Taking Measure: European Urbanization, 1750–1800

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Important Events

The bar graph shows that northwestern Europe was the most urbanized region, followed by the Mediterranean countries. Central and eastern Europe were much less urbanized, which meant that they had much smaller middle classes.

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Source: Adapted from Andrew Lees and Lynn Hollen Lees, Cities and the Making of Modern Europe, 1750–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2008.

Questions to Consider

  1. What are the possible consequences of these differences in urbanization?
  2. What would urban consumers be more likely to purchase that rural consumers likely could not or would not?
  3. How would urbanization contribute to the spread of the Enlightenment?