This thread was inspired by Nursultan Nazarbayev's decision to move Kazakhstan's capital to Astana back in 1997.
Anyway, which additional countries could have their capitals be realistically moved after 1900 (and to where exactly)?
Any thoughts on this?
Why was Alsogaray against it?Argentina had an ambitious project during the Alfonsin government 1983-89 to move the capital to the small Patagonian city of Viedma. The idea behind this was to decentralize power, bringing more importance to the almost empty Patagonia region, and away from the Central Pampas where more than 70% of the population lives. (A very uneven distribution!)
The project became official law in 1986, and involved infraestructure projects to merge the two small Patagonian cities of Viedma and Carmen de Patagones (separated by a river) into a new capital city. It also involved separating the powerful Buenos Aires province into two.
The project was halted because of financial difficulties, at first temporarily, later permanently after Menem was elected President in 1989, as his junior coalition partner, Conservative Alvaro Alsogaray, was dead set against it.
Have Alfonsin's economic plan be more successful (with a POD in 1987 at the lastest) and you could easily have Viedma as the Argentine capital today, with the Austral as currency instead of the Peso, and 6 year presidential terms (instead of 4) with no reelection as the Constitution would not be reformed in 1994.
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Viedma today.
Any ideas as to what this alternate location will be?Nazi Germany wins WW II (we'll not go into PODs for the moment) and Hitler then wants to build Germania in Berlin. It's discovered, however, that Berlin's soil cannot support Speer's mammoth architecture so it's decided to build Germania completely from scratch somewhere else, kind of like Brazil building Brasilia to replace Rio de Janeiro as the capital.
Wasn't Constantinople already the capital of the Ottoman Empire/Turkey before 1923, though?Another possible alternative capitals I can think of:
Sydney instead of Canberra (1913)
Istambul instead of Ankara (1923)
Rio instead of Brasilia (1956)
Tel Aviv instead of Jerusalem (1980)
Bonn instead of Berlin (1990)
Officially because of the expense, he called the project a "white elephant" IIRC, and the economic reforms of those years involved cutting taxes as well as government expenses at all levels, Alfonsin's capital city project was the first to go.Why was Alsogaray against it?
OK; understood.Officially because of the expense, he called the project a "white elephant" IIRC, and the economic reforms of those years involved cutting taxes as well as government expenses at all levels, Alfonsin's capital city project was the first to go.
Sorry I didn't get that from the original post.Basically, I want a new location--not a continuation of an old location.
Well, I'm glad that I have clarified this right now.Sorry I didn't get that from the original post.
Yes, those were the old capitals for those countries.
Any ideas as to what this alternate location will be?
Wasn't Constantinople already the capital of the Ottoman Empire/Turkey before 1923, though?