New York is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world’s largest natural harbors. Most of the city is built on the three islands of Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

With more than 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York City is one of the world’s most populous megacities.The city and its metropolitan area are the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.

New York City traces its origins to Fort Amsterdam and a trading post founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists in approximately 1624. The settlement was named New Amsterdam in 1626 and was chartered as a city in 1653. The city came under English control in 1664 and was temporarily renamed New York after King Charles II granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York, before being permanently renamed New York in November 1674. New York City was the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790.The modern city was formed by the 1898 consolidation of its five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island, and has been the largest U.S. city ever since.

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France.The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-Franceregion, or Paris Region, with an official estimated population of 12.3 million inhabitants on 1 January 2023. Paris is located in northern central France, in a north-bending arc of the river Seine whose crest includes two islands, the Île Saint-Louis and the larger Île de la Cité, which form the oldest part of the city. The river’s mouth on the English Channel (La Manche) is about 233 mi (375 km) downstream from the city. The city is spread widely on both banks of the river.

Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world’s major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, culture, fashion, and gastronomy. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its early and extensive system of street lighting, in the 19th century, it became known as the City of Light.

The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. The Romans conquered the Paris Basin in 52 BC and began their settlement on Paris’s Left Bank. The Roman town was originally called Lutetia (more fully, Lutetia Parisiorum, ”Lutetia of the Parisii”, modern French Lutèce). It became a prosperous city with a forum, baths, temples, theatres, and an amphitheatre. By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would later become Paris in French.

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan.The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and parts of six neighbouring prefectures, is the most-populous metropolitan area in the world, with 40.8 million residents as of 2023. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan’s largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan’s economic center and the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan.

Tokyo was originally a village called Edo, part of the old Musashi Province. Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan in the late twelfth century. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle to defend the region from the Chiba clan. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu was granted the Kantō region by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and moved there from his ancestral land of Mikawa Province. When he became shōgun, the de facto ruler of the country, in 1603, the whole country came to be ruled from Edo.

After the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate the Emperor became both the de facto and de jure ruler of the country. After being handed over to the Meiji government, Edo was renamed Tokyo (Eastern Capital) on 3 September 1868. Tokyo had already been the nation’s political center for nearly three centuries, and the emperor’s residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well, with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace.