Editing Capital city (section)

== Capital as symbol<span class="anchor" id="capital as symbol"></span> ==
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[[File:View of Mariehamn, 2022.jpg|thumb|[[Mariehamn]], capital city of [[Åland]], a [[demilitarized]] archipelago with [[self-governance]]]]
With the rise of the modern [[Nation state|nation-state]], the capital city has become a [[symbol]] for the [[sovereign state|state]] and its [[government]], and imbued with political meaning. Unlike [[medieval]] capitals, which were declared wherever a [[monarch]] held his or her court, the selection, relocation, founding, or capture of a modern capital city is a highly symbolic event. For example:

* The ruined and almost uninhabited [[Athens]] was made capital of [[Independence of Greece|newly independent]] [[Greece]] in 1834, four years after the country gained its independence, with the [[Romanticism|romantic]] notion of reviving the glory of [[Ancient Greece]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://greece.greekreporter.com/2018/09/18/september-18-1834-athens-becomes-the-capital-of-greece/|title=September 18, 1834: Athens Becomes the Capital of Greece|website=GreekReporter.com|last=Chrysopoulos|first=Philip|date=18 September 2018|language=en-US|access-date=21 December 2018|archive-date=21 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221182448/https://greece.greekreporter.com/2018/09/18/september-18-1834-athens-becomes-the-capital-of-greece/|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, following the [[Cold War]] and [[German reunification]], [[Berlin]] once again became the capital of Germany.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.introducingberlin.com/history-of-berlin|title=History of Berlin – Past and present of Berlin|website=introducingberlin.com|access-date=21 December 2018|archive-date=21 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221182616/https://www.introducingberlin.com/history-of-berlin|url-status=live}}</ref> Other restored capital cities include [[Moscow]] after the [[October Revolution]].
* A symbolic relocation of a capital city to a geographically or demographically peripheral location may be for either [[economic geography|economic]] or [[military geography|strategic]] reasons (sometimes known as a '''forward capital''' or spearhead capital). [[Peter the Great]] moved his government from [[Moscow]] to [[Saint Petersburg]] to give the [[Russian Empire]] a [[Europe]]an orientation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityvision2000.com/history/peterthe.htm|title=History of St. Petersburg, Russia: Peter the Great (short biography)|website=cityvision2000.com|access-date=7 January 2019|archive-date=23 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123135146/http://www.cityvision2000.com/history/peterthe.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The economically significant city of [[Nafplion]] became the first capital of [[Greece]], when Athens was an unimportant village.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mikellides|first=Byron|date=1 June 2001|title=The Creation of Modern Athens, Planning the Myth|journal=Urban Design International|language=en|volume=6|issue=2|pages=119|doi=10.1057/palgrave.udi.9000029|issn=1468-4519|doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] emperors moved their capital to [[Beijing]] from the more central [[Nanjing]] to help supervise the border with the Mongols. During the 1857 rebellion, [[India|Indian rebels]] considered [[Delhi]] their capital, and [[Bahadur Shah Zafar]] was proclaimed emperor, but the ruling [[British India|British]] had their capital in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]]. In 1877, the British formally held a '[[Delhi Durbar|Durbar]]' in Delhi, proclaiming [[Queen Victoria]] as '[[Empress of India]]'. Delhi finally became the colonial capital after the [[Delhi Durbar|Coronation Durbar]] of King-Emperor [[George V]] in 1911, continuing as independent India's capital from 1947. Other examples include [[Abuja]], [[Astana]], [[Brasília]], [[Helsinki]], [[Islamabad]], [[Naypyidaw]], and [[Yamoussoukro]].
* The selection or founding of a "neutral" capital city, one unencumbered by regional or political identities, was meant to represent the unity of a new state when [[Ankara]], [[Bern]], [[Brasília]], [[Canberra]], [[Madrid]], [[Ottawa]] and [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] became capital cities. Sometimes, the location of a new capital city was chosen to terminate actual or potential squabbling between various entities, such as in the cases of Brasília, Canberra, Ottawa, Washington, Wellington and [[Managua]].
* The British-built town of [[New Delhi]] represented a simultaneous break and continuity with the past, the location of Delhi being where many imperial capitals were built (Indraprastha, Dhillika, and Shahjahanabad) but the actual capital being the new British-built town designed by [[Edwin Lutyens]]. 
* Wellington, on the southwestern tip of the [[North Island]] of New Zealand, replaced the much more northerly city of [[Auckland]] to place the national capital close to the [[South Island]] and hence to placate its residents, many of whom had sympathies with separatism.
* During the [[American Civil War]], tremendous resources were expended to defend Washington, D.C., which bordered on the [[Confederate States of America]] (with the [[Virginia|Commonwealth of Virginia]]), from Confederate attack even though the relatively small federal government could easily have been moved elsewhere. Likewise, great resources were expended by the Confederacy in defending the Confederate capital from attack by the Union, in its exposed location of [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]], Virginia, barely {{convert|100|mi}} south of Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/washington-capital-of-the-union.html|title=Washington: Capital of the Union – Essential Civil War Curriculum|website=essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com|access-date=7 January 2019|archive-date=7 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107124816/https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/washington-capital-of-the-union.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Two national capitals refer to another sovereign state. The name of [[Tallinn]], the capital of [[Estonia]], is thought to be derived from ''Taani linn'', originally meaning "Danish Castle" and now "Danish Town" in [[Estonian language|Estonian]], named after the [[Toompea Castle]], which [[Denmark]] controlled in 1219–1227, 1238–1332 and in 1340–1346.<ref>[https://www.eki.ee/dict/knr/index.cgi?Q=Tallinn&F=M&C06=en Tallinn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005131416/https://www.eki.ee/dict/knr/index.cgi?Q=Tallinn&F=M&C06=en |date=5 October 2021 }}. ''[KNR] Dictionary of Estonian Place names.'' Retrieved 5 October 2021</ref> [[Port of Spain]], the capital of [[Trinidad and Tobago]], was named so in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] by the first settlers from [[Spain]] in the 16th century.<ref>[https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-capital-of-trinidad-and-tobago.html What Is The Capital Of Trinidad And Tobago?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005131415/https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-capital-of-trinidad-and-tobago.html |date=5 October 2021 }}. ''www.worldatlas.com'' Retrieved 5 October 2021</ref> See [[List of national capital city name etymologies]] for more.