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The Causes And Effects Of Urbanization In Ancient Rome

Decent Essays
The city of Rome was the epicenter of the Roman Empire. Major decisions and world influence came from Rome. Rome transformed into a city that held almost a million people. Why did these people go to the city and what affect did the city have on them? Urbanization is a massive global trend in today’s world. People flock to cities in search of opportunities or a better way of life. What a city looks like today is vastly different than what Rome looked like almost two millennia ago. However, the causes for urbanization and the effects urbanization has on the inhabitants have stark similarities and differences in Ancient Rome and in cities today.
An influx of people into an area often causes urbanization. One of the key similarities between Rome and cities today is how the inhabitants got there. That similarity is routed in where the people came from. In ancient Rome many of the people moving to the city were farmers who left their land because they could not compete with the larger estates. The large estates could use slaves to produce crops without having to pay for the labor and they used their profits to buy more land. In those times, not being able to compete could easily lead to death. Moving to Rome provided at least some possibility of surviving . Today that push of farmers to leave their rural areas and move to the city can be associated with an inability to compete with large corporations. These large companies have the resources and ability to undercut and
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