Conversation

How come there are so few actual city-states? Singapore, Monaco, Vatican… that’s it I think. UAE if you relax definition a bit. And the Vatican doesn’t really count. And Monaco is just a wealthy tax shelter, not a real thing. So really just Singapore.
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I don’t think they’re a stable concept except in very weird geographies. Cities need too many resources and are too attractive to hinterlands to leave alone.
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I think we like city states for the same reason we like toys. Especially adult ones like complex model railroads. It’s like full-scale sim city.
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Also there are zero “hinterland states” with no cities. Those are even less stable. Only chocolate chip cookie topologies work.
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I think the single biggest problem is water. If you invent really cheap desal, tons of coastal cities would be viable as states
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Replying to
They’d have to have some backstory where the belligerents ended a conflict all to sone degree unhappy; and/or a larger state, or group of states offer explicit or implicit security guarantees.
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