Showing posts with label capital cities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label capital cities. Show all posts

March 12 - Canberra Is Christened!

Posted on March 12, 2020


 
The capital city of Australia is Canberra. 

Most large and important cities of the world, including most capital cities, are founded in a spot with good access to water - alongside a large river, say, or next to a natural harbor - and then grow to be large and important in a sort of willy-nilly way.

But a few cities are carefully planned. Brazil's capital city, Brasília, and the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., did not exist at all before being founded as a capital and planned before the first resident moved in. Canberra, also, was founded and planned as the capital of a new federation of Australian colonies.

On this date in 1913, Canberra was founded and named. The winner of an international contest for the city's design, American architects Walter Burley Griffen and Marion Mahony Griffen, soon broke ground and began construction.

The city's design included geometric features: circles, hexagons, and triangles. 


Also, at the time of the city's founding, there was movement towards using greenbelts and natural vegetation in urban planning. This garden city movement resulted in Canberra having quite a lot of planned greenery.

Unfortunately, the Griffens' design wasn't held to as the city was built. One big reason was that World War I broke out and a huge proportion of Australian men who were eligible to fight enlisted!

There does seem to be quite a lot of vegetation, though!!








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March 12 - A Capital Day

Posted on March 12, 2017

Back in the "good old days," we tried to memorize everything we would ever need to know. I'm not sure why that included world capitals, but we gamely tried to memorize loads of them. I don't remember any of my teachers - not one - warning us that these countries didn't always have the same capital city.


Of course, these way-better-new days, it's pretty easy to find out things by using smart phones, computers, Google, what have you! No more memorization needed. And that's especially good since things like country names, capital cities, and other world factoids do change from time to time. 

Today is the anniversary of a couple of changes:

On this date in 1913, the future capital city of Australia got its name, Canberra.

I said "future capital city" because Canberra wasn't yet built. 

 Melbourne had to remain the temporary capital until 1927!

Check out Canberra vs. Melbourne:

Population: C - 380,000 / M - 4,560,000
Founded in: C - 1913 / M - 1835
State/Terr.: C - Australian Capital Territory / M - Victoria

 Canberra is a planned city, like Washington, D.C., and Brasilia.

Canberra is known for it's flowery celebration of spring, called Floriade.

Melbourne is 12 times larger than the capital!

Melbourne is a mix of modern and historical buildings.






 
On this date in 1918, Moscow became the capital of Russia. Again.

Moscow was the capital of a variety of Russian governments. But from 1712 until 1728, and then again from 1732 until 1918, the Russian Empire was ruled from Saint Petersburg, a city built by Peter the Great on the Baltic Coast. 

 Here is a quick contrast between Moscow and Saint Petersburg:

 Population: M - 19,560,000 / SP - 4,880,000
Founded in: M - before 1147 / SP - 1703
Located on: M - the Moskva River / SP - the Baltic Sea

 Moscow is the world's largest inland city.


Parts of Moscow look like a Candyland city!


But St. Petersburg has some similar (but less famous) sights!

St. Petersburg is an important port.



Also on this date:

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December 31 – Ottawa Becomes the Capital!

Posted December 31, 2013


 On this date in 1857, Queen Victoria selected a small logging town as capital of Canada.

I can just picture her announcing that Ottawa would be the new capital, and larger cities such as Quebec City, Toronto, and Montreal looking at one another and saying, “What? Who? Why?”

You know, if cities could talk!

Actually, Canada then (and to some extent now) was a little bit like two different countries. In Canada East (once called “Lower Canada”), the French-speaking people were primarily Catholic and conservative. In Canada West, (once called “Upper Canada”), the English-speaking people were primarily Protestant and reformist.

If Queen Victoria had chosen Quebec City or Montreal as capital of the entire nation, the people of Ontario (Canada West) would have been quite unhappy. If she had chosen Toronto, of course, the people of Quebec (Canada East) would've been unhappy. Ottawa was on the border between the two regions and was therefore a compromise.

Also, Montreal and Toronto were quite close to the U.S. border. The War of 1812 had shown that they were vulnerable to American attack—and Ottawa was some 70 kilometers (more than 40 miles) away, and (at that time) surrounded by dense-and-protective forest. Still, Ottawa could easily be reached via the Ottawa River and a canal.

Ottawa sculptor John Ceprano stacks up rocks
each summer to create an interesting sculpture.
(By the way... Even as recently as 1840, people spoke of the Canadas, plural. It was in 1841 that Lower and Upper Canada were united in the Province of Canada.)


Fun things about Ottawa
  • An old jail (the county gaol) has been made into hotel.
  • There is a Cold War Museum with the real bunker-for-Canada's-government, preserved from the 1960s. There is a blast tunnel, the prime minister's secret hideout, and a war room.
  • Ottawa has a thriving “Chinatown,” with Vietnamese, Korean, and Thai restaurants as well as (of course) Chinese restaurants. And another neighborhood is called Little Italy!
  • Supreme Court justices, members of Parliament, and lawyers take part in an annual “Lawyer Play” to raise funds for the Great Canadian Theatre Company.

Also on this date:









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