A piece of territory was ceded from New South Wales for the construction of this planned city Canberra in the new Australian Capital Territory. At that time, Sydney and Melbourne were rivals for the title of national capital however, the newly defined commonwealth established a plan to build a new city as the national capital. In 1901, Australia opened the 20 th century by declaring itself a commonwealth, a country and no longer a British colony, though it has retained its commonwealth connection with Britain to this day. In Australia, Sydney and Melbourne both grew in population and in social, economic, and political power and distinction. Photo by Greg Schechter on Flickr.įor the Pacific Realm, Australia followed this course too. Other countries such as Myanmar, Nigeria, and Pakistan have moved their capital cities as well.Ĭanberra.

Eventually, Brazil sought to diversity political power and created the planned city of Brasilia, opening as the capital city in 1960. Rio retained the capital upon Brazilian independence in 1822. The ascendancy of Rio de Janeiro brought economic, demographic, and political power, culminating in acquisition of the colonial capital in 1763. Originally, Salvador was Portugal’s colonial capital in the New World, beginning in 1549. The designated site would be roughly centered among the new states that stretched along the Atlantic sea coast.īrazil followed a similar course of action. While this new city was being constructed, Philadelphia served a decade as the national capital. In fact, the initial Congress of the United States held its session in New York City, deciding there to build a new city as the national capital - Washington in a special capital territory – the District of Columbia. In a few cases, countries have changed their capital cities. However, in the Pacific Realm, the major countries of Australia and New Zealand lack primate cities, while Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby) and other small islands may have primate cities – Samoa (Apia). In the Western World, here is a list of several primate cities. Some countries have these obvious capital cities – how else could it be? Certainly, across the world there are examples, such as Bangkok, Thailand. Or, perhaps the city already possessed so much authority and power that it became the capital city almost automatically. The predominant development of that city may be predicated partly upon its securing and early historical designation as the capital city. A primate city dominates its country in all urban ways, including politically. Let’s do so by examining geographic concepts relating to capital cities.įor many countries, the capital city is an obvious choice, because that country has a primate city (see Chapter 56). Let’s consider the capital cities of the Pacific Realm, with particular attention to Canberra, the capital of Australia. Sometimes countries change the locations of the capital cities. The cities are selected for a variety of reasons, generally based on the social, economic, and political assets that those cities hold.

Urban realms model chapter