List of purpose-built national capitals
| Lists of capitals |
|---|
| Of countries |
| Of country subdivisions |
This is a list of capital cities that were specially designed, planned, and built to be a national or regional capital.
Built
| City | Country | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abuja | Nigeria | 1991 | In 1976, Nigeria's military government made plans for a new capital city. In 1991, it was moved from Lagos in order to provide a capital city that was independent of the three major ethnic groups, the Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa-Fulani, in an area in the interior of the country. A new capital also allowed for a way to relieve the congestion and overcrowding of Lagos. |
| Ayutthaya | Ayutthaya Kingdom (of Thailand) | 1350 | Founded 1350 |
| Baghdad | Abbasid Caliphate | 762 | Victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital to rule from. Choosing a site north of the defeated Sassanid's capital of Ctesiphon (and also just north of where ancient Babylon once stood), on 30 July 762 the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. |
| Belmopan | Belize (then British Honduras) | 1970 | In 1970, it was moved from Belize City after 1961's Hurricane Hattie caused extensive damage to that city. |
| Brasília | Brazil | 1960 | In 1960, it was moved from Rio de Janeiro because of overcrowding, to encourage inland growth, to make the location of the capital more regionally neutral as was stated in the Brazilian constitution in 1891, and to eliminate the vulnerability to attacks by sea. |
| Bridgetown | Barbados | 1628 | Moved from James Town to Bridgetown in 1628, due to better topography for a better shipping harbor. |
| Canberra | Australia | 1927 | Designed by the American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. The site was selected as a compromise between the rival cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities in the country. Canberra is located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), selected in southeastern New South Wales. One of the reasons that the government wanted an inland capital city was that Sydney and Melbourne were both susceptible to attacks from the sea. Canberra means "Meeting Place" in the Ngunnawal language of the local Ngabri indigenous aborigines. |
| Constantinople | Roman Empire | 330 | Established by Constantine the Great to be a capital for the Eastern Roman Empire, after the fall of Rome to the barbarians, it became the only capital of the empire. Established on the site of old Byzantium, the new city almost completely replaced the old one. |
| Fujiwara-kyō | Japan | 694 | In 694, the capital was moved there from Asuka, but moved out to Nara in 710 |
| Gaborone | Botswana | 1964 | In 1964, it moved from Mahikeng, South Africa, when Botswana became an independent country[1] |
| Karlsruhe | Baden-Durlach (a German state) | 1715 | In 1715, it was moved from Durlach to Karlsruhe, which became the capital of the unified Baden in 1771. Karlsruhe remained the capital of state of Baden after joining the Unified Germany in 1871; It ceased being the capital of anything in 1945. |
| Kyoto | Japan | 794 | In 794, the capital was moved from Nagaokakyō to Kyoto, but it was moved again to Tokyo (Edo) in about 1868 (see article capital of Japan). |
| Lima | Viceroyalty of Peru | 1535 | Moved in 1535. Cuzco had been the inland capital of the Inca Empire, but when the Spanish Empire took control of Peru, Lima was founded along the Pacific to be the capital. Francisco Pizarro founded Lima on the coast to take advantage of being closer to Panama and the rest of the Spanish Empire and more protected from the war-torn highlands of Peru. |
| Mandalay | Myanmar | 1859 | Mandalay was built during 1857–1859 by King Mindon, and it was the last royal capital of the Burmese Kingdom. The site was chosen in accordance to a supposed prophecy by The Buddha. Mandalay is now the second largest city in Burma. |
| Naypyidaw | Myanmar | 2005 | In 2005, it was moved from Yangon to have their military government more centrally located geographically, "so to keep an eye on" rebel groups forming and training for coups in the jungles and away from the political activities of Yangon |
| New Delhi | India | 1912 | In 1912, it was moved from Calcutta to New Delhi. The neighboring city of Delhi already existed, and it had previously served as the capital of the Mughal Empire. |
| Ngerulmud | Palau | 2006 | In 2006, it was moved from Koror. |
| Nouakchott | Mauritania | 1958 | In 1958, it was moved from Saint-Louis, Senegal. |
| Christiania | Norway | 1624 | After a fire devastated medieval Oslo in 1624, King Christian IV ordered the city to be rebuilt further west, closer to the fortress, and renamed Christiania. Beginning in 1859, the former site of Oslo has been included in the city's borders. The city retook the name of Oslo in 1925. |
| Islamabad | Pakistan | 1960 | Beginning in 1960, the capital was shifted from Karachi temporarily to Rawalpindi, and the move was completed in 1966. Islamabad was created to diversify development across the country, rather than for it to be centered in the south, along the seacoast. |
| Palikir | Federated States of Micronesia | 1989 | From 1989, moved from Kolonia |
| Pella | Ancient Macedonia | c. 400 BCE | Moved from Aigai due to more fertile land and suitable location for a port, connected to the sea by a navigable inlet. |
| Putrajaya | Malaysia | 2002 | In 2002, the administrative branch of the government was moved from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya. However, Kuala Lumpur remains the official and royal capital. |
| Quezon City | Philippines | 1948 | In 1948, the capital was moved from Manila to the new, neighboring city. However, Quezon City was annexed into Manila in 1976. |
| Moscow | Russia | 1712 | Beginning in 1712, the capital of the Russian Empire alternated every year between Moscow and St. Petersburg, as the Czar moved back and forth between his Winter Palace and his Summer Palace. Most of the time, the Czar was an absolute monarch. The Bolsheviks finally settled on Moscow in 1918. |
| Valletta | Malta | 1571 | In 1571, the capital was moved from Birgu to Valletta. The new capital city was built on the Sciberras Peninsula between 1566 and 1571, and it was named for the Grandmaster Jean Parisot de Valette. |
| Washington, D.C. | United States | 1800 | In 1800, the capital of the United States was moved here from its temporary capital in New York City, after years of construction in the federal District of Columbia. |
Proposed
- Welthauptstadt Germania was the proposed renewal of Berlin, (Germany) as a planned "world capital", although only a small portion was built between 1937 and 1943.
- In 2010, Indonesia was mulling the relocation of its overcrowded capital from Jakarta to a proposed new site
- In February 2011, the Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan adopted a resolution to study moving the capital of the new Republic of South Sudan that was to be created in July of that year to a new, planned city. In September 2011, the government of South Sudan approved a project to build a new capital at Ramciel in Lakes state; it is projected that the project will take at least five years.
- Oyala is under construction and is expected to replace Malabo as Equatorial Guinea's capital city.
- in March 2015, Egypt proposed building a new capital. The Proposed new capital of Egypt falls east to the old one, the city is projected to host 40 million people by 2050[2]
- Note that the modern parts of Astana in Kazakhstan and Ankara in Turkey are placed beside or within old cities.
- It has perennially been proposed that the Republic of Ireland moves it capital from Dublin to Athlone, to ease congestion, overpopulation, and the city’s dominance over national affairs.
References
- ↑ Njeru, Purity (2009). "History of Gaborone". Nairobi, Kenya: The African Executive. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/16/new-cairo-egypt-plans-capital-city-desert
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