The District of Columbia

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I recently learned that the US state of Washington has nothing to do with Washington DC and that Seattle, Washington is 2,700 miles away from the capital of the United States.

Washington DC is part of the District of Columbia which is comprised of lands donated by Maryland and Virginia. I have two questions:

1) Why would Maryland and Virginia agree to donate their land in this way?

2) Virginia and Maryland are both small states. Why not Texas and New Mexico or California and Arizona as these states have more land to spare?

Virginia did get some of it's land back. That mass of land is now known as Arlington County.

DC was the product of a Federalist/Anti-federalist compromise.

Hamilton (federalist) wants to establish a National Bank modeled after the Bank of England, assume the revolutionary war debt of the states, and implement several other financial reforms calculated to develop America as a commercial power (like England).

Jefferson (anti-federalist from Virginia) and most other southerners envision America as an agrarian republic and vehemently oppose Hamilton's programs.

In 1790 Jefferson and Hamilton reach an agreement: Southerners will agree to Hamilton's fiscal policy in exchange for a permanent national capital in the south, between Maryland and Virginia.

The south hoped having the capital in the region would let them exert a greater influence over the government/presidency... and it did too, right up until the election of Abe Lincoln (who didn't even appear on the ballot in most southern states).

Hello from the other Washington.

New Mexico, California, Arizona, did not exist in 1770s. Those were largely unexplored territories populated by Indians far to the West.

Thirteen original colonies were all in the north-east: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island.

United States grew slowly over the next 180 years by purchasing or trading or warring for more territory to the West. The final two territories to gain statehood were Alaska and Hawaii in 1959.

The name is no coincidence. Washington State was named after George Washington. The state emerged from the northern part of the Oregon Territory of old, after the dispute between the UK and the US was settled in 1846. The settlers originally called the area the "Columbia". Naming the new territory after the first US president was a clever attempt to gain recognition by the US Congress. The residents wanted to gain statehood. Similarly, two counties in Washington were named Pierce and King, after the then US President and Vice President. (Today we'd call it sucking up, eh?) It must have worked because Washington gained statehood in 1889.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington

Random trivia: "George" is a small town in Washington. George, Washington, getit???

[quote="Dilbert"]Hello from the other Washington.

New Mexico, California, Arizona, did not exist in 1770s. Those were largely unexplored territories populated by Indians far to the West.

Hello!! !

They also belonged to a foriegn country! Mexico.

They were part of the spoils of the Mexican war fought almost a centurey after the republic and its capital were formed!

I'll bottom line it for you Brits: when we won Independence from you guys we were like Chile is today- a narrow strip of a country along the Eastern seaboard. Byond the appalachians (beyond 150 miles from the sea) was empty wilderness.

To balance out the North-verses-South antagonism that was even then brewing they put the capital - well- were youd expect anyone to put a nation's capital- smack in the middle of the country.

Back then- the middle was the middle of the Eastern seaboard along the patomac.

Its because of settlement and conquest that the country epanded westward to the pacific. Which is why the usa is now a big country with an off-center capital on its right side.

Washington was our first president so he, like Columbus, gets a lot of places named after him.