Cities that used to be rich but are now poor
Daniel Coughlin
11 July 2019
The once-wealthy cities that have fallen on hard times
Going from riches to rags, some of the greatest and most affluent cities the world has ever known have fallen on hard times and lost much of their wealth and prestige. Looking back over history, we chart the rise and decline of 11 cities that have seen much better days.
Damascus, Syria
The oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Damascus was founded in the third millennium BC and has been part of an incredible 42 different states throughout its long history. During this time, the City of Jasmine has undergone profound change and experienced extreme highs and lows.
Damascus, Syria
The city rose to prominence in the 11th century BC under the Aramaeans, and control eventually passed to the Romans. Damascus mushroomed into a thriving metropolis by the 2nd century, and the city, which served as the western terminus of the Silk Road, developed as a key centre of trade and culture.
Damascus, Syria
Damascus passed to the Byzantines in 476 and became renowned for its breathtaking beauty and splendour. Legend has it that the Prophet Muhammad, on his journey from Mecca to Syria, observed the city in the distance but turned back saying “a man should only enter paradise once, and that is upon his death”.
Damascus, Syria
The Islamic Rashidun Caliphate, which arose following the death of Muhammad in 632, conquered Damascus in 634. It was succeeded in 661 by the Umayyad Caliphate, which put Syria as its core and built the city's main mosque. Affluent Damascus was declared the capital of the world's largest empire stretching from Spain in the west to Afghanistan in the east, and was at the zenith of its powers.
Damascus, Syria
After the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750, the Abbasid dynasty took control and moved the capital to Baghdad. Damascus entered a period of decline until the 12th century when it enjoyed a resurgence under the Zengid dynasty. By the 16th century the city had fallen on hard times again and was captured by the Ottomans.
Damascus, Syria
Damascus declined further under Ottoman rule, during which the economy stagnated and the city became less and less relevant in terms of trade and influence. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, Damascus fell into French hands. It gained independence along with the rest of Syria in 1945.
Damascus, Syria
Syria's economy tanked by the 1980s when real GDP per capita plunged by 22%, but the economy picked up during the 1990s and 2000s when annual growth peaked at 13.5%. All this has been undone by the brutal Syrian Civil War. The conflict, which has been raging since 2011, has left Damascus and Syria as a whole shattered and destitute.
Baghdad, Iraq
Like Damascus, Baghdad has had a long and illustrious, though at times troubled, history. After the fall of the Umayyads, the Abbasid dynasty wanted to create its own capital far from Damascus and settled on a site in Mesopotamia near the ruins of Ctesiphon and Babylon. Caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the first building for the new city in July 762 and Baghdad was born.
Baghdad, Iraq
Commanding an enviable location on the banks of the River Tigris, the city was situated at an important trade crossroads. Caliph Al-Mansur assembled the Caliphate's finest architects, engineers and artisans, and set about constructing a spectacular model city, which was unique for being perfectly round.
Baghdad, Iraq
The number of inhabitants ballooned and the city positively boomed. By the early 10th century, Baghdad was the largest city in the world with a population of almost one million, rising to 1.2 million by the year 1000. Baghdad had also evolved to become the planet's wealthiest city and a prominent cultural and educational centre to boot.
Baghdad, Iraq
The glory days came to an abrupt and violent end in 1258 with the Mongol Siege of Baghdad. Forces under the command of Hulagu Khan besieged, captured and sacked the city, massacring most of the inhabitants. The invading forces looted and destroyed homes, mosques, hospitals and other buildings, and razed the city's famous House of Wisdom library to the ground.
Baghdad, Iraq
Baghdad was rebuilt and repopulated by the Mongols, but never regained its former prestige. The city was controlled by various Mongol and Oghuz Turkic dynasties for almost four centuries. In 1534, Baghdad was invaded and conquered by the Ottomans and became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Baghdad, Iraq
Baghdad, which was overtaken by Constantinople as the largest city in the Middle East during the 16th century, stagnated under Ottoman Rule, despite an economic upturn in the 17th century. The population of the once enormous city had dwindled to 185,000 by 1907 and poverty was commonplace.
Baghdad, Iraq
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Baghdad was under British control for a time and became the capital of the new country of Iraq in 1932. Oil, which was discovered in the country in 1923, became the mainstay of the economy, which was booming by the 1970s. Since then, a succession of conflicts culminating in the Iraq War have ravaged the city, which is a shadow of its former self.
Benin City, Nigeria
Founded in the 11th century by the Edo people, Benin City in modern-day Nigeria was known as Edo during much of its existence. Edo grew to become one of Africa's largest and wealthiest cities by the 15th century, and was especially rich during the 16th and 17th centuries when the city was larger than Lisbon and other European capitals.
Benin City, Nigeria
The Portuguese visited Edo in 1485 and were amazed at its size and splendour. They enthused about its many wonders, which included palm oil-powered street lighting, a major innovation at the time. The city began to trade with the Portuguese and other Europeans, exchanging pepper and ivory for European goods, adding to its wealth.
Benin City, Nigeria
The city was ruled by the Oba who lived with his family and courtiers in a sumptuous palace complex. Made up of numerous large buildings, the complex was adorned with hundreds of ornate brass bas-relief plaques, which are now known as the 'Benin Bronzes'. Polished to perfection, they must have made for a dazzling sight.
Benin City, Nigeria
Edo was renowned for its order and cleanliness. The city was carefully laid out and even had a sewage system of sorts. Edo's most impressive structure though was its city wall, which was the world's largest earthwork project carried out before mechanisation, was a whopping four times longer than the Great Wall of China at one time.
Benin City, Nigeria
The city entered into decline at the end of the 17th century. Like other cities in our round-up, Edo, which had been renamed Benin City, saw its economy shrink as trade routes changed. Conflict among the ruling class didn't help, and only served to worsen the city's financial situation, which became dire.
Benin City, Nigeria
Weakened politically and economically, the city was invaded and taken by the British in 1897. A force 1,200 men-strong led by Admiral Sir Harry Rawson totally razed the city to avenge the killing of soldiers who had been sent previously as an expeditionary force. The population was forced to flee as the British looted and destroyed anything they could get their hands on.
Benin City, Nigeria
The city was slowly rebuilt in the early part of the 20th century and became part of independent Nigeria in 1960. Today Benin City is a bustling regional capital of 1.5 million people, but despite being the centre of Nigeria's rubber industry, and a hub for oil, the city is very poor by global standards with high rates of unemployment and crime.
Timbuktu, Mali
Regarded by many people in the West as a mystical faraway place, the enigmatic capital of Timbuktu in West Africa was established as a permanent base during the 12th century by the nomadic Tuareg. These Lords of the Desert chose the location wisely. In fact, they couldn't have selected a better place to build their city.
Timbuktu, Mali
The city was constructed just north of the Niger River where the Sahara Desert meets the African savannah at the centre of several key trading routes. A multicultural city from the get-go, Timbuktu was the place the Tuareg, Fulani, Wangara and Arabs came together to trade. Gold and ivory from the south was exchanged for salt and goods from Europe and the Middle East, which arrived from the north.
Timbuktu, Mali
An affluent centre of trade by this point, Timbuktu became part of the Mali Empire in 1324 when it was annexed by Musa I, who is thought to have amassed the equivalent of $415 billion (£327bn) in his lifetime, making him one of the richest, if not the richest person of all time. Musa I commissioned a royal palace in the city, which blossomed under his rule.
Timbuktu, Mali
As well as becoming a major commercial hub, Timbuktu was a global centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th centuries. Scholars came from far and wide to study in the city. Timbuktu's Sankore University, which was founded in 989 when the city was a temporary settlement, had 25,000 students by the 13th century making it the world's largest university.
Timbuktu, Mali
The Mali Empire declined in the early 15th century. Timbuktu passed to the Tuaregs, and became part of the powerful Songhai Empire in 1468. The city continued to flourish. Berber Andalusi Diplomat Leo Africanus visited in 1510. He described the inhabitants as “very rich” and marvelled at the abundance of gold and other riches.
Timbuktu, Mali
In 1591, the city was conquered by mercenaries sent by the ruler of Morocco Ahmad al-Mansur. The new overlords rounded up and executed or exiled many of Timbuktu's scholars, and the city's reputation as a great centre of learning waned. As competing Atlantic trade routes developed, Timbuktu declined as a commercial centre, too, and got progressively poorer.
Timbuktu, Mali
The city became part of the Massina Empire in 1826 and was eventually conquered by the Toucouleur people. The French assumed control in 1880. Mali won independence in 1960, but Bamako was chosen as its capital rather than Timbuktu. Development has been painfully slow and these days, the city, which is threatened by desertification, is one of the poorest and most desolate in the world.
Agra, India
Agra in northern India was mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, but the city wasn't founded officially until 1504. Agra started out as the capital of the Delhi Sultanate, which established the city, but it fell in 1526 after the First Battle of Panipat, which marked the beginning of the magnificent Mughal Empire.
Agra, India
In 1558, the city was chosen by the third Mughal emperor Akbar I as the empire's capital. It was known as Akbarabad at the time. The Mughals, who went on to conquer the entire Indian subcontinent, set about building a city that rivalled the great capitals of the West. The imposing Red Fort was completed in 1573 and became the seat of the Mughal emperors.
Agra, India
One of the biggest cities in the world, Agra's population had grown to 800,000 by the time Shah Jahan, the grandson of Akbar I, had ascended to the throne in 1628. Brimming with riches, the city was rolling in money. Real wages and living standards in Mughal India were even higher than in England, which had the best standard of living in Europe at the time.
Agra, India
Shah Jahan didn't waste any time spending his riches. The emperor commissioned the fabled gem-encrusted Peacock Throne, which has since been lost, not to mention the heart stoppingly beautiful Taj Mahal, which was built in memory of his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal. The grand mausoleum was completed in 1653.
Agra, India
That same year, the capital shifted to Aurangabad, beginning Agra's long decline. Internal conflict led to the breakup of the Mughal Empire during the late 18th century, and Agra came under the control of the Marathas. Competition from Europe was eating into India's wealth and the city gradually lost its glory and influence.
Agra, India
The British set up the Presidency of Agra in 1835 and the Raj was established in 1858. By this time, competition from industrialised Europe had decimated the economy. India's wealth was drained further by the British. Compared to the Mughal era, India under the British Raj had less industry, lower levels of urbanisation and a much lower GDP per capita.
Agra, India
India gained independence from Britain in 1947, but Agra remains a grindingly poor place. The city is famed for its craftsmen, but the work is low-paid and 40% of the population relies on agriculture to survive. Many of the Agra's denizens live in slums and 44% lack access to a toilet at home, though living standards in the city is on the up, slowly but surely.
Potosí, Bolivia
If someone asked you to name the richest city in the world in the early 17th century, you might opt for London or Paris. But you'd be wrong. The accolade goes to the city of Potosí in modern-day Bolivia. Located high in the Andes, the city sits at the foot of the Cerro Rico, a mountain that was said to be made from silver.
Potosí, Bolivia
In the mid 16th century, Spanish conquistadors began to exploit the vast deposits of the precious metal, sparking an almighty silver rush. Free labourers, conscripted workers and slaves extracted the silver, and the city's elites became incredibly wealthy. Potosí even bagged a mention in Miguel de Cervantes' great novel Don Quixote, where it's described a place of “extraordinary richness”.
Potosí, Bolivia
Cervantes also coined the expression “to be worth a Potosí” (a fortune). Demand for Potosí's silver was strong and unrelenting. The workforce soared in numbers and by the early 17th century, the population had swelled to 160,000, and the city had the world's largest and most advanced industrial complex. Spain profited considerably from Potosí's prized asset.
Potosí, Bolivia
Most of the silver was exported in the form of Spanish pieces of eight ('pesos de ocho'). These coins effectively bankrolled Spain's trade economy and fuelled the Chinese trade economy too as European traders used the silver to buy goods from the country. Pieces of eight were even used as early currency in the US, such was their prevalence and prestige.
Discover more about America's currency and How the US dollar has changed over time
Potosí, Bolivia
The Potosí silver rush had come to end by the early 18th century. Silver yields had dropped dramatically and the city's infrastructure was pretty much falling apart. Adding to Potosí's woes, the vast quantities of silver in circulation around the world had triggered inflation, lowering the price of the commodity.
Potosí, Bolivia
The population fell to 60,000 in the early 18th century. Mining continued in Potosí, but by the time Simón Bolívar liberated the city from the Spanish in 1825, its riches had all but dried up. The number of inhabitants had dropped to just 20,000, but the city began to grow again as tin mining developed.
Potosí, Bolivia
Today, Potosí retains many of the buildings from its heyday, but the city has little of the wealth and poverty is commonplace. Though zinc, tin and some silver are still mined, many of the underground facilities are exhausted and unsafe. The city is among the most polluted on Earth and life expectancy is low due to the poor working conditions in the mines.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Founded by Spanish Conquistadors in 1536 and declared capital of independent Argentina in 1816, Buenos Aires flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and put cities in Europe and North America to shame with its grandeur. The city was the powerhouse of the nation's economy, which was one of the strongest in the world at the time.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
In 1895, Argentina had the world's highest GDP per capita according to the Maddison Project Database, outshining the US and every single European nation. The country's economy recorded explosive growth from the 1880s onwards when exports of livestock and grain skyrocketed.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The livestock and grain were transported from the fertile Pampas to the city via newly constructed railways, and exported around the world. Needless to say, Buenos Aires got outrageously rich on the back on this trade and the population grew rapidly, with immigrants arriving from Europe, mainly from Spain and Italy.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The city underwent modernisation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Elegant avenues and squares were planned, lavish public buildings were erected and the rich built opulent mansions. During this time, Buenos Aires was one of the world's foremost cities and just as grand as the French capital, leading it to be called the 'Paris of South America'.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Economic growth slowed after 1905, but it wasn't until the 1930s that Argentina's financial fortunes really started to go downhill. The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the country hard, and the economy faltered. Shanty towns dubbed misery villages ('villas miserias') sprung up around Buenos Aires and the wealth of many of the city's citizens began to erode away.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Before the 1930s, Argentina was a stable democracy, but a coup in 1930 ushered in a military government and years of political instability in the country. The lack of stable government has had a profound effect on the economy of Buenos Aires and the nation as a whole, and has stunted growth.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Today, Buenos Aires is a city of faded grandeur with a GDP on a par with Dallas rather than Paris or New York. Many of the elaborate late 19th and early 20th century buildings still stand, but poverty and crime levels are much higher than in the North American and European cities it once outclassed, and household incomes are much lower.
Havana, Cuba
Money flowed like champagne in 1950s Havana. Cuba had one of the highest GDPs per capita in the Americas, the second highest per capita ownership of cars and telephones, not to mention booming sugar and tourism industries. Havana boasted luxury hotels, casinos, chichi boutiques and more, and attracted legions of moneyed visitors eager to sample the high life.
Havana, Cuba
The city was thriving economically, but behind the glamorous facade, the system was rotten and corrupt. Wealth inequality was extreme during the 1950s and Cuba, which was under General Batista's repressive military rule, was plagued by organised crime, drugs and prostitution, much of which was brushed under the carpet.
Havana, Cuba
In 1959, Fidel Castro led the communist Cuban Revolution and stormed to power, deposing Batista. Following the revolution, Havana and Cuba as a whole suffered a long-term decline in GDP. America imposed a strict embargo on the country in 1962, which has pummelled the economy. The city has almost been frozen in time ever since with cars from the era a common sight on the streets to this day.
Havana, Cuba
The country transitioned from a market to a planned economy in the early 1960s and all businesses were nationalised. Propped up by the USSR, the economy plodded along until the late 1980s, but by then, Havana's infrastructure was crumbling. Anti-urban policies had starved the city of funding and it was falling apart.
Havana, Cuba
After the collapse of communism and dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Cuba's subsidies dried up and its former trading partners bit the dust. The economy nosedived and the standard of living plummeted. Havana's residents were so hard up during this time, they had to resort to eating their pets and poaching animals from the city's zoo.
Havana, Cuba
In the mid 1990s, the government introduced several market-orientated reforms, which ranged from allowing foreign investment, to opening up the country to tourism once again. The reforms kick-started the economy in the late 1990s and 2000s, freeing up cash for a number of renovation projects in Old Havana. Since 2011, Cubans have been permitted to run their own businesses.
Havana, Cuba
Still, following Fidel Castro's death in 2016, his brother Raúl assumed power, and Cuba remains a communist dictatorship. Despite Havana's recent renaissance, the city is much poorer overall in a relative sense than it was in the 1950s, though income equality has improved. Housing, healthcare and so on are heavily subsidised, but the typical resident of the city earns just $20 (£17) a month.
Detroit, USA
Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, Detroit was the place to be. The centre of America's buoyant auto industry, the city was booming and its population had swelled to 1.9 million. Swish Neoclassical and Art Deco buildings graced the city, and Detroit had a thriving nightlife and music scene, which was dominated by the world-famous Motown Records and legendary soul singers like Aretha Franklin.
Detroit, USA
Detroiters had plenty of spare cash to splash on luxuries and nights out. Wages in the city and the state of Michigan as a whole were considerably higher than the national average. In fact, Michigan's workforce enjoyed the highest median income and the highest rate of home ownership in the US.
Detroit, USA
Sadly, the days of plenty were not to last and Motor City entered into long-term decline in the late 1960s. Increased automation and the relocation of several auto plants away from the city made for fewer jobs. As unemployment and poverty increased during the latter half of the decade, riots hit the city and crime soared with murders rising 217% and the number of robberies up 539%.
Detroit, USA
Affluent residents began to desert the city in their droves, leaving abandoned buildings in their wake, which were often targeted by arsonists. The city was simply not pulling in sufficient tax income to operate successfully, and things just went from bad to worse as the infrastructure degraded.
Detroit, USA
Businesses joined the middle-class flight to the suburbs and despite efforts by the city's mayor to stem the flow, the downtown area of Detroit became something of a ghost town, characterised by vacant stores, boarded-up hotels and empty office buildings that nobody wanted to rent, however cheap.
Detroit, USA
The sharp increase in oil prices during the 1970s further damaged the auto industry, and competition from foreign carmakers almost finished it off during the 1980s and 1990s. By this time, Detroit had become a byword for urban decay and the State of Michigan led the nation in unemployment.
Detroit, USA
The downward spiral continued and in 2013, penniless Detroit became the largest US city to file for bankruptcy. Like other parts of the Rust Belt, Detroit is slowly recovering, but poverty and crime are pervasive, and the city's population has shrunk by almost two-thirds to just 672,795.
Tehran, Iran
Iran's economy was in excellent shape during the 1960s and 1970s following wide-ranging reform. The country, which was under the control of monarch Mohammad Reza Shah, saw its oil revenues go though the roof during this time. The capital Tehran was flourishing. The middle class was expanding and the city was in the throes of modernisation.
Tehran, Iran
The Shah ploughed huge sums of money into updating the city, and numerous modern buildings were erected, hinting at a bright future. A plan to reduce social exclusion in the city was introduced in 1968 and life for many of its citizens, particularly the poorest, improved immeasurably as a result.
Tehran, Iran
The city's most distinctive landmark, the Shahyad Tower, was built in 1972. Now known as the Azadi Tower, the monument was commissioned to commemorate the 2,500th year of the foundation of the Imperial State of Iran, and reflected the confidence of the country, which was on a high.
Tehran, Iran
Not everything was rosy in Iran however. While the Shah embraced modernity, dissent was crushed and political opponents were locked up and sometimes murdered. Opposition to the regime grew in the 1970s and the Shah was accused of being a puppet of America. Tensions came to a head in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution.
Tehran, Iran
The Shah was deposed and the monarchy was replaced with a theocratic government at odds with neighbour Iraq, as well as the West. Iraqi forces under the control of Saddam Hussein invaded the country in 1980, starting the Iran-Iraq War. The conflict, which lasted until 1988, battered the economy of Tehran and Iran as a whole, and living standards tanked.
Tehran, Iran
The new government's other arch enemy, America imposed sanctions on Iran in 1979 and other Western nations followed suit. These sanctions have stalled economic growth in the country and were particularly biting during the 1980s when the war with Iraq was raging and the nation was especially hard-up.
Tehran, Iran
These days, Tehran is rundown and polluted with high levels of deprivation. According to the World Bank, Iranians are 30% poorer in 2018 than they were in the late 1970s, and while the country has massive reserves of oil, the economy is markedly weaker now compared to the days before the revolution.
What were the World's biggest economies the decade you were born?
Caracas, Venezuela
Back in the 1990s, Venezuela, which had got rich from oil, was one of the wealthiest nations in South America with some of the continent's best living standards. Moneyed Caracas was the pride of the country, a modern city of gleaming skyscrapers with a dynamic economy and abundance of commercial and cultural attractions.
Caracas, Venezuela
In 1999, socialist Hugo Chávez was elected president. His government introduced a series of populist economic policies, which worked at first, helping to raise significant numbers of Venezuelans out of poverty, but they soon became unsustainable. By the end of the Chávez presidency in the early 2010s, inflation had jumped, poverty had actually increased and shortages of basic goods had become widespread.
Speaking of inflation, these are the World's most expensive cities to live in
Caracas, Venezuela
The average resident of Caracas had become considerably poorer, and even people who had considered themselves middle class and fairly affluent in the past were struggling to afford staples like flour and cooking oil. As a consequence, crime spiked in the city, and the infrastructure deteriorated.
Caracas, Venezuela
Overly reliant on oil, the economy boomed when prices were high in the 2000s, but was devastated by the sharp drop in the price of the commodity in 2014. Venezuela's socialist government failed to diversify during the good times and put all its eggs in one basket. Rigid price controls and a refusal to accept foreign aid have worsened the situation.
Not such a problem for These nine countries that are getting richer and richer
Caracas, Venezuela
The shortages have only got more severe and hunger is now a fact of life for many people in Venezuela. Crime has spiralled out of control and Caracas has become one of the world's most dangerous cities. No-go areas abound and neighbourhoods that were relatively safe in the 1990s are riddled with crime these days.
These are the World's best and worst cities to live in
Caracas, Venezuela
Last year, the Venezuelan economy was 35% smaller than it was in 2013 and GDP per capita had shrunk by a staggering 40%. Shockingly, over the past few years the Venezuelan economy has contracted more than that of the US during the Great Depression and the economy of Russia following the fall of communism. The crisis has left 90% of the population impoverished.
Discover the Countries that used to be poor but are now rich
Caracas, Venezuela
Unfortunately, things aren't likely to improve in a meaningful way any time soon in Caracas or elsewhere in Venezuela. While the government is planning to refinance its sky-high external debts, confidence that the plan will work out is low and the economy is expected to contract by 18% by the end of 2018 with inflation poised to hit an astonishing 1,000,000%, deepening the economic catastrophe in the country.
Now read about the Countries that used to be rich but are now poor
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature