Communism vs Capitalism. From Fast Industrialization to Depopulation of Cities

Over time, mankind has progressed steadily, gradually satisfying all human needs through the development of technology, economy, and industry. With the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, human settlements evolved proportional to their population and economic role. There are well-defined urban agglomerations with industrial specificity, depending on the natural resources. These were meant to exploit the natural resources to the maximum, but which, with the technological progress or the depletion of the raw material, devalue, regress, becoming no longer of interest to the population or for the authorities. Thus, the cities in question became ghost towns. In Romania, during the communist period, the economy and industrial development reached an important level. The paper aims to present the main stages of the emergence of industrial localities (monofunctional or multi-function), how they evolved (creating jobs, living spaces and social facilities that met all human needs of that period - education , health, economic activities), as well as their current situation - depopulated or even ghost towns and villages.