History of washington d.c.

1783 the American colonists and french military won the war of independence against the British. George Washington was voted democratic for president in 1789. During the war independence cities were always conquered or lost. So the congress always had to move from city to city. After big trouble by trouble of politicans of north and south they decided in 1790 to build the new capital on the territory of Virginia and Maryland on a 100 miles² piece of land at the Potomac River. It was neutral and it was declerated 'District of Columbia'.

     So George Washington decided that Pierre Charles L'Enfant had to plan it. In 1800 the congress started its work in an unready building but George Washington died in 1799 so he couldn't see that. In 1812 the British started an invasion and destroyed the just built White House and the Capitol. But the American army was able to push them back. From now on to the time of the civil war the citiy was only growing slowly. 1829 James Smithson a chemist of the university if Oxford donated all his mony for a natural history museum and a research centre.

     So the world popular Smithsonian Institutet was inaugurated in 1849. At this time slave trading was very popular. Slaves were sent from the District of Columbia to tobacco farms in Virginia an Columbia. In 1850 the Congress stopped the trade with humans. Washington D.C.

     wasn't damaged by the civil war. While the civil war and all other wars were running the population and infrastructure of Washington D.C. were growing very fast. After the first world war the city had 430000 inhabitant. In Washington D.

    C. live a lot of coloured people. Although they often demonstrated for their rights they weren't heard. The city was racial separated by Whites and Bläcks. During the second world war first presindent Franklin Delano Roosevelt met black civil righters in the White House. At the end of the war the Penatgon was built.

     After the war Washington had 900000 citizens. In 1954 the Supreme Court declarated racial separation for illegal. That's the reason why many Whites moved outside Washington D.C. to the suburbs and the Blacks into the town centre. This is called 'white flight'.

     But it had also another effect for the city. Because of the Coloured it got the city with the most crimes on the east coast. In 1960 Washington built the centre of the black civil rights movement. Martin Luther King held his legendary speech 'I have a drea' in front of 200000 black people and Lincol Memorial. After he was murdered in 1968 there were big racial riots of lots of Blacks. In 1970 the population was sinking but the population of the suburbs growed permanently.

     1973 the inhabitant of Washington were allowed to vote for their mayor themselves and take part in the voting the president. When the political Washington won the 'cold war' it still was the city wich the most crimes on the east coast. That demonstrated President Nixon with Watergate and ended with a simple thief. But this situation changed 1999 with the new black major Anthony Williams. Under President Clinton Washington D.C.

     had an economic recovery till 11. September 2001 when a plain crashed into the right side of the Pnetagon. Today Washington D.C. has an area of 177 km² and 4.6 billion