Why is washington the capital of the united states? Were there

Used to be Philadelphia but there was a massive yellow fever plague.

They switched it around a lot between the different major cities, and then eventually decided it would be better to design a new capital from scratch in a spot of land that would be politically independent from the state governments.

Wanted a location that wasn't quite Northern or Southern. A new city was created (out of land ceded from Maryland) to avoid a U.S. state meddling in the capital's affairs. Though personally I'd much rather have Philly as the U.S. capital than some shitty swamp.

washtington is capital because when they were getting the states to ratify the constitution the southern states would only join if the capital was in the south

Pennsylvania
Richmond
NYC

a few randoms

But D.C. is just better.
It's in the middle of the original colonies. And it's basically impossible to attack, at least in modern day.

The only reason Britain sacked it was because President Adams went full retard and told the army to fuck off from the city.

>>3119236
FPBP

>>3119237
Maryland was actually a slave state when the capital was built.

Lincoln had the entire state legislature, and the entire Baltimore City Council arrested at the outset of the Civil War so that they couldn't join the Confederacy.

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>>3119226
compromise between north & south
considering the size of the US in the 1790s, and the very coastal concentration of the population/economy, Washington was pretty central

same reason Ottawa is the capital of Canada
it's right on the border between Quebec and Ontario (the core of Canada in the 1860s)

this begs the question...why are so many US state capitals in totally random/irrelevant small cities?

New York was the original capital under the Constitution. Washington was sworn in in lower Manhattan.

Hamilton sold the capital to the Southerners.

>>3119362
>this begs the question...why are so many US state capitals in totally random/irrelevant small cities?
So that power wouldn't become centralized into the most economically powerful and populous city in order to avoid giving them a political monopoly on the state as well as a cultural and economic monopoly. To this end they pick smaller and more central cities in which to place the seat of power. In states with multiple economic power centers this avoids jostling for power in being the capital and keeps things from becoming lopsided. People already get dissatisfied in New York state due to NYC essentially running the show with their population, power and economy. Having NYC as the capital would make that much worse. Could you imagine how even more lopsided politics would be in California if San Francisco or Los Angeles were the capital?

>>3119362

Compromise. Otherwise the big city in a state taxes the rest of the state for shit in the city. Boston is a great example, they spent billions on the Big Dig and raised taxes and put tolls up 100 miles away to pay for it.

>>3119362
>why are so many US state capitals in totally random/irrelevant small cities?
Because they were founded when the state economies were vastly different. They weren't always irrelevant.

>>3119362
It makes sense to have your capital away from the big cities so that local politics doesn't interfere with the state or federal politics that the capital is intended to address.

>>3119464
>>3119474

Also, it keeps big city economic interests somewhat removed from the legislators.

>>3119362
Don't know about the others but Lansing was chosen for a similar reason to D.C. Detroit used to be Michigan's capital but the West side felt neglected and tried to have it moved to Grand Rapids, instead they decided to compromise and put it inbetween the two. Yoopers were also pissed, probably still are but they don't really matter.

>>3119237
neat

>>3119335
>Lincoln had the entire state legislature, and the entire Baltimore City Council arrested at the outset of the Civil War so that they couldn't join the Confederacy.
t-t-thanks Lincoln for p-protecting american d-d-d-democracy

>>3120028
I'm confused
Do American Republicans like Abe because he was one of them, or hate him because he was a progressive dictator?

>>3119560
Mighty big fightin' words for a whole bunch of places that truly no one cares about.

>>3119362
>Vermont Republic

Wat

>>3119362

That's not what it means to "beg the question"

https://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/begging-the-question-again/

>>3119451
Hamilton wanted to economic capital and political capital divorced. He already wanted it out of New York, Jefferson just gave him a win-win.

>>3119237
Originally, land for DC was ceded by Maryland AND Virginia. At some point virginia got their bit back, which is why DC is not a full square on the map.

>>3120265
Vermont declared independence in 1777, but didn't join the union until 1791
why? Vermont wasn't its own colony. It was part of New York.

But the land that became the state was once claimed by New Hampshire (though it was legally NY's by the revolution), its residents generally rejected NY jurisdiction, and it was an anti-NY militia that fought local loyalists/British forces and seized control of the area

when it came down to nation-building, New York (one of the most powerful states in the union) refused recognize Vermont for over years after the fact. when they sucked it up and did, Vermont became a state.

>>3120265
Vermont was technically independent from the U.S until 1791

>>3119482
Tis, with the added note that, like DC, capitals tended to develop as "one industry" towns, with government being that industry. State governments and tax aresmaller and less lucrative locl industries for a city than is the federal government.

>>3120686
>>3120687
Fucking New Yorkers. Thanks anons.

>>3120050
The organized party tends to revere him. I'm a Republican in NC, every county in NC has annual dinner events from each party. The Dems do their "Jefferson/Jackson" dinners, the GOP does "Lincoln Day Dinners." Lincoln is slightly less popular among the populace at large here. Dems ignore him because a large portion of their voter base is pre-disposed to like the Great Emancipator.

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>>3119244
>And it's basically impossible to attack, at least in modern day.

a better question is who the fuck was the retard that decided to name a state on the other side of the country the same as the capital

>>3120697
>Dems do their "Jefferson/Jackson" dinners

really? this doesn't cause any sort of debate?

I can see why Jefferson's legacy as a slaveholder gets ignored, much like Washington; and the fact he was anti-urban/industrial (as opposed to the Dems popularity in those areas today) becomes a mere detail
but Andrew Jackson seems pretty controversial in the US as a whole

>>3120721
Are you trying to be retarded or what? 9/11 was the catalyst for the massive increase in security and defence precautions around DC and the Pentagon.
Nowadays if an airliner makes a sudden unnanounced beeline for the Pentagon it will be intercepted by fighter jets, and if need be, shot down.

>>3120050
Republicans love Lincoln, Democrats pretend to love him; he did want to ship one of their primary demographics back to Africa after all.

>progressive dictator

No one in his country thinks Lincoln was a dictator, even butthurt Southerners just say it in partial jest. This is partially because, in American parlance, "dictator" is pretty much reserved for North Korea, Hitler, and Stalin types...which Lincoln wasn't.

>>3120731
This.

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>>3120731
could have been worse, get a load of these great ideas

>the Jefferson Territory in present-day Colorado (with some extra land to the north and west)
>the State of Jefferson in NorCal + southwest Oregon
>the State of Franklin in eastern Tennessee
>the State of Lincoln in eastern Washington + Idaho panhandle
>the States of Lincoln/Jefferson carved out of Texas

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>>3120742
That is surprising to me too, a few months ago I couldn't understand why the media seemingly chose to ignore Trump removing MLK and putting Jackson stuff all over the oval office.

>>3120755
How would any of those be worse than having "welcome to the state of Washington, btw Washington city is not here".

>>3120028
He suspended Habeas Corpus, This shouldn't be a surprise.

>>3120852
>insinuating there are no cities named after Lincoln, Jefferson, or Franklin outside of those proposed states

naming whole states after Founding Fathers is kind of stupid imo
cities, counties, or anything else I get, but there's so much more to these places than people who never even step foot on their land

>>3119226
America built a new capital city from scratch so that none of the states would have the capital in it and thus be more powerful than the other states.

>>3119236
>yellow fever plague
>"better move to a swamp!"

>>3119335
Based Lincoln rounding up the traitors

>>3119226
>Were there any alternative candidates?
Philadelphia, which was a better option than building a city from scratch.

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>>3120050

Mainstream/Boomer and Northern Republicans idolize Lincoln. They're kind who publicly disavow racialism (and attack Democrats as "the real racists" for their historical support of white supremacism), secessionism, and anti-government sentiment. They're of the opinion that the post-WW2 ideological realignment of the parties was a hollow one and that the Democrats are at their core, still the party of Jim Crow. These Republicans also tend to be the ones who attack the Democrats as being anti-Semitic for their greater reluctance in supporting Israel and President Roosevelt's refusal to allow Jewish refugees into the United States, thus condemning them to the Holocaust (even though the immigration control laws of the 1920s were applied the basis of nationality rather than religion and American Jews supported these laws in large numbers).

The Tea Party Republicans (the ones most aggressively opposed to President Obama) tend to hold a negative opinion of Lincoln. They see Lincoln's rule as the start of big government tyranny.

Libertarian Republicans hold an extremely negative opinion of Lincoln because his rule marked the erosion of States' Rights and civil liberties (during the war at least). They also attack the hypocrisy of the Union's fighting a war to "end slavery" by chaining the South to the Union.

Alt-Right Republicans (Followers of Donald Trump who were previously too radical for the Republican Party) by far hold the most negative view of Lincoln for obvious reasons. Strangely enough, President Trump himself holds Lincoln in high regard.

>>3120948
>by far hold the most negative view of Lincoln for obvious reasons.

Those reasons aren't obvious to me?
In a lot of ways, the alt-right are the most centrist of the Republican branches you listed. They don't fuss as much over states' rights and government overreach like the others do.
Trump liking Lincoln is even less of a surprise. Trump seems to function under the impression that the office of the presidency is basically a dictator with a term limit. Lincoln took the necessary actions to protect the union. Why would Trump take any issue with him?

>>3120865
Those cities are irrelevant, the whole point is that the city if Washington is well known even by euros and other countries who know jack shit about american geography.

>>3120948
>Strangely enough, President Trump himself holds Lincoln in high regard.

To the extent that Trump has any cohesive ideology, he's an American nationalist who supports Lincoln for preserving the Union, if nothing else.

>>3120948
Southern Baptists and Jews are literally a power coupling you cuckold. No need for this antisemitism if you actually care about the South's future.

(Note this guy is pretending to be the tripfag but is not.)

>>3120050

People like Lincoln because slavery was bad and institutional slavery was ended while he was President. No one pays attention to any of his other policies or actions anymore.

>>3121074
>Calling a namefag a tripfag

>>3121185
>Not responding to my point
>Responding to the subtext

What a lovely metaphor for antisemitism and idiots in general.

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>>3121192
Quality stuff. Have this friend.

>>3120982
>Those reasons aren't obvious to me?

The alt-right tend to be racists, that's what he's inferring.

Lincoln is widely perceived as being responsible for the collapse of slavery and Reconstruction so naturally they tend to take a dim view of him.

>Were there any alternative candidates?
According to local legend, Port Angeles, Washington. During the Civil War, Lincoln set aside a plot of land in the city. There's still debate about exactly what it was supposed to be for, but for a long time there were claims that Lincoln intended a new capitol to be constructed there if the south won the war.

The purpose of the land has still never been confirmed, so it's probably bullshit, but it's interesting.

>>3120731
It became a state the same year as the hundredth anniversary of Washington's inauguration. There was a big Washington nostalgia trip happening nationwide and the people in the state decided to commemorate the event by naming the new state after the president. What's really retarded is that people still confuse the name of a state for the name of a city.

>>3120742
>Nowadays if an airliner makes a sudden unnanounced beeline for the Pentagon it will be intercepted by fighter jets
Wasn't that what they were supposed to do in the first place but their response was too slow?