Alternate moving of a nation's capital?

CaliGuy

Banned
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?
 
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.

552a75a253d5a2.61435992.jpg

Viedma today.
 
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?

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.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
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.

552a75a253d5a2.61435992.jpg

Viedma today.
Why was Alsogaray against it?
 
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)
 

CaliGuy

Banned
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.
Any ideas as to what this alternate location will be?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
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)
Wasn't Constantinople already the capital of the Ottoman Empire/Turkey before 1923, though?

Also, wasn't Tel Aviv indeed Israel's capital in 1948-1950?

Also, as for Bonn, wasn't it West Germany's capital for several decades?
 
Why was Alsogaray against it?
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.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
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.
OK; understood.
 
Any ideas as to what this alternate location will be?

Nuremburg and Munich come to mind, both being important in Nazi history and symbolism. Or they could just could cut down a forest in central or northern Germany with slaves from the camps and build it completely from scratch.
 
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Wasn't Constantinople already the capital of the Ottoman Empire/Turkey before 1923, though?

It was. It was also under international occupation and demilitarisation in the period in question, which made it an impossible choice for national capital. Plus, Kemal's base of operations for the Greco-Turkish War was Ankara, which made it a powerful national symbol.
 
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