Poll of the Day > What is the most important city in human history?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Babylon doesnt even make the list?

Gary, Indiana

I only have 9 slots (with the 10th being 'other').

Paris made the list for fucks sake.

Idk probably something in the Fertile Crescent

As the capital of one of the more important nations throughout history, I feel it is a fairly worthy mention.

Dildo, Newfoundland

When I read the question Rome and London both popped into my mind first. Rome just for how big an influence the Roman Empire had on the world. But then I think how much of the English empire touched and how the sun never set on it. That's all out of London so I feel London is probably a more modern choice with Rome being a 1B option.

If I had to order them:

1) Rome - capital of the Holy Roman Empire, which itself is probably the record-holder for empires when considering size, influence, and duration.
2) London - capital of the British Empire, which was the only empire to ever truly span the globe, coining the phrase, "The sun never sets on the British Empire".
3) Beijing - China was, for centuries if not millennia, one of the most technologically and culturally advanced nations in the world and its influence in the Far East cannot be overstated.
4) Baghdad (bizarrely not listed) - Arguably the largest and most important city in the world from the late first millennium until it was sacked by the mongols in 1258. There's a lot of significant omissions from the list as presented, but this one really warrants a call-out.
5) Cairo - One of the largest cities in the world and a major Arabic cultural centre. I considered swapping it with Baghdad and honestly could still be talked into it.
6) Paris - Aside from a period of significant dominance under Napoleon, I wouldn't really be tempted to include Paris in a list of the world's most important cities. It heads up the next tier down from the all-time greats, but I don't think it quite makes the cut itself.
7) Washington D.C. - Basically the same status as Paris. D.C. is unquestionably the most important city on the planet *today*, but the US as an entity has really only been a major global player for maybe a 100 years. It doesn't have the historical reach of most of the others on this list, which were cultural, scientific, and/or political centres for centuries.
8) Jerusalem - Has massive religious significance to the world's two largest religions - Christianity and Islam - as well as Judaism, but was never really a global centre beyond that.
9) Mecca - Same, but just for Islam
10) New York - I have no idea why this is even on the list. For its financial clout, I guess? Bern is probably the better choice for that. Honestly, if we were to comprehensively list out history's most important cities, I'm not even sure New York would be in my Top 25.

Other cities that probably deserve mentions: Edo/Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin, Kyiv, Ankara, Babylon, Athens, probably a couple other really obvious ones that aren't coming to me right now.

10) New York - I have no idea why this is even on the list. For its financial clout, I guess? Bern is probably the better choice for that. Honestly, if we were to comprehensively list out history's most important cities, I'm not even sure New York would be in my Top 25.

3) Beijing - China was, for centuries if not millennia, one of the most technologically and culturally advanced nations in the world and its influence in the Far East cannot be overstated.

7) Washington D.C. - Basically the same status as Paris. D.C. is unquestionably the most important city on the planet *today*, but the US as an entity has really only been a major global player for maybe a 100 years. It doesn't have the historical reach of most of the others on this list, which were cultural, scientific, and/or political centres for centuries.

10) New York - I have no idea why this is even on the list. For its financial clout, I guess? Bern is probably the better choice for that. Honestly, if we were to comprehensively list out history's most important cities, I'm not even sure New York would be in my Top 25.

Other cities that probably deserve mentions: Edo/Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin, Kyiv, Ankara, Babylon, Athens, probably a couple other really obvious ones that aren't coming to me right now.

Eerie, Indiana

Alexandria, Timbuktu, Nanjing, Jakarta, and Istanbul are a few that would likely make the top 50.

Constantinople was pretty important too.

Constantinople was pretty important too.

Yeah, I was really surprised to see that wasn't a listed option either but the TC definitely seemed to have a more "modern" skew with those presented.

That would be on my short list though I'd fail to name an absolute "most important city ever" because it's just too difficult to qualify, even considering "basic" factors like like economic strength, regional religious/cultural significance, and military superiority. I think a list works better than an absolute for something so completely open to interpretation. Interesting question regardless.

That's also because to a lot of people here, history started in the 1600s.

While Cairo is currently the largest city in the Arab world, it wasn't founded until AD 640. More important historical Egyptian cities would probably include Memphis, capitol of the Old Kingdom, and Thebes, capitol of the Middle Kingdom and most of the New Kingdom

1) While Rome is probably the most important, the English, followed by the Mongol, empires were larger as we many others.

Multiple empires can arguably claim to have 'the sun never set' depending on various factors like when you count the territory.

5) Jerusalem is of major importance as it was also something various nations fought over for centuries due to it's religious significance

6) New York is, arguably, the single most important city in the world today and serves as a massive economic, cultural, and even global hub.

lolwut? Dark doesn't think the home of the UN and arguably the most significant financial center is worth including on a top 25 list.

The importance of China cannot be overstated, but for most of Chinese history Beijing was neither the capital nor the most significant for any other reason. Beijing is the wrong Chinese city to have on the list.

DC isn't even the most important city in USA today, on the global scale today it's not much more important than any other minor city where a random government happened to throw it's capital.

Atlantis

Yeah, I was really surprised to see that wasn't a listed option either but the TC definitely seemed to have a more "modern" skew with those presented.

That would be on my short list though I'd fail to name an absolute "most important city ever" because it's just too difficult to qualify, even considering "basic" factors like like economic strength, regional religious/cultural significance, and military superiority. I think a list works better than an absolute for something so completely open to interpretation. Interesting question regardless.

Fuck, this.

Should that be a semi-colon?