Editing Capital city (section)

== Planned capitals ==
[[File:L'Enfant plan.svg|thumb|[[L'Enfant Plan]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], the capital of the [[United States]]]]
[[File:Nusantara, June 2024.png|thumb|The construction process of the future capital city of [[Indonesia]], namely the [[Nusantara (city)|city of Nusantara]], is currently underway. ]]
Governing entities sometimes plan, design and build new capital cities to house the seat of government of a [[polity]] or of a subdivision. Deliberately [[List of purpose-built national capitals|planned and designed capitals]] include:
{{columns-list|colwidth=25em|
* [[Abuja]], Nigeria (1991)
* [[Aracaju]], [[Sergipe]], Brazil (1855)
* [[Ankara]], Turkey (1923)
* [[Astana]], Kazakhstan (1997)
* [[Austin, Texas]], [[United States|US]] (1839)
* [[Belmopan]], Belize (1970)
* [[Belo Horizonte]], [[Minas Gerais]], Brazil (1897)
* [[Brasília]], Brazil (1960)
* [[Bhubaneswar]], [[Odisha]], India (1948)
* [[Boa Vista, Roraima|Boa Vista]], [[Roraima]], Brazil (1890)
* [[Canberra]], Australia (1927)
* [[Chandigarh]], [[Punjab, India|Punjab]] and [[Haryana]], India (1966)
* [[Columbia, South Carolina]], [[United States|US]] (1786)
* [[Constantinople]], [[Roman Empire]] (330)
* [[Frankfort, Kentucky]], US (1792)
* [[Gaborone]], [[Botswana]] (1964)
* [[Gandhinagar]], [[Gujarat]], India (1960)
* [[Goiânia]], [[Goiás]], Brazil (1933)
* [[Huambo]] (Nova Lisboa), [[Huambo]], Angola (1912)
* [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], US (1825)
* [[Islamabad]], Pakistan (1960)
* [[Jefferson City, Missouri]], US (1821)
* [[Karlsruhe]], [[Baden-Durlach]] (1715)
* [[La Plata]], [[Buenos Aires Province]], Argentina (1882)
* [[Naya Raipur|Nava Raipur]] or [[Atal Nagar]], [[Chhattisgarh]], India (2003)
* [[Naypyidaw]], [[Myanmar]] (2005)
* [[New Delhi]], [[British India]] (1911)
* [[Nusantara (proposed city)|Nusantara]], Indonesia (2024)
* [[Oklahoma City]], [[Oklahoma]], US (1889)
* [[Palmas, Tocantins]], Brazil (1989)
* [[Putrajaya]], Malaysia (1995)
* [[Quezon City]], Philippines (1948–76)
* [[Raleigh, North Carolina]], US (1792)
* [[Seoul]], Korea (1394)
* [[Smederevo]], [[Serbian Despotate]] (1428–1459)
* [[Soltaniyeh]], [[Ilkhanate]] (1306–1335)
* [[Teresina]], [[Piauí]], Brazil (1852)
* [[Valletta]], Malta (1571)
* [[Washington, D.C.]], US (1800)
* [[Zhongxing New Village]], [[Nantou County]], [[Taiwan Province]], Rep. of China (1956)
}}

These cities satisfy one or both of the following criteria:

# A deliberately [[planned city]] that was built expressly to house the [[seat of government]], superseding a capital city that was in an established [[Center of population|population center]]. There have been various reasons for this, including overcrowding in that major metropolitan area, and the desire to place the capital city in a location with a better climate (usually a less tropical one).
# A town that was chosen as a compromise among two or more cities (or other political divisions), none of which was willing to concede to the {{Not a typo|other(s)}} the privilege of being the capital city. Usually, the new capital is geographically located roughly equidistant between the competing population centres.

===Compromise locations===
[[File:Parliamenthouse2.jpg|thumb|The [[Australian Parliament]] opened in the small town of [[Canberra]] in 1927 as a compromise between the largest cities, [[Sydney]] and [[Melbourne]].]]
Some examples of the second situation (compromise locations) are:
* [[Canberra]], Australia, chosen as a compromise location between Melbourne and Sydney.
* [[Washington, D.C.]], United States, founded as a compromise between more urbanized [[Northern United States|Northern states]] and agrarian [[Southern United States|Southern]][[Slave states and free states|slave states]] to share national power. The [[Compromise of 1790]], resulted in the passage of the [[Residence Act]], which approved the creation of a national capital on the [[Potomac River]] on land ceded from [[Maryland]] and [[Virginia]].<ref name="Crew124">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5Q81AAAAIAAJ|title=Centennial History of the City of Washington, D.C.|last1=Crew|first1=Harvey W.|last2=Webb|first2=William Bensing|last3=Wooldridge|first3=John|publisher=United Brethren Publishing House|year=1892|location=Dayton, OH|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5Q81AAAAIAAJ/page/n131 124]}}</ref>
* [[Frankfort, Kentucky]], midway between [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]] and [[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]].
* [[Ottawa]], Ontario, Canada, along the boundary between the two former colonies that formed the core of pre-[[Canadian Confederation|Confederation]] Canada—primarily English-speaking [[Upper Canada]] and primarily French-speaking [[Lower Canada]]. Today, this border separates the two most populous of Canada's ten modern provinces, [[Ontario]] and [[Quebec]].
* [[Tallahassee, Florida]], chosen as the midpoint between [[Pensacola, Florida|Pensacola]] and [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], Florida – then the two largest cities in Florida.
* [[Wellington]] became the [[Capital of New Zealand|capital city of New Zealand]] in 1865. It lies at the southern tip of the [[North Island]] of New Zealand, the smaller of New Zealand's two main islands (which subsequently became the more populous island)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/population/page-5|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031204625/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/population/page-5|url-status=dead|title=Geographical distribution of population|first1=Alexander Hare|last1=McLintock|first2=M. A.|last2=John Victor Tuwhakahewa Baker|first3=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu|last3=Taonga|archivedate=31 October 2016|website=An encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, 1966.}}</ref> immediately across [[Cook Strait]] from the [[South Island]]. The previous capital, [[Auckland]], lies much further north in the North Island; the move followed a long argument for a more central location for parliament.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1= Levine |first1= Stephen |title= Capital city – A new capital |url= http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/capital-city/page-3 |encyclopedia= [[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]] |access-date= 4 May 2015 |date= 13 July 2012 |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150505170521/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/capital-city/page-3 |archive-date= 5 May 2015}}</ref>
* [[Managua]], Nicaragua, chosen to appease rivals in [[León (Nicaragua)|León]] and [[Granada (Nicaragua)|Granada]], which also were associated with the liberal and conservative political factions respectively
* [[Jefferson City, Missouri]] was selected as the state capital in 1821, the year after Missouri was admitted to the Union, due to its central location within the state. It is almost halfway between Missouri's two largest cities, [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] in the west and [[St. Louis]] in the east, although Kansas City was not incorporated until 1850.

Changes in a nation's political regime sometimes result in the designation of a new capital. [[Astana|Akmola]] (renamed Astana in 1998) became the capital of [[Kazakhstan]] in 1997, following the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|collapse of the Soviet Union]] in 1991. [[Naypyidaw]] was founded in [[Myanmar|Burma]]'s interior as the former capital, [[Rangoon]], was claimed to be overcrowded.<ref name="pedrosa">
{{cite news |first= Veronica |last= Pedrosa |title= Burma's 'seat of the kings' |url= http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80733C47-7F1C-45EB-BB8E-805DB15BFE67.htm |publisher= [[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] |date= 20 November 2006 |access-date= 21 November 2006 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061123141200/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80733C47-7F1C-45EB-BB8E-805DB15BFE67.htm |archive-date= 23 November 2006}}
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