A '''city-state''' is a Tyre and city-states of Northern Italy (especially Florence and Venice). More recently the neologism '''citistate''' has been developed, referring to the city as the center of a 'city region' including relocated urban business like factory and company towns, and supply economies like agricultural, timber and mineral extraction whose commodities find a market in the city. The term "city-state" should not be confused with "independent city", which refers to a city which is not administered as part of another local government area (eg, a county).
 
Among the most well known periods of city-state culture in human history include ancient Greek city-states, and the merchant city-states of Renaissance Italy, who organized themselves in small independent centers. The success of small regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy or Greece, often prevented their amalgamation into larger national units. However, such small political entities often survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states. Thus they inevitably gave way to larger organizations of society, including the empire and the nation-state.<ref> Sri Aurobindo, ‘’Ideal of Human Unity'' included in ''Social and Political Thought’’, 1970.</ref> 

Whereas the nation-states rely on a common cultural heritage, be it linguistic, historical, religious, economic, etc., the city-state relies on the common interest in the function of the urban center. The urban center and its activity supplies the livelihoods of all urbanites inhabiting the city-state.

Today, Washington (coterminous with the District of Columbia) in the United States, Brasília (coterminous with the Brazilian Federal District) in Brazil, Mexico City (being the Mexican Federal District) and Canberra (part of the Australian Capital Territory).

In nations without a federal administrative structure, capital cities sometimes enjoy a greater degree of autonomy, e.g. London. In Germany, Berlin has been a federal state (''Land'') of its own since 1990, but, unlike the above, remains inside the general administration of the country. (Note but this has nothing to do with its being the capital; the cities of Hamburg and Bremen have an identical status and look back on a much longer history of political independence.) A similar situation can be found in Austria, where the capital Vienna has the status of a state within the Austrian federation of states. 

Yet another case is the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China; Hong Kong and Macau. Neither capitals nor exclusively cities, their temporary, relative political independence results from agreements between China and the colonial powers that formerly controlled them. 
 
==Ancient city-states==<!-- This section is linked from Empire -->
City-states were common throughout leagues under a high king. In some cases, historical empires or leagues were formed by the right of conquest (e.g., Mycenae, or Rome), but many were formed under peaceful alliances or for mutual protection, as in the Peloponnesian League.

However, city-state cultures were far from universal in the ancient world. In some regions, such as the ancient Andes, large territorial states, empires, and other forms of polity were common but city-state cultures did not develop.<ref>Wilson, David J.  (1997)  Early State Formation on the North Coast of Peru: A Critique of the City-State Model. In The Archaeology of City-States: Cross-Cultural Approaches, edited by Deborah L. Nichols and Thomas H. Charlton, pp. 229-244. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.</ref>. Archaeologist Bruce Trigger identified city-states as one of two basic forms of political organization among ancient civilizations; the other form being the large territorial state.<ref>Trigger, Bruce G. (2003) Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study. Cambridge University Press, New York.</ref>

Examples of city-states and city-state cultures include:
*Cities of the Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, such as Sumer and Assyria, the Levant including Jericho, and Anatolian civilizations, such as the Hittites, Mitanni and most famously, Troy.
*The ''poleis'' of Ancient Greece
*Ancient Rome
*Ancient American cultures, such as the Maya<ref>Grube, Nikolai  (2000)  The City-States of the Maya. In A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures, edited by Mogens Herman Hansen, pp. 547-566. The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen. Martin, Simon and Nikolai Grube (2000) Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, New York.</ref>
*Phoenician cities (incl. Byblos (believed to be the first city ever built), and Carthage)
*The Yoruba city states of Eko (now Lagos) and Ibadan.
*The city-states of the Shang and Zhou dynasties of China.

==The Medieval and early-modern eras==
In the Middle Ages, city-states were a particular feature of what are now Germany, Italy and Russia. A number of northern cities formed the Hanseatic League an economic union centered on the Baltic and North seas.  The League was a significant force in trade from the 13th to the 17th centuries.

===The Holy Roman Empire===
:''For further details, see under: Imperial Free City.''

During the long history of the German Mediatization in 1803. By 1815 , once peace had returned at the end of the Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck and Frankfurt remained independent. Those four cities became members of the German Confederation (effectively the Holy Roman Empire's successor). Frankfurt was annexed by Prussia in 1866 , while Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen joined the North German Confederation in 1867, which was later incorporated into the German Empire. Hamburg and Bremen have continued until today as states in the modern Federal Republic of Germany, while Lübeck lost its independence in 1937 by the Greater Hamburg Act.

===Netherlands===
In the time of the Dutch Golden Age of the Seventeenth Century, many Dutch cities - and especially Amsterdam, the biggest and richest of them - exhibited many of the characteristics of city-states, maintaining their own militias and navies and often conducting their own policies and pursuing specific political and commercial interests, with little regard for the rest of the Netherlands.

This was exemplified in the Amsterdam Town Hall erected at the time on the Dam Square, which was sumptuous enough to be later converted into a Royal Palace (which it still is), and having among its decorations a giant painting of Imperial Amsterdam depicted as an enthroned Queen, served by three female slaves representing Asia, Africa and America.

==The recent past==
In the 19th and 20th centuries, a variety of changing political circumstances left several self-governing city-states as Fiume, Danzig, Memel and Trieste. On the edges of Europe they have included Batumi and Tangiers. Elsewhere in the world, European colonialism resulted in a number of tiny colonies that were no bigger than a port and its immediate surroundings, such as Hong Kong, Macau, Pondicherry, Singapore, Weihai, and others.

==Contemporary city-states==
Today there are only a handful of cities which exercise authority akin to a sub-regional state (like Washington DC, Macau or Berlin), and even fewer which are sovereign states in their own right (like Singapore or Monaco).

===Sovereign city-states===
====Monaco====
The Principality of Monaco is another example of a city-state: Monaco-Ville (the ancient fortified city, which is not a city even though its name means "Monaco-City") and the well known area Monte Carlo are actually districts, not cities. The territory of the country corresponds to the city limits (one government and one town hall, each having specific powers): the Principality of Monaco and the city of Monaco. However, due to its small land area and population size, Monaco is not a fully sovereign state. In July 1918, a treaty was signed providing for limited French protection over Monaco. The treaty, part of the Treaty of Versailles, established that Monegasque policy would be aligned with French political, military, and economic interests. Only in 1993 did Monaco become a member of the United Nations, with full voting rights. In 2002, a new treaty between France and Monaco clarifies that if there are no heirs to carry on the dynasty, the principality will remain an independent nation rather than revert to France (which were the terms of the previous arrangement). Monaco's military defense, however, is still the responsibility of France. Monaco did not receive its first foreign ambassador, the French ambassador, until 16 February 2006.  While Monaco cannot now be disputed to be a sovereign state in a ''de jure'' sense, its dependency on France means it can be regarded as a European microstate.

====Singapore====
third most densely populated country in the world. The entire island functions as a single unitary government with a property managers in charge of the maintenance of executive autonomy from the national government. 

Prior to the 19th century, Singapore was a minor part of various regional Malacca and Johor. From 1826  to the Japanese conquest, Singapore was the problems, Singapore left the federation in 1965, becoming an independent republic.

Since 1965, Singapore rapidly industrialised and modernised, becoming one of the four "Asian Tigers". In addition to the substantial absolute and per-capita size of its economy, Singapore maintains a significant armed forces. It ranks highly in terms of defence spending and troop size. Singapore may be a small country, but it is a medium to large sized developed city. Despite its small land area, Singapore therefore has a population, economy and armed forces that place it in a similar league to small but full fledged nations like diplomatic representation around the world, including membership of international organizations like the sovereign state.

====Vatican City====
Until 1870, the city of Victor Emmanuel II annexed the city in 1870, Kingdom of Italy. Because he could not travel through a place that he did not admit existed, Pius IX and his successors each claimed to be a "Prisoner in the Vatican", unable to leave the 0.44 km² (0.17-square mile) papal enclave once they had ascended the papal throne.

Een '''stadstaat''' is een belastinginning, verdediging en buitenlandse diplomatie.

Gewoonlijk liggen er nog wat buitengebieden omheen met wat handel en transport. Dit was bijna altijd aan een kruispunt van handelswegen en rivieren.

Door deze goede geografische positie groeide de nederzetting en werd ook rijker. Door deze groei kwam er ook behoefte aan een betere dieven en rovers aantrok.

==Oudheid==

In het begin nam meestal de religieuze elite deze taak op zich, in samenwerking met de rijkste families die natuurlijk ook het meeste belang bij een goede organisatie hadden. Dit groeide uit tot de klasse van de aristocratie die meestal de touwtjes in handen hield. Allengs groeide de invloed van de goed georganiseerde stad totdat ze soms ver in de omtrek haar macht en wetten kon laten gelden. En soms ging het zelfs zo goed dat ze  andere steden ook ging beheersen en integreren in haar invloedssfeer. Dit was het begin van de eerste 'echte' staten.

Voor voorbeelden zie de geschiedenis van Rome, Egypte.

De ongeveer 5 miljoen Grieken van ca. 400 voor Chr. ''(waarvan de helft buiten het huidige Griekenland woonde)'' waren verdeeld over ongeveer 300 ''poleis''. De meesten daarvan hadden een oppervlakte van enkele honderden km² en ongeveer 10.000 inwoners. Sommige stadstaten zoals Sparta waren veel groter, maar in dat geval woonde een groot deel van de burgers of onderdanen in dorpen die op meer dan een dagreis van de centrale stad lagen, waardoor deze staten eigenlijk geen typische stadsstaten meer waren.

==Middeleeuwen==
In de Genua, Florence en Venetië. Andere voorbeelden zijn Bremen en Hamburg.