City-state

A city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city. City-states were common in the ancient period and gradually were combined into nations. The many city-states of ancient Greece are classical examples.

Examples of city-states in history include:

• Venice
• Sumer
• Danzig
• Maya civilization

The term city-state also has the following contemporary usages:

• a city that is a state by itself: the independent states Monaco, Singapore, San Marino and Vatican City
• the states of Germany: Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg
• the Chinese Special Administrative Regions: Hong Kong and Macau.