28 March 1930: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
As soon as the Historic Greek metropolis of Byzantium, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of his Empire to the Bosporus strait, it was renamed Constantinople in his honour.
For hundreds of years, many have referred to the Japanese Roman Empire by the Greek title Byzantium, whereas town itself was renamed as Kostantiniyye when the Ottomans conquered it within the fifteenth century.
It was solely in 1930, after the formation of the Republic of Turkey that town’s title was formally modified to the Turkish title İstanbul. Tracing the nation again to its Greek historical past, the phrase İstanbul originates within the Greek phrase “στην Πόλι” (stim poli) that means “within the metropolis”.
Previous to its renaming, in 1923 Angora changed İstanbul because the capital of the nation and was renamed Ankara.
Simply 23 years later, the title change from Constantinople to İstanbul was the main target of the novelty music ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ by Jimmy Kennedy, famously lined in 1990 by They May Be Giants.
To rejoice the title 93rd anniversary of İstanbul and Ankara’s title modifications, listed here are another cities with attention-grabbing title modifications.
New York
“Even previous New York was as soon as New Amsterdam;
Why they modified it I can not say;
Individuals simply appreciated it higher that manner”
Whereas the Jimmy Kennedy music could declare New York’s title modified was down to simply private desire, the precise cause was all the way down to a monetary commerce between the Dutch and the British.
Within the early seventeenth century, the realm often called New York immediately was beneath the Dutch Empire’s management. Town of New Amsterdam was a part of New Netherland, an space unfold throughout trendy New York and New Jersey and dominated by Director-Normal Peter Stuyvesant.
When English troops attacked in 1664, Stuyvesant couldn’t mount a counter-attack. To keep away from bloodshed, he surrendered the territory to the British. Later, in 1667, by way of the Treaty of Breda, the Dutch agreed to completely relinquish New Amsterdam to the British with a view to acquire management of the Caribbean Banda Islands, on the time the one supply of nutmeg on the planet. And so, New Amsterdam turned New York.
Beijing
So the entry for this one’s going to comply with a barely totally different trajectory to the previous two. Whereas China’s capital has had many various names in its historical past together with Ji and Youzhou, the title Beijing was already in use when the title “Peking” began spreading.
It’s nonetheless repeatedly known as Peking immediately, however why? All of it comes all the way down to the Portuguese missionary Francis Xavier who wrote town’s title as “Pequim” in his letters after the nation first interacted with China in 1550s. The title caught in Europe and China’s capital was often called Peking till 1979 when China’s new romanisation system Pinyin was launched, offering Latin-script pronunciation guides for Mandarin Chinese language, which offered the extra correct spelling of “Beijing”.
Peking is such a pervasive time period although that town’s roast duck delicacy remains to be often called Peking Duck in addition to Beijing’s principal college formally translating its title to “Peking College”.
Saint Petersburg
One other metropolis which has modified its title a good few occasions down the road is Saint Petersburg in Russia. First based by Peter the Nice in 1703, the Russian Tsar had the inventive ingenuity to rename town after Saint Peter.
Saint Petersburg’s founding was seen by many because the creation of the Russian Empire and town stood as its capital till 1917 when the Bolsheviks revolted over the Tsar and moved the capital to Moscow.
Earlier than that, Tsar Nicholas II modified town’s title to Petrograd in 1914, dropping the German associations for a extra Russian sounding title first coined by Alexander Pushkin.
Petrograd lasted for almost a decade earlier than town was renamed Leningrad in 1924 to honour Vladimir Lenin, founding head of the USSR who had died earlier that 12 months. After the autumn of the USSR in 1989, a vote was held on what to rename town in 1991 and it returned to Saint Petersburg.
Astana
Among the many northern steps of contemporary day Kazakhstan, town of Astana immediately gleams with unbelievable buildings, lots of which had been designed by British architect Norman Foster. However it’s been an attention-grabbing experience to achieve this level.
First often called Akmola after it was settled in 1830. It was then given official city standing and renamed Akmolinsk by the Russian Empire. The Soviets renamed it to Tselinograd in 1961.
When Kazakhstan gained its independence in 1991, town’s title reverted again to Akmola. This could final until 1998 when it changed the southern metropolis of Almaty because the capital and it was renamed Astana, that means “capital metropolis” in Kazakh.
Lastly, in simply the final 4 years, Astana’s title was modified to Nur-Sultan in 2019 by then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev. After his resignation, present President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had town renamed Astana in 2022.
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