Abstract
During the 19th century, the size of the cities in Europe changed dramatically. While in the 1800s, twenty-three cities in Europe could have been considered as major cities, one century later, the number of major cities reached one hundred and thirty-five. This evolution is curious when one considers the fact that, traditionally, a city is an enclosed space, isolated from the rest of the world. Indeed, Anne Gotman reminds that ramparts were not only a mean of protecting the city from assaults but also to prevent foreigners from entering freely into the city. Cities had a role of protecting their inhabitants. Indeed, introducing taxes and banns for instance, aimed to protect the trade of a city from the potential concurrency coming from other cities. Another aspect has to be taken into account. Through their work, the inhabitants of the cities bourgeois took part in the prosperity and the development of the city and this participation gave them some rights nobody else had. Bourgeois were helped and protected in case of problems; and a non-native inhabitant could not benefit from this particular protection.
