Warsaw | |
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Population | 1724404 |
Warsaw ( WOR-saw; Polish: Warszawa [varˈʂava] (listen); see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland and its population is officially estimated at 1.8 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 3.1 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 7th most-populous capital city in the European Union. The city limits cover 517.24 square kilometres (199.71 sq mi), while the metropolitan area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres (2,355.39 sq mi). Warsaw is an alpha- global city, a major international tourist destination, and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. Its historical Old Town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The city rose to prominence in the late 16th century, when Sigismund III decided to move the Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków. The elegant architecture, grandeur and extensive boulevards earned Warsaw the nickname Paris of the North prior to the Second World War. Bombed at the start of the German invasion in 1939, the city withstood a siege, but was largely destroyed by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, the general Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and the systematic razing by the Germans in advance of the Vistula–Oder Offensive. Warsaw gained the new title of Phoenix City because of its complete reconstruction after the war, which had left over 85% of its buildings in ruins.In 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world. In 2017, the city came 4th in the "Business-friendly", 8th in "Human capital and life style" and topped the quality of life rankings in the region.
Milwaukee | |
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Population | 605013 |
Milwaukee (, locally ) is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States. The seat of Milwaukee County, it is on Lake Michigan's western shore. Ranked by its estimated 2018 population, Milwaukee was the 31st largest city in the United States. The city's estimated population in 2019 was 590,157. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee metropolitan area which had a population of 2,043,904 in the 2014 census estimate. It is the fourth-most densely populated metropolitan area in the Midwest, surpassed only by Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit, respectively. Milwaukee is considered a "Gamma −" global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network with a regional GDP of over $105 billion.
The first recorded inhabitants of the Milwaukee area are the Algonquin and Siouan peoples. French Catholic Jesuits, who ministered to Native Americans and fur traders, were the first Europeans to pass through the area. In 1818, the French Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau established a permanent settlement, and in 1846, Juneau's town combined with two neighboring towns to incorporate as the city of Milwaukee. Large numbers of German immigrants arrived during the late 1840s, after the German revolutions, with Poles and other immigrants from eastern Europe arriving in the following decades.