The history of humankind is the history of urbanization
The history of humankind is the history of urbanization. Few images speak to this phrase so well as these maps showing how the spatial distributional of population densities in France changed between the late 1800s and nowadays.
These maps were created by Magali Talandier, and they are part of her research on the long-term changes in the regional development of France. This paper might be of particular interest.