What factors made for "successful" cities in the Middle Ages? How did they maintain stability?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. Particularly in the Italian city-states, there are some shared characteristics that extended their urban identification. In Northern Italy, cities that had been Lombard strongholds and capitals were revitalized and the buildings were repurposed. Bishops assumed municipal authority in some. Italian cities used the same grid structure that had been used in Roman urban planning. The Italian city-states were better equipped to do this than other areas because the Franks lacked resources to maintain the Roman infrastructure like sewers, walls, road systems, etc. Proximity to access routes for trade, for example in port cities, could rebuild their economies more successfully than interior, land-bound territories. Finally, areas that were in less contention and were not subject to war (as in the partible Frankish kingdoms) had better chances to maintain political and economic stability.