul, "Viking Dublin and the City-State Concept: Parameters and Significance of the Hiberno-Norse Settlement" (Respondent: Donnchadh Ó Corráin), in [[Mogens Herman Hansen]] (ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=8qvY8pxVxcwC A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621023251/http://books.google.com/books?id=8qvY8pxVxcwC |date=21 June 2013 }}''. Denmark: Special-Trykkeriet Viborg. (University of Copenhagen, Polis Center). 2000. pp.&nbsp;251–62.</ref>

In [[Cyprus]], the [[Phoenicia]]n 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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

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 [[Italian Renaissance|Renaissance Italy]], which organised themselves as independent centers. The success of regional units coexisting as [[autonomy|autonomous]] actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in [[Italy]] and [[Greece]], often prevented their [[Amalgamation (politics)|amalgamation]] into larger national units.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}} 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]].<ref>Sri Aurobindo, "Ideal of Human Unity" included in ''Social and Political Thought'', 1970.</ref>{{request quotation|date=August 2015}}