I understand how a village grows into a town and a town into a city, etc, but I can’t find an understandable answer to how the whole process begins initially. Do a group of people just form a contract and agree to share responsibilities? Who gives up the land? Perhaps it was easier to understand when there was more available land? Any help understanding how the whole ball gets rolling would be much appreciated.
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Like, someone settles land in America in like 1600 (acknowledging the loss for native Americans) or 1700 or whatever. They build a log cabin. Someone else builds one near them. Then another. Then eventually they realize they need to make decisions so the start having meetings and eventually the meetings decide to vote on a mayor or bylaws or whatever.
Lots of states have different processes on “incorporating.”
You’d have to pull your state’s specific rules to get an answer cause there are a bunch of different mechanisms lol
But you’re generally on the right track. In most places they require some sort of a city charter, some sort of legal structure, it usually has to go to a vote of the proposed community, and usually filed with the state itself. There are usually also tax and public service requirements as well
Lots of communities sprout up informally until they decide they want to file the paperwork. Some places never do or get absorbed by a neighboring city. Some states have strong county governments that basically function as a “city” for the community
It’s obviously less common these days for new towns and villages to just pop up but in the past, villages “spawned” near points of importance. Maybe a mine, a port, grasslands for the animals to feed etc.
Settlers would move out from established villages in search for more resources like the above. When they found them they would start using those resources and transferring them to the established village. Then they would build more amenities near the resource to be more efficient. Maybe build a blacksmith near the mine so miners can repair their tools. Then someone selling food to the miners. Then haircuts, clothes, alcohol, entertainment and so on.
Since now our town has all the services and the shop owners probably already live above their shops, more people come in to open their own shops and businesses since there is an untapped community. And before you know it, you have a small little village. Then that grows into a town and so on.
Now some restless settlers see opportunity in the nearby forrest where they can collect lumber from and they start the whole process there from the beginning
In Indiana, you do it like [this](https://law.justia.com/codes/indiana/title-36/article-5/chapter-1/section-36-5-1-2/#:~:text=(a)%20Proceedings%20to%20incorporate%20a,territory%20sought%20to%20be%20incorporated.).
Basically, a group of people who own land outside any existing city or town write up a petition and send it to the county. There are a lot of rules and a lot of things that need to be done (and paid for) by the landowners. Then the county holds hearings and makes their decision.
It doesn’t happen as often as it used to, because pretty much everybody who lives outside the town limits lives there because they don’t want to live in a town.
This is one of those things that will obviously depend on where you live.
First off, you might want to ask the question: “what is a village (or small town)?”
Is it just a cluster of houses near to each other?
In that case, the basics are pretty simple. People buy land from whoever owns it, they get permission from the government to build houses, build them and move into them. Or companies or governments do the first few steps. If those houses are close together then at some point they’ll start being called a village.
Now that simple process does hide a bunch of complexities, particularly in the planning process. For example, in the UK, the local authority will consider transport, local services, demand for housing, the environment, and various other things. They, or other public organisations (like the NHS), will also have duties to provide things to people who live there. If the local authority isn’t happy they’ll stop those houses being built.
But if you mean “how do you form a village/town government?” that’s a different question. In England & Wales district and unitary councils and London boroughs can create new parish councils, which are the lowest level of government in much of the country. So if you want a parish council for your village that’s who you’re going to have to persuade. You’ll need more than 150 electors in your village first though. After the parish council is created there’ll be elections to select its members. (Caveat: local government in the UK is bewildering and has about a million variations and exceptions.)
There’s a crucial distinction here between *ownership* of the land and *government jurisdiction*. Most people live on privately owned land.* Some private citizen has the right to build structures there, use the land for agriculture, forbid others from entering, etc. Most businesses are also on privately-owned land.
Separately, all land is under the jurisdiction of a government. This determines what laws apply and, potentially, what public services are available. Essentially all land is under some kind of government jurisdiction, even if nobody lives there or takes meaningful ownership of the land.
What you’re asking about is the formation of a local government. This varies from country to country, but in the US, land is under the jurisdiction of the county (a subdivision of a state) by default. People within that county can choose to create an even smaller government just for their local area, which would be called a town/city/village/etc. This does not change the private ownership of any land but may change things like the taxes, laws, and public services available in that area. Towns are usually still “in” their counties (just as counties are still in their states and states are still in the US), so the local government tends to add taxes/laws/services rather than subtract, but there are loopholes and exceptions.
Also, informally, something we would clearly call a town or even a city may choose to never undergo this incorporation process. This is especially common in the western US, where most settlers decided that local governments were not worth the costs and administrative burdens. Large parts of cities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles are unincorporated despite being highly urbanized.
*Note that in some places, significant amounts of land may be directly owned by the government, but these are not places where lots of people tend to live.
My hometown was started by a group of people likely about 7000 years ago who found a good fishing spot next to a big river, good source of clay next to it, and plenty of woods around to use for fuel/hunting. From there, other folks came by and continued on. There were certainly other locations around that started as villages/family/clan homesteads, some of which survived longer or shorter. And there’s also sign that less settled peoples sometimes stayed because it made more sense than roaming around with the seasons because the location is well protected and the river is big enough to rarely completely ice over even then.
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