How To Place A Capital City 

As an Aussie I'll tell you why the capital isnt there... It's a freaking desert, no one wants to be there! haha

As a spaniard I tell you Madrid was just a village when it was chosen as the capital. And that's because they wanted the capital to be in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, where Madrid was already located

Switzerland has an interesting story for its capital or well we legally have none.

Caracas is protected by a mountain range to the north! Their airport isn't even in Caracas, it's in La Guaira/Vargas state next door, which requires going through tunnels under the mountain range to reach the airport! It's worth mentioning when talking about DC that DC used to be bigger! Alexandria and Arlington were once part of DC. DC's shape is the way it is because it used to be a full diamond ceded by the states of Maryland and Virginia in accordance with the Residence Act adopted in July 1790. DC was designed by Parisian Pierre Charles L'Enfant, and was based on European models translated to American ideals. The entire city was built around the idea that every citizen was equally important, with a street grid system and wide diagonal avenues named after states radiating from the Capitol! Capitol Hill (which back then was known as Jenkins Hill) became the center of the city from which diagonal avenues named after the states radiated, cutting across a grid street system. These wide boulevards allowed for easy transportation across town and offered views of important buildings and common squares from great distances. The National Mall was designed as open to all corners, which was the complete opposite of the gardens of Versailles in his native France where only royalty and nobility accessed. L'Enfant placed Congress on a high point with a commanding view of the Potomac rather than a leader's palace on a hill like in Europe. However, the Virginian side returned to Virginia in 1847. This is because of several factors. Alexandria went into economic decline because of neglect by Congress as members from other parts of Virginia fought to prohibit funding for Alexandria projects in favor of projects in their home districts. Legislation required that no Federal buildings be built on the formerly Virginia side of the District (part of the compromise that created the Capitol), so it gained nothing in government workers or buildings. But the main factor was legislation was in the works to outlaw slave trading within DC, and slave auctions were some of Alexandria’s biggest businesses.

A "sheltered" harbour is usually referring to shelter from bad weather, not enemies...

Washington DC’s street layout is very cool imo, probably one of the most walkable planned capital due to its age compared to newer planned capitals. The metro is also not too bad (for America)

14:40 "every country has plenty of land, just make a new capital" Vatican City & Monaco: 👀

Planned cities aren't always attractive and desirable places to live. For example Milton Keynes.

australian thumbnail, vid dropped around dinner time, man knows what he's doing

Bro thinking we are in the late game

usually i put it at the start of a sentence

As someone from DC I can tell you how to place a capital (when you get to choose and you don't just have a city which has always been capital). Find a point on the map which isn't offensive to any major interest group, and is close to where a bunch of the elites already live. That's how we chose DC, and it's still the capital

Toycat casually forgetting York was once the capital of England 😂

As mentioned, Washington, DC's location was selected as the capital because of the Residence Act of July 16, 1790 as part of a plan to appease pro-slavery states who feared a northern capital as being too sympathetic to abolitionists. Before DC, NYC served as the national capital under the Articles of Confederation from 1785 to 1789, and briefly served as the new nation's capital in 1789 to 1790. From 1790 to 1800, while DC was being constructed, Philadelphia was the capital. Why didn't they want Philadelphia? The Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia in June 1783 at what we now call Independence Hall, operating under the Articles of Confederation. However, there were problems afoot. The federal government had issues paying the soldiers who fought in the war against the British for their service. The Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 was a crisis that forced Congress to focus on its safety and pitted the federal government (in its weakened form) against Pennsylvania. Unpaid federal troops from Lancaster marched to Philly to meet with their brothers-in-arms. A group of about 400 soldiers then proceeded to Congress, blocked the doors to the building, and demanded their money. They also controlled some weapons storage areas. Congress sent Alexander Hamilton, a former soldier. Hamilton convinced the soldiers to free Congress so the lawmakers could meet quickly and reach a deal about repaying the troops. Hamilton did meet with a small committee that night, and they sent a secret note to Pennsylvania’s state government asking for its state militia for protection from the federal troops. Representatives from Congress met with John Dickinson, the head of Pennsylvania’s government; Dickinson discussed the matter with the militia, and he told Congress Pennsylvania wouldn’t use the state’s troops to protect the federal lawmakers. On the same day, Congress sneaked away from Philadelphia to other cities like Trenton, Annapolis, and NYC. Delegates agreed to return to Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up the current US Constitution. Part of the new Constitution addressed the concerns caused by the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783. When Congress met in 1789, two locations were proposed for the capital, one near Lancaster and another in Germantown. But Hamilton wanted to move it south. A deal had been reached between Hamilton, James Madison, and Jefferson, where Hamilton agreed with the idea that the capital would be moved to the South. In exchange, Hamilton got a commitment to reorganize the federal government’s finances by getting the southern states to indirectly pay off the war debts of the northern states

The reason Sydney and Melbourne fought over who would be Australia's capital is actually pretty simple once you learn it. And that reason is that Sydney was the Oldest City in the country, while Melbourne was the most popular or biggest in Australia

population-wise Moscow is nearly in the center of Russia

Caracas is not as close to the ocean as it appears on a map, that green blob is a big ass mountain, you need to drive through 3 different tunnels to reach the ocean Worse part? The airport is right on the beach so it is indeed a trip to the airport

No way new 2ycat vid

Capital Cities are normally picked for historical reasons rather than practical. In the US the only reason why DC was done the way it was because it was a political compromise between the North and South back when there was only like 14 States (Vermont had recently became a State after being it's own country for a few years as it had broke off from New York), meanwhile say with Germany Berlin was centered but Poland stole half of the country when Stalin pushed Poland's Border West.

I've thought about this before, im glad you're covering it!

This is a great series, thanks

For what you said about cities named after rivers, Hull in Yorkshire's full name is Kingston-upon-Hull, like Kingston-on-Thames in London but Hull is referred to after it's river

Spain is very interestin in this matter, Castille had no capital, the capital was the city where the king was, if the king was at Leon, then the capital was Leon, if the king wasin Granada then the capital was Granada. Years later, in the Modern Era Felipe II chose Madrid, a small village in the center of the peninsula as the capital becaus of its location but the economic capital wasn't really Madrid, it was Seville and Seville is located in a big river near the sea so it can benefit from sea trade and it can be defended. Seville still have a port and it's the only interior port of Spain.

In the Netherlands 🇳🇱 the largest city and capital is Amsterdam however the government is not located there. The government is located in The Hague instead.

3:44 Wath upon Dearne

Australias capital city was decided like a mother dealing with 2 sibling's fighting over a toy neither of u get it hehe.

Heading to Wellington this week, excited to see the ol beehive.

While the National Capital Territory, a part of Delhi, is not the largest city by itself, Greater Delhi is still the largest city in India.

Love this video!! Takes me back to my civilization games :))

Capital Cities are generally placed at the Center of the Population, not the geographic Middle of the Current land Area. That doesn't make Sense when the Geographic Center is desert, Tundra, or Jungle. Although some planned capitals like Brazillia do this. Here are some examples of the central cities that don't seem Central: Washington D.C. is in the Middle of the original 13 Colonies, right between North and South. Canberra is in between the two Major Cities, Sydney and Melbourne. London, Paris, and Berlin are at the middle of the Original Population Centres of Rome's Brittain Province, Frankland, and Prussia. Ottawa is the Middle of the Original Colony of Canada, right in between the French Part with Montreal, and English Part with Toronto. Delhi is quite central in the core Hindi Region. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's Original Capital, was in the middle of the Country, which had a mostly coastal population. Mexico city is in the Middle of the Aztec Region. Beijing, the "Northern Capital" truly is Northern, and not central at all though.

11:52 “You want to attract talent to a location” Yep. People in Congress are very talented at investing

Speaking of rivers, there is a city in my home country literally called "River" when directly translated into English.

ibxcat has missed Korea move of capital project... im very surprised he missed that they have this 15year+ project going on since 2009.

I forgot I had your second channel lol… also forgot you had a second channel😭

Shoutout to Hastings and Annandale-On-Hudson in the NYC metro area

Personally, I respect the decision to make our politicians live in the middle of the Australian desert

Australian thumbnail 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🦘🦘🍺🍺

3:11 I wish RU-vid would crank up the quality of videos instead of just blurring the blurred blurs on top of blurred blurring blur-blurs. Encoding and decoding doesn't need to outright kill all quality.

Madison was selected as the location of the capital city of Wisconsin because it was between both the shipping and mining industries.

Imagine how funny it would be if the UK relocated their capital to Milton Keynes!

Another early game military advantage is elevation ie building on or around hills or mountains

i didnt see the youtuber name and I was jumpscared by toycat voice

I swear when a country makes a planned capital they always have the worst urban planning

Yeah “centrally located” can definitely change over time if your expanded territory stays yours and doesn’t form its own new countries lol. Washington DC seems no more centrally located than Washington state at this point.

it'd be interesting to know where you think the Australian capital should be. Did we get it right?

Short answer, no one lives in the middle of Australia

I'd just like to see photos of the Kebabs I'm adopting at some point...

Do you play Sid Meier's Civilizations? Cuz I think you would like it

I always thought the middle makes more sense

Ive never heard you mention the netherlands at all in your videos (as far as i know of) you just havent been there maybe? I hope you give a shot once:D

Why are India and the Philippines orange, Delhi (New Delhi) and Manila are the biggest cities in those countries by some distance?

Many capital cities in the Americas were built in the mountains to make it harder for European nations to invade.

First viewer, not stalking just happened to check my subscription section

and then you have stage 4 which Germany is in. You move your capital back to your largest population old capital from the constructed one.

Indonesia should turn orange soon

Probably one of the first American viewers lol

hello

Italy is wrong on the map The largest city in Italy is Millan not Rome

The thumbnail is just dumb. I'm Polish and never been further from Poznań than Cracow but even I know that it's a fucking desert there. The capital would have to be a Mad Max style settlement lol

There's some pushback on Wellington actually being the Capital these days and some murmurings that it should instead be Hamilton. Due to its high growth and lack of natural disasters. Personally as a Wellingtonian I think Welly is a good capital but the city itself is fairly flawed with basically just one roadway into the city and the ferries currently being pretty shite. Hopefully the issues get worked out eventually though aye

Toycat bro you gotta export at a higher bitrate this is hard to watch

The map is outdated, Egypt has a new capital city.

910 views in one hour? Bro fell off

Jesus is King and Lord ✝️👑

Crimea’s status is not questionable, crimea is and always has been Russian.

you forgot tanzania, dar es salaam is on the beach/sea with 50 million population, but the capital is dodoma

I think I speak for everyone when I say that the UK should return its capital back to the rightful Winchester where it was until the 13th century