The principal components area a fort adjacent to the commercial waterfront, an open esplanade around the fort, separate European and Indian residential sectors with Western or Indian commercial areas, other residential zones for immigrant Asians and Eurasians, a peripheral manufactural zone adjoining the Indian sector and an outlying military zone bordering the European sector. Very little is known about the Indian parts of the city apart of their being marked on the map. The early history of the cities is of the European parts. These cities always had a civil and military stations known as civil lines and cantonments and administered separately.

Bombay was the second of the English port cities to be established. The site consisted originally of seven islands that were over a period of time merged by filling the salt marshes. It was acquired by King Charles II from Portugal in 1661. It was transferred in 1667 to the East India Company. The fortified factory of the Company situated on the shore adjacent to the natural harbor emerged as the centre point of urban development. Around it the residential and commercial area grew in a semicircular manner and it was enclosed within a wall with three gates. Within the fort area there developed two distinct areas, the European sector on the southern side and the crowded Indian sector to the north. The Indians residing in this area were by and large from Gujarat which was the commercially a well-developed region. These settlements were diverse in terms of religious diversity—Hindus, Muslims, Jain and Parsi settled down to take part in the commercial life of the city.