Each region made strides toward expanding urban environments. Yet the focus of urban evolution as a spatial event unrelated to medieval sensibilities was in the northern Italian communities, which had begun to internalize the effects of material gain at an earlier time. We have a already noted the general pattern or urban and suburban order associated with these cities through the middle of the seventeenth century; urban centers tended to dominate the surrounding countryside in a paternalistic manner, with cities functioning as centers of market activity. Florence, Siena, Milan, and Venice all had a role to play in maintaining urban and rural order, often clouded by internecine strife.