ILLUSTRATION A
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minute cities...of Classical history
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There were a multitude of Greek city states, almost all had small populations & held minimal territory. The mountainous terrain, the rocky coast & islands worked against large territorial political units. Excluding Classical Athens, which had an exceptionally large population (150,000 to 300,000) and Sparta, which had an exceptionally large land holdings (8,500 square kilometres), most of the Greek polis were tiny in population & territory; 80% had a maximum territory of 100 square kilometres with about 800 adult males; many had as few as 400; this gave the average city state population (excluding slaves & resident aliens) of between 1600 to 3200.
The map above shows the multitude of polis, some dating back to the Greek Dark Ages.
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the dynastic states of our 17th and 18th Centuries
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In contrast to the local, small & exclusive Greek city states, Europe’s dynastic regimes were large, and many held extensive foreign empires, initially Spain, later France & Britain. The3 main dynastic states in the 17th & 18th century were: France, Spain (the Iberian Union) & the Holy Roman Empire; Russia and England also qualify but were peripheral and far less powerful then the central dynasties of the Bourbons, Imperial & Spanish Habsburgs. These states were large. France under the Bourbons controlled territory of about 551,500 square kilometres. In 1604 France had a population of 17 million.
