city state
Self-governing urban nation
A city state is an independent nation consisting of a single city and its surrounding territory.
Ancient Athens, Sparta, and the Italian Renaissance cities of Venice and Florence were city states.
Today Singapore and Vatican City qualify.
The term often appears hyphenated: city-state.
City states contrast with larger nations encompassing multiple cities and regions.
- nationSovereign political entity
- polisGreek sovereign urban center
- ancient GreeceClassical Mediterranean civilization
- countrySovereign state or territory
- CarthagePhoenician colony that challenged Rome
Venice · dominion · community · Florence · Monaco · Singapore · autonomy · republic · civic identity · sovereignty · political autonomy · Athens · trading hub · land · Sparta · borders · trade · urban center
- governancegovernance, government, democracy, vote, parliament
- multilingual placesSwitzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Singapore, Canada
city stateempire
Domain under unified control
superpower · kingdom · world power · nation-state · nation state
city stateprovince
Regional administrative district
colony · vassal state · dependency · satellite state · client state
city, state, cities, states, stated, stating, statement, statements, stately