Why do you say that "cities in Central and Western Europe gave birth to modern western civilization"?

A city is an important symbol of civilization. At the beginning of civilization, as the fruits and embodiment of civilization, many cities appeared in ancient China and the West. However, there are many differences in characteristics, functions and meanings between medieval cities in Western Europe and ancient cities in the East. There are obvious differences between western civilization and eastern civilization in many aspects, many of which are caused by cities.

Western European cities appeared as economic centers in the Middle Ages, not as political centers like ancient eastern cities. They naturally rose in some markets and abandoned ancient castles at traffic intersections, and most of them were located in the territory of feudal lords. Therefore, since the emergence of cities, cities in western Europe have launched a struggle against the interference, exploitation, rule and urban autonomy of feudal lords.

The Cheng Lang Uprising was a struggle between a city in medieval France and feudal lords for urban autonomy.

Economically, the commodity economy composed of handicrafts and commerce concentrated in cities played a role in disintegrating the feudal system from the beginning. For example, the city and the feudal manor at that time competed for the working population. If a serf escapes to the city for one year and one day, he will become a free man and be protected by the laws of the city.

A proverb in medieval Western Europe said: "The air in the city makes people free", and the modern capitalist relations of production sprouted, developed and expanded in these cities in medieval Western Europe. Politically, those free and self-governing cities became new political entities, uniting the kingship to deal with feudal big noble. The kingship gives the city freedom, autonomy charter and commercial convenience in exchange for the financial support of the city to the kingship.

The citizen class in the city is growing and becoming the predecessor of the modern bourgeoisie. In terms of ideology and culture, with the improvement of the status of the citizen class in political and economic life, new secular life concepts and values have gradually formed. The emergence of urban literature and secular universities has continuously accumulated reaction to Catholic religious culture in western Europe, laying an ideological and cultural foundation for the later Renaissance and religious reform. It can be said that it was the cities in medieval western Europe that gave birth to modern western civilization.

Understanding and mastering the significance of the rise of western European cities in the Middle Ages can fundamentally explain the origin and development of western capitalist civilization.