New York City, the Big Apple, the City that Never Sleeps, the 14th biggest city in the
world, and second in North America (biggest in US), but still the city with the biggest
ego.
It is home to the headquarters of the UN, and is the economic and cultural capital of
the world (according to New Yorkers), but it is not the capital of the United States,
that honor instead goes [whoosh] to Washington DC.
Why is that?
Countries around the world have capital cities nowhere near as big as their largest cities,
which can trip up anyone trying to guess the capital of a given country.
The capital of Turkey is not Istanbul, it’s Ankara; the capital of Canada is not Toronto,
but Ottawa; the capital of Australia is not Sydney, but Canberra, etc.
So, why do countries do this?
For a government of, by, and for the people, wouldn’t it make sense to put it where the
most of the people already are?
To answer this question, it is really important to understand the history of each respective
country.
Before 1776 AD, also known as 1 AF (After Freedom), the east coast of North America
was settled by lots of European countries, but mostly by Britain, who established/took
over settlements that would become some of the biggest cities on the eastern seaboard
today, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston.
However, one place that didn’t exist back then was Washington DC, which sounds like
it would make the answer even more complicated, but it actually hints at a very important
point in the story.
You see, when America was first established, it needed a government, and since the Internet
didn’t exist back then, and shouting at each-other from different cities proved impractical,
the Continental Congress met in different locations throughout the northeast, most notably
Philadelphia, but also Baltimore, Annapolis, and several others, even New York.
Eventually, they decided that even this was dumb, especially since they were still relying
on the state to protect them, so they decided to establish the District of Columbia, taking
away a bit of land from Maryland and Virginia, as a compromise between north and south.
To this day, Washington DC, though it may seem to act like it, is actually not a city,
but a federal district.
This means that its budget and laws are under the control of Congress, since it’s where
Congress lives, so anything major that happens in DC would also likely affect all that important
stuff downtown, so planners need to be very careful in the District.
This is why DC didn’t get the right to vote until the 60’s (can you name which amendment
allowed for that?), and why DC’s license plates say “taxation without representation”.
Now, up in the Great Friendly North, Ottawa is certainly no small city, but it’s nowhere
near as big as its close neighbor, Toronto, so why is it the capital of Canada?
From 1841 to 1867, there was the colony of Canada, which also moved the capital every
time the emperor died, every few years, until eventually settling on Ottawa, which, unlike
DC, was already an established settlement before being chosen as the capital.
Because of this, it was Queen Victoria’s government who decided on Ottawa, as none
of the Canadian officials could agree on a place.
Ottawa was chosen for two reasons; first, its location, surrounded by dense forest,
and far from the US border, making it easier to defend (er, well… maybe they weren’t
too into maps), and second, because it was right between the major cities of Ontario,
and of Québec, making a compromise between east and west.
As you’ll no doubt remember from my History of Australia video, this is similar to how
Canberra was chosen to be the capital of Australia, as it was a compromise between Sydney and
Melbourne.
Basically, a district was drawn out of New South Wales [DYK: While DC is not part of
Maryland, and Canberra is not part of New South Wales, Ottawa is still part of Ontario],
and it was decided that a new capital would be built there, at least 160 km away from
Sydney, and Melbourne would be the seat of government while Canberra was being built
up, but they wouldn’t call it the capital.
From 1453 to 1922, the capital of the Ottoman Empire was the city of Istanbul, which nowadays
is still the largest city in not just Turkey, but all of Europe (depending on how you’d
count Europe).
However, when the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moved the
capital eastward to the city of Ankara, which was the location of the headquarters of Atatürk’s
resistance movement.
After it was picked to be the capital of Turkey, it was also split between the old quarters
in Ulus, and the new city in Yenişehir.
Today, Ankara has actually recently surpassed İzmir to become Turkey’s second biggest
city, so they’re actually getting up there now.
Brazil also went through a similar process, when, in the 60’s, they moved their capital
from Rio de Janeiro, up to the more central Brasilia, something that they were aiming
to do since 1891.
Brasilia was founded in 1960, and was built up from scratch as a sort of master-planned
city, kind of like what was envisioned for DC.
In the 80’s, Nigeria also followed a similar path, and moved their capital from Lagos to
Abuja, also built from scratch in the center of the country, as to not pick sides between
the primarily Muslim north, and Christian south.
So, those are some of the stories of how and why some countries have chosen to place their
capitals in smaller cities.
Basically, a lot of it had to do with avoiding favoritism.
Obviously, there are more countries that do this than the ones I’ve mentioned, but at
least in my opinion, they’re pretty good examples.
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Just thought I’d put that out there.