Ask HN: What places do you consider historical analogies to 21st century SV?

I would describe the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley as “relentless disruption in the name of making the world a better place”. Whether you believe that spirit is accurate or not isn’t the point - enough people here do believe it that it is pervasive and obvious to outsider (see HBO’s Silicon Valley). What other places in the past have had a similar zeitgeist? What happened to the places and the people who lived there?