Here in central europe, it worked like you’d imagine: Lot’s of “grouped farms”, hamlets, 100-people castle villages, bigger villages, local-center-villages, small towns. All maybe one or two miles apart.
And some tidbits from history; how the local district was sold to the Habsburgs, because the next bigger city had debts (the Habsburgs didn’t keep it either). Or how the local small city got city rights back in 1700, despite only being a small town, because it was strategically important.
And while the bigger cities were around since the romans, it all grew organically.
This doesn’t match at all with what you’re saying.
Where, Balkan, US?
Here in central europe, it worked like you’d imagine: Lot’s of “grouped farms”, hamlets, 100-people castle villages, bigger villages, local-center-villages, small towns. All maybe one or two miles apart.
And some tidbits from history; how the local district was sold to the Habsburgs, because the next bigger city had debts (the Habsburgs didn’t keep it either). Or how the local small city got city rights back in 1700, despite only being a small town, because it was strategically important.
And while the bigger cities were around since the romans, it all grew organically.
This doesn’t match at all with what you’re saying.