Author | Marcos MartínezThe term city-state dates back to ancient history, although it has become a current topic of conversation among politicians and economists. Empowering cities with new legal frameworks designed to provide them with greater financial and administrative independence, indeed, is a well-established trend across both industrialized nations (which tend to prioritize urban over rural) and developing ones (following the freeport strategy) interested in increasing the competitiveness of their cities in a globalized world. Although few of these modern cities have true state-like powers.
What is a city state?
Although the Sumerian city-states of Uruk or Lagash (5,000 BC) are very different to the Singapore or Hong Kong of today, the underlying concept is the same: the city has autonomy and it is the state. However, there is a notable difference between the past and the present: city-states of today are not self-sufficient. They depend on external commerce. There are also notable differences and similarities between them: from cities that are thousands of years old such as Hamburg, to the “new” cities with metropolitan areas covering wide insular territories, such as Singapore.
Hamburg, a “free city” since records began
The history of Hamburg (Germany) is interesting insofar as a small space covering only a few square kilometres has managed to preserve its autonomy, while also forming part of a state such as Germany. This is the example of how the identity of a sufficient part of the population can establish pressure to endure, for centuries.In 1189, the Holy Germanic Roman Emperor granted the city the status of Free Imperial City, a status that it has managed to maintain (with changes) through various reigns and governing systems. What is now known as the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg survived:- The German Confederation (1815-1866),
- The North German Federation (1866-1871),
- The German Empire (1871-1918),
- The Weimar Republic (1919-1933),
- Nazi Germany (1934-1945),
- The British occupation (1945-1949),
- The German Federal Republic.

Hong Kong, “special administrative region”
The city of Hong Kong has been capturing the headlines since June 2019, mainly because its inhabitants identify it as an independent city-state. Formally it is a “special administrative region” of the People’s Republic of China, but in reality, it is a bubble of economic and political liberalism within the boundaries of the Asian giant.In 1984, the British and Chinese governments agreed to the handover of Hong Kong, ending years of British colonial rule, but the city would not automatically change over to the communist regime. Instead, five decades of economic liberalism and special rules, still in force today, were agreed. As a result, Hong Kong is a western city-state with rights that do not exist in continental China.
Singapore, firmly committed to technology
The city-state of Singapore is an interesting territory, not just because of its complexity (it has four official languages -Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil- and dozens of religions). Also because of the way they have technified society and become a global power and leaders in technology, development or education, starting out as a poor island without any natural resources.Today, Singapore is the city with the highest number of trees per square metre in the world, which benefits its five million inhabitants; the first city in the world in which autonomous mobility was tested (2016 with the nuTonomy taxi); and the only major city with a highly developed digital twin using semantic modelling.