*Which other cities in Europe (or the world) do you think are well located?* Also, check out the new video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e8qkrKyoscmVp6M.html

Before having watched the video, as a European aware of some of our history: It's history... Near rivers, large trade roads... Everything was build around it for the last several hundred to thousand years.

In regards to Istanbul, I'd argue it's probably the most strategic and well located city not just in Europe but the entire world. It's nothing short of a marvel how well it's located in my opinion. Edit: Typo

Because towns which are in great strategic locations often evolve into major cities, with thousands of years of civilisation, it's bound to happen.

General Knowledge's videos make me remember the love I had for Cartography. As a kid, I spent hours looking again and again at the Atlas. Seeing climates, vegetation... Naturally, I knew a lot of capital and big cities. I always was good at History and Geopolitics at school.

You forgot an important part in the rise of Amsterdam as an important trade city: due to its location surrounded by shallow waters, Dutch shipbuilders improved the building of flat-bottomed ships, which gave them a huge advantage in trading with less developed ports or trading posts that didn't even have a proper port.

Europe is also insanely well located due to its geographical features. Europe's coastline, for example, is 2x the length of Africa's coastline despite being much smaller in size. The sheer number of inlets, bays and rivers on the continent of Europe allowed a lot of cities to develop around strategic (both military and trade) locations.

I think you should talk about the Rhine/Ruhr Valley in Germany, which contains Duisburg, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Essen, Köln, etc. and is the largest population center in Germany - third largest in Europe, when the entire metro area is considered.

It's more like natural selection. Cities were placed everywhere, but the ones in best locations grew faster.

The cities are insanely well located because good city locations encourage people to build cities there

I think there are hidden factors not mentioned wrt some of these cities. A particular one is the geological concept of the fall line. It is where the uplands and lowlands meet, and where the furthest a seagoing ship can go up a river until becomes too shallow. Atlas Pro made a video about it, explaining why the US Eastern seaboard has a string of cities on a straight line. In this video, those cities would be London, Paris, and Seville.

I’m surprised you didn’t include Milan. Milan - whose name, not coincidentally, means ‘in the middle of the land’ - is ideally located halfway between central-northern Europe and the Mediterranean on the one hand, and between Western and Eastern Europe on the other hand, which turned it into a major trade hub and a cultural melting pot across the centuries. Also, Milan sits in the middle of an alluvial plain that is literally soaked in aquifers (the vastest rice pads outside Asia are here), making it one of the most fertile soils in the world. The Alps protect it from excess cold from the north and the Apennines from excess heat from the south. The city is sided East and West by two rivers both at the local level (the small Lambro and Seveso rivers) and at the regional level (the Adda and Ticino rivers), but it’s not crossed by any, ensuring abundant water without any risk of flooding. It is said that the Celts founded it as a religious centre, and its position on the 45th parallel - I.e. exactly halfway between the North Pole and the Equator - must have had some astronomical significance to their druids, but there’s no doubt it’s also a perfect strategic location, as proved by the city’s consistent success through the centuries.

Good video. For future reference, 'Thames' is pronounced 'temz'.

as a born and raised Tyrolean, I gotta throw in Innsbruck as a perfectly placed city. It has a river (actually two but only one of them had relevance for trade) and is placed within a fairly often used trade route from north to south through the Alps. You had to pass by Innsbruck of you wanted to move to the Brenner Pass which is the gateway to Italy and the Mediterranean Sea for much of Northern Europe

Fun fact; In the early stages the city of St. Petersburg didn't have any bridges as Peter the Great was an advocate for sea faring and demanded his citizens to learn the "ropes". It took couple of boat accidents one involving foreign diplomats to finally persuade the Tsar to get on with the bridges.

Constantine originally called Byzantium Nova Roma, or New Rome, but Constantinopolis, Contantine's City, was just a nickname that caught on.

One thing I noticed you missed, mentioning Copenhagen is that the scania region used to be Danish as well. During the 17th century IIRC cannons became so powerful that it was impossible to cross the øresund sound outside of the field of fire from the "twin fortresses" helsingør and helsingborg. Allowing the Danes to tax and tariff all seaborne trade between the Atlantic and the Baltic sea

Can you also do the exact opposite The worst located capitals in Europe and maybe the world

Great video, it also shows how great and influncial the Romans and the Roman Empire was and is today as more than half of the cities mentioned were established by them

General knowledge❤️KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK. I love watching your videos!❤️Alway's remember to keep your head up high and held high and keep doing what you love and what makes you happy

You pronounce İstanbul very accurately and that oddly makes me happy lol

0:58 Respect for showing Civ V instead of Civ VI, you really are a man of culture

Amsterdam used to be an important city, but now it is Rotterdam. The port of Rotterdam is currently 40 km long and is a transit port for the Ruhr area in Germany. A special (semi-automated) separate freight railway (172 km) worth 5 billion euros has even been built from Rotterdam to the German border.

Lisbon is one of the ancient cities of the world, in Europe just behind Athens as a small settlement. Olisipo was a roman settlement yes, but only around 140 B.C. or so. Having a big natural harbor with easy entry to the Tagus river, Lisbon for sure was built inside the estuary for defense of pirates and barbarian raids. Comparing to other European cities and having already been the most important city in the World in the XV century, Lisbon had a major growth issue which was the lack of fresh water as again the Tagus river estuary has brackish water. The solution to this problem was finally solved in 1750 with the construction of a very big aqueduct, one of the last of its kind and luckily survived a very strong earthquake in 1755 which shocked all Europe.

Thanks for this uploading, General Knowledge. As an adoptive British fan of Real Betis I was especially gratified to see Seville getting an honourable mention. I hadn't really been aware of how it had been an actual port city.

That was utterly fascinating. Thank you for making this video.

Paris was originally built on an island in the middle of the Seine "l’Île de la cité" (which was great for defense/protection, and to allow and control its crossing). Then it grew in size to span both banks, aided by easy transport/commerce via the river.

Gibraltar was named after the "Rock" of Gibraltar in Arabic Jebel-Tariq, literally "Mount Tariq" named after Tariq Bin-Ziad, the general of the first conquests into Andalusia. Pretty important piece of etymological origin since you went down that road...

An excellent port at the mouth of a major river is pretty well guaranteed to be a very good location. Here in north America there are four cities that have superb locations on rivers that access the continent's tremendous inland waterway system. New Orleans and Montreal are as far as sailing ships could easily go up 2 rivers that enabled one to reach the entire center of the continent. Chicago was built where those 2 waterways were within a few kilometres of one another. And New York was an exceptional port that was also situated at the mouth of a smaller river that was a shortcut to the inland waterways

A lot of strategic value comes from the ability to access water and these cities are insanely well placed. I would be interested in a video about cities where their access to water isn't the main reason why they are so well placed but some other reason.

Rivers or bodies of water in general I always assumed. St. Petersburg was for that reason anyways, so I imagine many others were similar. The few that aren't near bodies of water are usually chosen for defensive locations.

It would be really interesting to talk about cities that grew up around a trade feature changed or coped when that feature changed. Ports silting up; Mills and mines closing, etc.

I think the Belgrade is very well located, I am surprised you haven't mantioned it.

naples is also build on a strategic (and wonderful, btw) location, in the centre of mediterranean sea and still representing nowadays an important commercial and tourist port

i would add two more cities to the list. Vienna, sitiing at the end of the alps, at the danube river. protected on the eastside by the river and in the north and west of some hills, also one of the most eastern city of westeurope, being extremly central to to the north, south east and west. Lyon is very well placed too. the old town is packed between two big rivers, very well protected from enemies and it lays very central, in france. Its still having effects of the mediterenian weather but always having water (also in the summer, because summer in the mediterrenian is often very dry). so in a very good farming region

Like the video, really well done and interesting, one small detail the river Thames in London is pronounced tems not thames

Venice has a great historical location, similar to St.Petersburg at the end point of a inclosed sea, also it was a major port during the Middle Ages, similar to other cities is near the mouth of the Po river. Other cities like Ravena had similar qualities but since they are no longer have ports Venice wins

Don't forget Liverpool one of the best Locations

The river Thames is pronounced 'TEMS' It makes me laugh how many people still don't know this. 🙄🤣

As Europeans founded many of the major cities in other continents, there are many examples outside of Europe with similar strategic positions. Think of New York, Rio de Janeiro or Cape Town for instance. I think what often sets them apart from other cities is Europeans emphasis on water as mechanism for trade, rather than trade routes on land.

I knew you were going to talk about Sevilla (my homecity) before starting the video

European: lets build the capital city un this river and this place so we control commerce and the entrance of the city Some spanish king: put it on the middle *Makes Madrid*

as a native resident of Saint Petersburg, the city freaking sucks sometimes. it was built on a swamp (because Peter I was a hellbent idiot) so the construction took thousands of lives; the combination of swamp humidity & constant windy, cloudy, rainy weather can easily make you depressed to live here. Imagine London but more windy. on a plus side though the coastal location means the temperature changes frequently so it's never too hot or too cold for a long time. also, it is an important port but it doesn't have a direct access to the ocean. Northern Europe can easily blockade any ship coming from Russia which has happened multiple times throughout history and even right now. its location also makes it an easy target for invasion because it's too close to other countries. Germany easily sieged it with the help of Finland in WW2 despite the fact that our border with Finland was moved more west. imagine if Spb was the capital at the time? again, not a wise decision for Peter I to move it. but it's pretty, I guess.

You should do a video like this but for the America's! There are a bunch that are super well located like San Juan, Puerto Rico due to it being the gate to the Caribbean and that it was used for replenishment of supplies from Spain on its way to other spanish colonies

Amsterdam actually only became an important trade city, and the leader in global trade during the 17th century. That happened during the 80 years war, also known as the Dutch Revolt. It took over the position from Antwerp, when that city remained in Spanish hands, and it’s population fled up north or were killed by the Spanish. The strategic location of Amsterdam on the shores of the former Zuiderzee(Southern Sea), and at the mouth of the large river delta of Meuse & Rhine ) helped too. This meant it was ideally placed for trade on the Baltic Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the major trade with the Far East.

Another city that could have been added to this video is Athens. It is located strategically in the centre-south of Greece and at the southern part of the Balkan peninsula, lying extremely close to the port of Piraeus, the largest in the Mediterranean. On its other 3 sides it is surrounded by mountains, serving as natural fortifications and in the past it has rivers providing frest water to the city. It is the gateway to the Aegean and the Mediterranean or to the Balkans and central Europe, depending on your direction.

Great video as always!

Very good and interesting video. It could be the start of a series of videos as there are many European cities with excellent locations.

I personally love the history of Nantes in France, a small Gaulish tribes settle near the edge of the river Loire and at the estuary, becomes a Roman city after the conquest but a relatively small one compared to Rezé which was further down the estuary on the southern side of the river. Starts thriving once the Germanics are coming as it possessed walls, but afterward by the times Vikings settled themselves on the island of Nantes and its surrounding smaller island the city was pretty much abandonned because its strategical value was just destroyed and its relative distance from the center of the Kingdom meant it wasnt worth it to live there. But then a King of the Bretons came in to reconquer the place from the Vikings and essentially rebuilt and resettled the place over time to become the capital of the Dukes of Brittany, because its strategic placement allowed it to controll trade over the largest river in France

Honorable mentions: -Constanța, Romania -Kiev, Ukraine -Kaliningrad, Russia -Riga, Latvia -Novgorod Russia -Antioch,Turkey -Frankfurt, Germany -Venice/Genoa, Italy -Dubrovnik, Croatia -Hamburg, Germany -Barcelona, Spain -Sevastopol, Ukraine -Akkerman, Ukraine -Kruje/Durres, Albania -Galați, Romania -Moscow, Russia -Bucharest, Romania -Stockholm Sweden -Syracuse, Italy -Skhodra, Albania -Galați, Romania -Thesaloniki, Greece -Izmir, Turkey

one very underrated city is the city of Trondheim, Norway. Throghout history it's been very defensible due to the river running through it, which serves as a natural moot

You should make a series on this, maybe 8-10 cities each time, rank the cities from the episode, then put them into the top 50… is Lyon better located than Madrid? Maybe it’s subjectively impossible to make criteria but that hasn’t stopped any KZfaqr I ever saw

5:23 did London really looked like that? It seems like some steampunk fantasy city, looks amazing!

Just a small note. The River Thames is pronounced Tems, as it comes from the Latin name for the river, Tamesis

Belgrade is older and bigger then half of the cities you showed at begining, it has a incredibly strategic location, devia ver isso melhor, cumprimentos!

I would really like second video with more European cities. Great video

I saw the title and I knew that the would be a reference to Civilization game at some point.

"to Gibraltar, part the UK, at least for now".... Excuse me?? Is there something I need to be telling my relatives in Gibraltar? Such a weird statement.

I would add Cologne. When it was founded (together with its twin city Deutz) by the Romans, it controlled the Rhine and thus the border between the Roman Empire and the barbarian lands to the east. In medieval times, it sat right on the most important West-East trading route, which ran just north of the mountain ranges of the Central Holy Roman Empire, thus being both easy to travel, but close to the sources of precious metals and textile products. During the industrialization, it was close to the iron works of the Ruhr area and to the Dutch harbors, turning Cologne in an important traffic hub.

Shoutout to Stockholm, located on a small island in a river and built out as time went onwards. Very strategic.

I think that Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, could be on this list because almost all the rivers of the Pannonian plain flow towards that city and the mouths of those rivers into the Danube are not far from that city. when we add to that the fact that the Pannonian plain is somewhat isolated from the rest of Europe due to the mountains that surround it, the location not far from one of the main exits from the lowlands is what adds to its importance!

The French actually replicate that model while colonising North America. When you look at cities like Quebec City, you can clearly see why would one settle there. Quebec means where the river narrows, and it couldn't be more accurate. The country that controls Quebec city controls the access to Canada. They did the same in New Orleans, if you control New Orleans, you have control over everything that go into the Mississippi River.

My man said "subscribe If you want" that right there is a humble person, just for that I'm subscribing

Thanks for the Video :)

"If the world was only one country, Constantinople would be its capital" - Napoleon Bonapart

If some Romans (or any contemporaries) put a badly placed city, there probably wouldn't be a modern equivalent, but instead some burial mound which has ruins beneath. If the location sucks enough, even if people were foolish enough to settle once they'll eventually get the message. Apparently, earthquakes do happen elsewhere besides Japan and California and unlike the places hit by quakes around the Mississippi, the few places hit by them in Europe are conspicuously rural.

Lisboan is so well located that it suffered one of history's worse earthshake

can't tell if you intentionally said river Thames wrong to catch out people, anyway great videos man keep up the work.

Could you do an asian version of this? LIke I do believe that European cities have an extreme edge over city location but I would love to see a asian version of this. Like wouldn't want to know how china, japan or india's extremely important cities gained there current locations?

Actually, Paris' location is quite terrible. Too close to the Benelux, it means that it has always been a weak spot for France. During WW1, there was a LOT of worry that it would be taken by Germany early on (think Schlieffen plan), and it fell quickly during WW2. You don't want your capital in Europe too close to a border. A good city in location is, actually, Kyoto, in Japan. Surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and with a rive on the southern, undefended side, it was basically an impregnable fortress back in samurai times.

Ideal location for city 1. Having river was important for constant supply of water and trade. 2. Easily defendable. With natural defence lines like Istanbul. Even Delhi was on higher ground with 100s of rain water storage ponds so was favorite location of many empires.

Congrats. Great video!

How about Belgrade? On two rivers and just under big Panonian flat ground

Nice to see my homeland, Gibraltar, mentioned in this video.

Belgrade is an example of how being well located can be both blessing and a curse, besieged around 140 times destroyed 40 times...

Istanbul I'd not the Turkish capital

I'm surprised you didn't mention Moscow, being located strategically where it could control alot of the inland trade over the various rivers that would come to make up Russia, Kyev could've been mentioned for the same reason

I'm curious, with which software is this kind of video made and how much time does it take approx ?

Now I can place your accent. I grew up just up the coast from you in Estepona on a clear day if I looked west I could see Gibraltar 🇬🇮 if I looked south I could see Morocco 🇲🇦

Another key point about Lisbon is it's also effectively an easily defensible peninsula, the Lines of Torres Vedras were one heck of a defensive bastion, blocking off the only way to enter by land (from the north). Although, they're not technically part of the city being slightly outside.

4:25 The Thames River is not pronounced how it's spelt, rather it's pronounced closer to "tems."

amongst their greatest advantages. what made them who they are now is their geographic potential and proximity to ocean going ports or commercially navigable rivers.

Another examples of strategically located cities outside Europe: America - NYC, New Orleans, Rio De Janeiro and Buenos Aires Asia - Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong/Guangzhou/Macao (basically all of the Pearl river delta), Shanghai Most of these cities, except for Singapore, are being located on the main river and near the sea, thus providing transport link between international and inland transport/trade Amsterdam is also similar in this regard

Great video! Amsterdam was originally not that well located, as it was surrounded by swamps and the area had to deal with floods regularly during storms. The later Dutch waterworks like dykes and polders massively improved this. In the 19th century a large canal was dug straight west to connect Amsterdam to the North Sea, and in the 20th century another canal was dug connecting Amsterdam to the Rhine river. Amsterdam always had competition from London and especially Antwerp, also well located trade ports, and later Hamburg at the German Elbe river mouth. Another Dutch city that is extremely well located is Rotterdam, at the mouth of both the Rhine and Meuse rivers, and indirectly also the Scheldt river. Among other benefits, the Rhine connects the highly industrialized Ruhr area in Germany to the rest of the world. Rotterdam actually expanded into the North Sea, creating land to facilitate extended construction of the port, warehouses, and oil silos. This allowed Rotterdam to become the biggest trade port in Europe, and for some time even the world until several East Asian ports overtook it. Talking about the rest of the world, I would nominate New York, Guangzhou/Canton, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dhaka and of course Shanghai for being excellently located for trade. All are located at river mouths connecting them to the hinterland, and major international trade ports. I recently read up on the construction of the almost 600 km long Erie Canal connecting New York to the Great Lakes, making it the main thoroughfare for people migrating west and growing it into the main US East Coast port. Fascinating history. What made and makes all these cities so great is not only their ability to trade, but also the toll revenue from passing ships for which these cities had to do nothing but exist in the right spot.

Istanbul is located on the BOSPHORUS STRAIT. Dardanelles is the other one between Mediteranean șea and Marmara. Between Marmara and Black sea it is called BOSPHORUS STRAT.

Hello from Saint-Petersburg :D

Bosphorus strait is the part between the sea of mamara and the black sea, while the Dardanelles is between the Mediterranean and mamara seas

On one hand it makes sense, on the other it's unfortunate that you didn't choose any inland cities for this video. The mouth of a river, access to the sea and a strategic position is usually easy to find on a coast. Inland cities are much harder to place and some aren't really that well placed from a geographic, or strategic point of view - Berlin comes to mind. An example for an extremly well placed city would be Passau in Germany, sitting right where two of central Europe's largest rivers meet, they could capitalise on shipping trade, had ample access to fresh water and the land around it is flat enough to provide for farming.

You might wanna cut out the sponsor section from your vid. Just in case you're unaware ET is a scam

Is there a reason that at 0:07 you encircled "Olmütz" in Moravia, but not Vienna (second largest german-speaking city and former Capital of Habsburg HRE and KuK)?

Presence of a river is not only irrigation waste and fresh water but mostly about we used them as giant Hightways into the country.

Your sponsor, Established Titles - just so you know, you don't own that plot. You can't buy or sell plots that small in Scotland. You also can't claim to be a real Lord or Lady, as in a peer of the realm. Anyone can call themselves Lord or Lady whether you buy a souvenir plot or not. It's just a bit of fun, less real even than naming a star, but some are misled into thinking it's a real thing.

We really need to build a canal from the dnister river to the bug, through lviv. To connect ukranian cities to all of the major cities of europe from riga to toulouse. All internal river networked. Only major cities disconected are in Italy/Iberia and the UK, but they all are easily reachable via the ocean.

You should make a video on the most strategically placed cities in the world

Love the video, but I feel i should point out Thames is pronounced Temz . No TH sound. Like tamez but with a different a sound.

Hey you have a sponsor like that but didn't mention Glasgow's position, shocking! 😂 Seriously though Glasgow is a very well placed city too, it used to be great for ship building

Hello from Albania 🇦🇱

Copenhagen/Malmö controls one of the access points if you want to enter or leave the Baltic Sea from or to Skagerak/The North Sea. The whole of Switzerland is essentially a fortress against outside invaders. A lot of the cities located along the Rhine river are also in ideal positions, both economically and defensive.

Genoa and Venice were very important seaports because they are on the northern tip of the Mediterranean. They were the Mediterranean ports of medieval Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Genoa is connected to Germany via Milan and the Gotthard route crossing the Alps, Venice is via Verona and the Brenner route. Hamburg is the North Sea's most inland seaport, perfectly serving Central Europe via the Elbe River all the way to Prague. Rotterdam sits at the mouth the Rhine, which is Europe's economically most important inland waterway. Rostov on Don is basically the deepest-inside-Eurasia Atlantic seaport (similar to Chicago in North America), even connected to the Caspian Sea and most of European Russia via large inland waterways, but it is totally underdeveloped.

3:15 the world*