The Origin and Influences of Urbanization can be traced back to the early settlements that originated in Mesopotamia in SW Asia. At this time, early humans were nomadic, but some decided to stop and settle in certain areas, leading to the growth of settlements and cities as we know them today. These early settlements were primarily agricultural villages located in fertile river valleys, where farmers were able to produce surplus crops. This surplus allowed for the support of larger populations and the development of other occupations and trades. Socioeconomic stratification, which is the differentiation of society into classes based on wealth, power, production, or prestige, was one of the socioeconomic innovations that led to the rise of early cities.

Factors Influencing Urbanization

The movement of people from rural areas to cities, known as urbanization, is influenced by various factors. These factors include transportation innovations, communication systems, rural-to-urban migration, and redevelopment activities. Transportation innovations have shaped and reshaped the layout and size of cities and their surrounding areas, while communication systems have allowed businesses and cities to grow. Rural-to-urban migration involves the movement of people from rural settlements to urban centers in search of jobs, and redevelopment aims to revitalize areas that have fallen on hard times.

As urbanization occurs across the globe, different types of cities and urban areas have emerged. Megacities, which have a population of 10 million inhabitants or more, are found in places like Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing, Dhaka, and Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto. Metacities, with a population of 20 million inhabitants or more, can be seen in Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, São Paulo, and Mexico City. On the other hand, micropolitan areas have a population between 10,000 - 50,000 people and consist of smaller cities and surrounding towns/counties. Sprawl, or urban sprawl, represents the tendency of cities to grow outward in an unchecked manner, resulting in the formation of suburban areas. Edge cities and exurbs are examples of peripheral urban areas that have developed in the periphery of large cities and beyond the suburbs, respectively.

Cities play a crucial role in the processes of globalization and are connected globally through networks and linkages. World cities, also known as global cities, are control centers of the global economy, where major decisions about the world's commercial networks and financial markets are made. Urban settlements are ranked based on their population size and economic function into categories such as world city, megalopolis, alpha city, beta city, and gamma city. These rankings are used to identify dominant and primary regional nodes in the global economy, as well as secondary and tertiary regional nodes. Various services, including transportation and communication systems, assist in connecting cities and facilitating globalization.