CHALLENG: move your nation's capitol to your closest city

Well, assuming Newcastle...
I guess some sort of more centralised capital agreement?
Or failing that we have to go back to the dark ages and somehow remove the vikings....
 

Seldrin

Banned
Have the Redcliffe penal colony stay open, it would make the overall population larger than Brisbane, then when NSW and VIC are wondering which state the capital should be in, Redcliffe swoops in and takes the position.
 
Somehow or another, the US manages to find itself at war against an alliance consisting of every nuclear armed country on earth. After every major US city is destroyed, the government comes out of its bunker at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WVA and moves to Roanoke, Virginia since it is the biggest nearby city that wasn't hit.
 
Well, I live in Vienna, VA so I'm the last stop on the DC Orange Line... I guess to get it closer they could have decided DC should be on the other side of the Potomac... And they wouldn't want to take up Arlington because the Lees would be pissed, so they dropped it in Fairfax.
 
lesse.....I live in Hawaii on the island Of Hawaii/Big Island....

State Capital: the Big Island's bigger, but the Royal Palace is on Oahu, so there would have to be another Palace built here.

Nation's Capital:
We would need some HUGE Bloody Disater for them to move it here, ala "World War Z"
 
Hagerstown Marysland.

1790
Alexander Hamilton crafts a comprimise where the new Capital will be in the South, in return for southern support of the Bills establishing the new Federal Debt.

President Washington Selects a Site at Williamsport Marysland.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...m_source=en-ha-na-us-google-svn&utm_medium=ha

1791
Virginia & Marysland try to Cede a stretch of swampland around Georgetown Md, & Alexandria Va, But President Washington threatens to Veto the entire Package.
Marysland and Virginia give in and cede the land the President requests.

1792
the Marysland Assembly moves the Country seat from Hagerstown [just inside the Line] to Hancock 40 miles away.
 
this is as the title said, you have to move your countries capitol to your home town or city.

I really don't know how to tell you this...and you non-Americans may not get this. But, the city is always such a butt of jokes in the United States.

You just asked for a TL where the United States' capital is Cleveland. That would be ASBish, even for the ASB forum. :)

(Okay, not my actual home town, I don't like to give total specifics for safety's sake on public forums, but the closest one where it would be anywhere near logical. then again, if Cleveland was rejected for a smaller city or town within 30-50 miles, it would again be able to be the butt of jokes, so maybe that would work.)

A TL? Okay, Canada joins the American War for Independence. We still get Moses Cleaveland (yes, they changed the spelling) foudning the city. Butterflies cause him to survive about 10 years longer (he was only in his early 50s when he died.)

The British, upset over losing Canada, too, burn Washington D.C. in the war of 1812, and also shell New York; only Canada's being American allows the U.S. to force a draw, and that with a win at New Orleans.

In burning D.C., they happen to kill President Madison. With V.P. Gerry having died, too, an election is held in 1814.

Federalists win in 1814, behind DeWitt Clinton, appeasing some in New England and Canada who had considered secession. However, they realize that the East Coast isn't safe.

Cleaveland, who has campaigned for the Federalists (being from Connecticut) proposes to the new President that his settlement be made the new capital. It's seen as a prime place, in the center of the country and on a major shipping place with thecanal soon to be dug to Cincinnati. So, a part of Cleveland is carved out called "Washington District," and the new capital is ready to be moved into by 1823, when Andrew Jackson wins the White House.

Hmmm, not *that* bad, when I think about it. I guess if you go back far enough, even Cleveland jokes can be butterflied away; though with the capital there, they would be reaplced by a whole different type of joke.
 
1965: Russia invades west coast United States, taking Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and a bit of Idaho and Nevada. Russia then invaded Canada to effectively control the entire pacific ocean. Russia held onto it's claims for a while, until the end of the cold war, where California was given independence over the entire region known now as the Socialist Republic of California.

After a brutal civil war in 1986, northern California broke of from the SRC and formed Cascadia out of most of the Canadian west coast, the entire northwest United States, and a few territories in Alaska. The capital was chosen to be Portland, Oregon, due to it's popularity as the second most green city in the world.

ASB?
 
In an even worse Versailles, after the great war had dragged on without immideate intervention of the US until 1920, what was once Germany was left fractured.

the terms saw a return to the "Kleinstaaterei", with the German Reich being broken into little seperate pieces. As of 2008, the situation has not changed but the little states all around have recovered nicely, and are comparable to the not less successful nations of Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland et. al.

As a result of this, Detmold stayed the Capital of the small, but proud, state of Lippe-Detmold. August Droste, a local barbershop owner, was elected first democratic Head of Government in 1947, when Lippe's last Prince, Leopold IV, abdicated in favor of a free democratic government. Leopold, until his death in 1960, served as Head of State, if only as a figurehead.

With a territory of roughly 1250 sq km and 450,000 inhabitants, the Free State of Lippe Detmold today is a prosperous nation within the loose confederation of german states. It adopted the EURO in 2002, even minting their own coins, if only in a very small quantity. The "Lippische Rose" (rose of lippe) decorates the back of the 1 and 2 EUR coins.
 
Despite the efforts of even the greatest of American generals, the British seize the Great Lakes. The redcoats sail the Hudson with reinforcements coming from Lake Erie. They successfully cut off New England from the rest of the country. Yes, the Anglo-American War of 1812 didn't go to well. President Madison wasn't that smart attacking the greatest world power. Anyway, the economy reaches a recession, especially in New England. The nation's response to British and French impressment hadn't helped. Before long, the people declared that it owuld be easier to secede than to remain.

That is how Boston became the capital of my country.
 
In 1960, inspired by the relocation of the Brazilian capital to the new city of Brasilia,the movement to move the US capital to a centralized location picks up steam. In 1957, the US Congress passes a resolution calling for a commission to study the issue. The commission looks at three basic alternatives: (1) building a completely new city, which is eventually rejected as too expensive and politically infeasible, (2) relocating the captial to an existing very large city such as Chicago or St Louis, which is eventually rejected because of the prevailing opinion in the commission that the new capital should be primarily the seat of government, not just a big, important, city which also happens to have the US government located there, and (3) placing the new capitol in a relatively small city which does not have a pre-established identity in the nation at large. The 3rd option was selected.

Over the next 5 years potential locations in 15 central states were studied. Texas was ruled out because the entire state had a strong identity which might color the new capital, and locations in the far north or mountain west were eventually eliminated because of the potential for enclement weather and restrictions on air travel. Eventually the choice came down to a three-way contest between: Lincoln, Nebraska, Topeka, Kansas, and Norman, Oklahoma. Lincoln was initially favored because of the obvious name associations, but eventually Lincoln and Topeka were both eliminated because they were existing state capitals. The promoters from Oklahoma wisely avoided the temptation to propose their state capital Oklahoma City, opting instead to suggest nearby Norman, the home of the University of Oklahoma. Although the commission was initially very reluctant to choose such a small city (less than 30,000 in 1960) which lacked both a major airport or major rail hub as the new national capital, they were eventually swayed by arguments that a new federal district could be constructed on essentially vacant land owned by the University at the edge of town, with minimal need for massive demolitions of existing building stock, while nearby Oklahoma City (pop 400,000) would provide an excellent initial source of labor and housing for the expected boom. The deal was cemented when Oklahoma's senior senator Robert S Kerr was able to secure federal funding for a new international airport site and other necessary improvements.

By 1985 as the US national capital, the Norman Federal District grew to contain a population of approximately 250,000 people, while Oklahoma City expanded to over 2.5 million as the major business and housing district for the many related buisnesses attracted to the new seat of power. The federal complex itself is quite reminiscent of Canberra, featuring, like the Australian capital a modernistic, underground capitol building and other partially and wholly buried offices, presumably as protection against the frequent tornados which threaten the city in spring and fall as well as possible nuclear attack. Unlike old Washington and Canberra, however, the planners of the Norman Federal Distrrict chose a rigid rectangular grid pattern for the district's streets, and the city certainly lacks the charm of Washington with its many roundabouts and circular parks.

In 1992, as part of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the new world, the US government decided to give the new capital a new name with more historic significance. Although virtually everyone presumed the name would be either "Columbia" or "Columbus", the naming committee chose "Sequoyah", to reflect the native american heritage of the host State.
 
Well, Bocholt, NRW is a small town compared to Berlin (Bocholt's 80.000 to Berlin's 3.000.000), but the City of Münster is close to, and Münster is not that unlikely to be capitol of Germany.

PoD: World War II lasts longer, so nuclear bombs are dropped on Germany. Targets were Berlin, Nuremberg and the Ruhr-Area. Because radioaktive pollution in Minsterland was low, the Capitol of the later FRG was moved to Münster.
 
Top