Editing Dodoma (section)

===20th century===
Originally a small market town known as Idodomya, the modern Dodoma was founded in 1907 by [[German Africa|German colonists]] during construction of the [[Central Line (Tanzania)|Tanzanian central railway]]. The layout followed the typical colonial planning of the time with a European quarter segregated from a native village.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Siebolds |first1=Peter |last2=Steinberg |first2=Florian |title=Dodoma — A future African Brasilia? |journal=Habitat International |volume=5 |issue=5–6 |pages=681–690 |doi=10.1016/0197-3975(80)90008-9 |year=1980}}</ref>

In 1967, following independence, the government invited Canadian firm Project Planning Associates Ltd to draw up a master plan to help control and organise the then capital of the country, [[Dar es Salaam]], which was undergoing rapid urbanisation and population growth. The plan was cancelled in 1972, in part due to its failure to adequately address the historical and social problems associated with the city.<ref name=":0" />

In 1974, after a nationwide party referendum, the Tanzanian government announced that the capital would be moved from Dar es Salaam to a more central location to create significant social and economic improvements for the central region and to centralise the capital within the country.<ref>Britannica, [https://www.britannica.com/place/Dodoma Dodoma], britannica.com, USA, accessed on June 24, 2019</ref> The cost was estimated at £186 million and envisaged to take 10 years. The site, the Dodoma region, had been looked at as a potential new capital as early as 1915 by the then colonial power [[Germany]], in 1932 by the British as a [[League of Nations mandate]] and again in the post-independence [[National Assembly (Tanzania)|National Assembly]] in 1961 and 1966.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last=Beeckmans |first=Luce |title=The Architecture of Nation-building in Africa as a Development Aid Project: Designing the capital cities of Kinshasa (Congo) and Dodoma (Tanzania) in the post-independence years |journal=Progress in Planning |volume=122 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.1016/j.progress.2017.02.001 |year=2018}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last=Hayuma |first=A.M. |title=Dodoma: The planning and building of the new capital city of Tanzania |journal=Habitat International |volume=5 |issue=5–6 |pages=653–680 |doi=10.1016/0197-3975(80)90007-7 |year=1980}}</ref>

With an already-established town at a major crossroads, the Dodoma region had an agreeable climate, room for development<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.etsav.upc.es/personals/iphs2004/pdf/148_p.pdf |author=Aloysius C. Mosha |title=The planning of the new capital of Tanzania: Dodoma, an unfulfilled dream |access-date=2013-03-13 |publisher=University of Botswana}}</ref> and was located in the geographic centre of the nation. Its location in a rural environment was seen as the [[ujamaa]] heartland and therefore appropriate for a ujamaa capital that could see and learn from neighbouring villages and maintain a close relationship to the land.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{cite book |title=Architecture, power, and national identity |last=Vale |first=Lawrence J |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |isbn=9780415955140 |location=London |pages=146–193}}</ref>

A new capital was seen as a more economically viable alternative than attempting to reorganise and restructure [[Dar es Salaam]] and was idealised as a way of diverting development away from continued concentration in a single coastal city that was seen as anathema to the government's goal of socialist unity and development.<ref name=":2" /> Objectives for the new capital included: that the city become a symbol of Tanzania's social and cultural values and aspirations; that the capital city function be supplemented by industrial-commercial development; and that the mistakes and features of colonial planning and modern big cities, such as excessive population densities, pollution and traffic congestion, be avoided.<ref name=":0" />

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) invited three international firms to submit proposals for the best location and preparation of a master plan: Project Planning Associates Ltd., of [[Canada]]; [[Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis|Doxiadis Associates]] International, of [[Greece]] (who had worked on [[Pakistan]]'s new capital of [[Islamabad]]); and Engineering Consulting Firms Association, of [[Japan]]. A fourth firm from Germany submitted a proposal without invitation.<ref name=":2" />

The winner, decided by the CDA together with independent American consultants, was Project Planning Associates, the same Canadian consultants whose plan for [[Dar es Salaam]] was seen as inadequate and not responsive enough to the local conditions and needs for Tanzania's largest city.<ref name=":2" /> Their plan envisaged a city of 400,000 persons by 2000 and 1.3 million by 2020.<ref name=":3" />

The official capital since 1996, Dodoma was envisaged as the first non-monumental capital city<ref name=":3" /> as opposed to the monumentality and hierarchy of other planned capital cities such as [[Abuja]], [[Yamoussoukro]], [[Brasília]] and [[Washington, D.C.]] It rejected geometrical forms such as [[Grid plan|grid iron]] and radial plans as inappropriate as the urban form was intended to undulate and curve with the existing topography and not in conflict with it so as to retain its rural [[ujamaa]] feel. As befitted Tanzania's development at the time, the car was seen as secondary in importance to public transports such as buses which were then utilised by much of the population.<ref name=":3" />

In 1974, Dodoma had a population of 40,000 and was chosen as the site of the new capital as opposed to nearby Hombolo or Ihumwa. The existing population size was not seen as an impediment while existing infrastructure would reduce construction costs.<ref name=":2" />

The city, designed over {{convert|2,500|acres|abbr=off}}, was meant to be "the chief village in a nation of villages", built at a human scale meant to be experienced on foot.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Andrew |date=2012-05-01 |title=The Global Postcolonial Moment and the American New Town India, Reston, Dodoma |url=http://juh.sagepub.com/content/38/3/553 |journal=Journal of Urban History |language=en |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=553–576 |doi=10.1177/0096144211428765 |s2cid=146425224 |issn=0096-1442}}</ref> Its basic principles follow the [[Garden city movement|garden city]] model of a town set amongst a garden with green belts separating segregated zones for residents and industry.

As part of the move of the government, a capitol complex was envisaged and designs by international teams offered competing visions and versions of the siting and layout of a capitol complex. These competing proposals, some paid for by foreign governments as a form of aid and others by the firms involved, were presented as early as 1978.