When Henry Hudson arrived in 1609, the area was already home to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and the Dutch had established a trading post. In 1797, Albany became the official capital of New York State. Since then, Albany has been a center for banking, railroads, and international trade.
In 1797 the decision was made to establish Albany as its permanent capital. Albany’s rich history, its central location on the Hudson, being a trading and military planning hub, as well a military supply center, are all reasons it was chosen to be the capital after the burning of Kingston.
Your teacher might have told you to memorize that as the Swiss capital city. And some will say he or she was right, but not quite. Bern is for sure the seat of both the government and federal authorities and is referred to as the “federal city” but Swiss law doesn’t name an official (de jure) capital.
It was considered an economic hub for New York due to its proximal location along the Hudson River. By the beginning of the 19th century, Kingston relinquished its dominance as the most populous and fastest developing town along the Hudson River valley.
Albany was named after the Duke of York’s Scottish title, “Duke of Albany” in 1664 when the English took control of the area. Prior to being named Albany, the settlement was called Beverwyck (“beaver district”) after the animal created a lucrative fur trade for the Dutch.
A capital is a city where a region’s government is located. This is where government buildings are and where government leaders work. A region can be defined as a nation, state, province, or other political unit.
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With a vote of 38 to 22, Members chose Philadelphia as an interim capital, largely because the city served as the social, financial, cultural, and geographic center of the young nation which stretched the eastern seaboard.
The building was later demolished in 1812. On September 13, 1788, New York City was established as America’s first capital under the Constitution of the United States. New York had already hosted the nation’s legislature and served as the de facto capital since 1785.
Albany is among the oldest European settlements still in use from the initial thirteen colonies, and it is the nation's longest continuously chartered city. Englishman Henry Hudson claimed the region for the United Netherlands in 1606, following which Hendrick Christiaensen constructed a fur-trading post named Fort-Nassau in 1614. The English named the area Albany upon capturing New Netherland in 1664. When the Province of New York was divided into counties on November 1, 1683, Albany was the largest, with the City of Albany as its seat. The city benefited from real estate expansion during and after the Revolutionary War, which facilitated the growth of its population. New York's state capital was moved permanently to the city in 1797. Since then, the city has developed primarily in the transport, business, and industry sectors.
Albany is New York's state capital, and it is the cultural and economic core of the state's Capital District. Albany was at the forefront of numerous urban developments in the United States, such as sewer lines, electricity and natural gas lines, public water mains, and infrastructure which enabled it to support a thriving industrial sector. The city further embraced high-technology in the 20th century.
Kingston’s early economy thrived on trade up and down the Hudson River. When the British took control of New York City during the American Revolution, however, merchants were left without avenues of commerce. And government had to move. Kingston was designated the capital of New York state.
The capital city of New York state houses its city government as well as the governments of Albany County and the State of New York. The top executive in Albany is the mayor, whose election takes place every four years. Legislative duties in Albany are executed by the Common Council, which brings together 15 members from each ward, in addition to a Common Council President. The state government operates various offices throughout the city.
Albany's population throughout the centuries has included Germans, Irish, English, Poles, Italians, and African-Americans. The 2010 census reported a population of 97,856 within the municipality, while the metropolitan population was 857,592 people. About 52.3% of the population identified as Caucasian, while 27% was black or African American, 7.4% of the population was Asian, and 9.2% was Latino or Hispanic of any race.
The reasons are different in each case. Often, there was a desire for a central location, whereas the largest city was a port on the edge of the state. There was also often a desire to “spread the prosperity around” rather than focus all economic and political power in a single large city.
New York City was the first capital of the United States once the Constitution was ratified. George Washington took the oath of office to become the first President of the United States from the balcony of the old City Hall.
Most states have not changed their capital city since becoming a state, but the capital cities of their respective preceding colonies, territories, kingdoms, and republics typically changed multiple times.
Albany lies approximately 150 miles north of the New York City on the Hudson River. Albany occupies an area of 21.8 square miles, of which 0.4 square miles is water, and the other 21.4 square miles is land. The city borders Bethlehem to the south, Guilderland to the west, and Colonie to the north. The city's southern border is occupied by Normans Kill, while the northern and eastern borders are occupied by the Patroon Creek and the Hudson River, respectively. The city's territory includes four lakes, namely Washington Park Lake, Rensselaer Lake, Buckingham Lake, and Tivoli Lake. At 378 feet, a USGS benchmark close to the Loudonville is the city's highest natural point. The landscape of the city features rolling hills, which previously made up the Albany Pine Bush. The ecosystem is now preserved at 6,000 acres from the initial 25,000 acres.
Over 25% of Albany’s population works in government-related posts. The government remains one of the city’s primary economic sectors, along with education and healthcare, and more recently, technology. These reliable sectors have cushioned Albany’s economy from national recessions. Albany reported an unemployment rate of 7.8% in March 2010, compared to the 9.4% across New York state. Albany, along with the Hudson Valley and the Capital District, make up Tech Valley, which since its founding in 1998 has sought to rival other technological regions, such as Boston and Silicon Valley.
“The power to establish a state’s capital is inherent to, and inseparable from, the power conferred upon Parliament under Articles 2, Article 3 and Article 4 of the Constitution,” said advocate and peasant rights activist Mallela Seshagiri Rao.