Oleg A. Konstantinov

Abstract

A change in the social structure entails essential alterations in the structure and territorial distribution of social production. These, in turn, bring about gradual changes in settlement, in particular in the network of town settlements. The geography of towns under capitalism is different from the feudal urban geography, not to mention that of the slave-owning system. Some cities (Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Alexandria, etc.) have existed for many centuries and even millennia. As a result of changing socio-economic conditions, they have chang-ed their functions and their appearance. But many of them have fallen into decay or even vanished completely, and these have been replaced by new towns born of their own epoch.