Answer:
I would go with the second option
The fate of cities varied greatly, with periods of significant decline and periods of increased urbanization.
Explanation:
The fate of cities varied greatly, with periods of significant decline, and with periods of increased urbanization buoyed by rising productivity and expanding trade networks.
Multiple factors contributed to the declines of urban areas in this period.
Examples of these factors:
• Invasions
• Disease
• The decline of agricultural productivity
• The Little Ice Age
Multiple factors contributed to urban revival.
Examples of these factors:
• The end of invasions
• The availability of safe and reliable transport
• The rise of commerce and the warmer temperatures between 800 and 1300
• Increased agricultural productivity and subsequent rising population
• Greater availability of labor also contributed to urban growth
While cities in general continued to play the roles they had played in the past as governmental, religious, and commercial centers, many older cities declined at the same time that numerous new cities emerged to take on these established roles.
Source 1
"Christendom <u>had recovered</u> from . . . when the Tartar cataclysm had threatened to engulf it. The Tartars themselves were already becoming an object of curiosity rather than of fear. . . . The<u> frail Latin throne </u>in Constantinople was <u>still standing</u>, but <u>tottering to its fall</u>. The successors of the Crusaders <u>still held</u> the Coast of Syria. . . . The <u>jealousies of the commercial republics </u>of Italy were daily waxing greater. The position of Genoese <u>trade</u> on the coasts of the Aegean was greatly <u>depressed </u>. . . Venice had acquired [power there by expelling] the Greek Emperors. . . . But Genoa was biding her time for an early revenge, and year by year her <u>naval strength and skill were increasing</u>. Both these republics held <u>possessions and establishments</u> in the ports of Syria. . . . Alexandria was still <u>largely frequented </u>in the intervals of war as the great <u>emporium of Indian wares</u>, but the <u>facilities</u> afforded by the Mongol conquerors who now held the whole tract from the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Caspian and of the Black Sea, or nearly so, were beginning to give a great <u>advantage to the caravan routes.</u>”
Henri Cordier’s annotated translation of The Travels of Marco Polo, 1920
