schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
Eh, I read somewhere that Paris and London had 20-30,000 or so people. And of course East Asia had super large cities. Same with Constantinople, Rome, the Middle East and Egypt. All the homes to many people at some point.
Paris and London (and Kiev) didn't hit the 30,000 mark until around the 12th or 13th century (and those are the generous estimates). In Russia the next largest population center, Novgorod was around 15,000 at its greatest estimates. The next largest center in England, York didn't hit 20,000 until around the 16th century. You have to remember that while Paris, London, etc. were large, they were far out of the norm for the rest of the world. 5000 would be considered a large population center even into the early modern period.