What is the Meaning of Metropolis | Concept and Definition of Metropolis
Metropolis is a term that comes from the latin metropŏlis, although its etymological origins furthest brings us to the Greek language. The concept is used to refer to the main city of a province or a State. Examples: after two hours of road, we arrived to the most important metropolis of Ethiopia', «youth in the campaign decide to migrate to the metropolis looking for a future better», «a metropolis of this magnitude can have as two hospitals.»
In common parlance, the concept of metropolis has no precise and static meaning. It is often used to mention the global cities of international importance and cosmopolitan characteristics. New York, Mexico City, London, Rome, Moscow, Sydney and Beijing are examples of cities.
At the lower level, the metropolis is the city that has more importance in a regional area. We can therefore talk of metropolis to make reference to the capital of a province that has influence on the surrounding cities.
The term can take another sense, associated with its historical development. In ancient Greece, the metropolis was a city from which grew a colony. Therefore, during the colonial era, was meant by metropolis the European nation that dominated territories in other areas (the Spain was the metropolis of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, the Portugal of the Brazil, etc.).
Today, left-wing political parties and some social movements tend to speak of metropolises to refer to the major centres of power which dominate, directly or indirectly, the peripheral countries.