Madrid is quite unique:
• No river
• Very recent
• Tiny when it became a capital
So why?
These are the rivers of other big European cities & capitals: huge and calm. Why?
Because rivers allowed:
• Drinking
• Irrigation ➡️ food ➡️ population
• Trade: Transport is much cheaper than on roads, so much more trade and wealth
You can see the importance of rivers by the population density in France: it follows the course of rivers! You can tell the confluence of big rivers because they host the biggest population centers—natural markets to trade across the meeting rivers
Compare with Madrid's main river
Do you know its name? No, because it's puny
It's weak. An affront on capital rivers. A feeble stream
Low bridges. Full of sandbars. Why? No point in clearing them. The only thing that navigates the Manzanares is its inferiority complex
If Madrid had been blessed with a huge river, it would have been a huge city in ancient times. But no. In fact, it's a very recent city
Compare its founding with that of other capitals of countries occupied by the Romans. Most are 2k+ y old. Madrid? Barely 1k y old
When it was selected as capital, it wasn't the 1st, or the 2nd, or even the 3rd biggest city in Spain. It was the 10th! Barely over 10k people. A small town!
Back then, most capitals were the biggest, most powerful, best placed city. Why not in Spain?
Blame this guy
Philip II of Spain—who also gave name to the Philippines. Until the 1560s, Spain had an itinerant court. He wanted to fix it in a city. Where?
He had to deal with 2 realities. One was his empire: He needed a capital that was close enough to everything. That was Spain, which was also among the richest parts of his empire.
So he wanted a capital in Spain
This is Spain
What do you notice?
It's criss-crossed with mountain ranges. This has serious consequences
• Spain has a lot of rivers separated from each other by these mountain ranges. This means they're smaller than its Northern Europe equivalents
• Because they go through all these mountains, they aren't navigable*. They couldn't be used much for trade
So no big central city
It also means there are few plains. The few on the coast all developed big populations since Roman times. Barcelona, Valencia, Huelva, Cadiz... All predate the Roman!
This means Spain was (and is) made of islands of coastal population separated by mountains
Another thing to notice: It's surrounded by coasts, but each coast had its own pbms:
• Mediterranean: Deal with the colonies in Italy / Greece and fend off Muslim attacks
• Southwest: Deal with Spain's American colonies
• North: Deal with British attacks & Flemish colonies
Then there are the 2 central plateaux ("mesetas") and the Ebro Valley.
The king had to find a place that connected them all as best as possible.
I mentioned before the king had an itinerant court until then. This was the reason: Too many disconnected power centers
So what was the best connected place in the country at the time?
The red areas in the map below. Noticve they include Madrid and Toledo—which was one of the biggest and most powerful cities at the time.
So why not Toledo as a capital?
This is Toledo. Majestic, on a hill surrounded by the Tajo river
But:
• Streets are small, which is not ideal for travel with your court—and your personal guard
• You can’t grow the city much further
• You can’t determine its urbanism
And Philip II wanted to build. He had visited his Italian and Flemish possessions and wanted to bring its architecture. This is why he built the Escorial Palace
He wanted to do the same with his new capital
Madrid had another benefit: It had a power void.
Toledo and Valladolid had noble and religious leaders who could challenge the king
Not Madrid, which was smaller and had recently lost many nobles due to a failed revolt.
The king had confiscated their lands in Madrid
Madrid had other small benefits:
• Built on a defensible position
• Reliable water from the mountain range
• Air from the mountains (back then, they thought they were the cure against recurring epidemics)
• Forests for hunting
So Philip II chose Madrid in 1561
Once capital, the entire communications network had to be rewired to make Madrid more central. That was the point of the capital after all—allow easy access to all the territory.
Notice how so many Roman road paths have been conserved, but the central part is completely new
This happened over the centuries
More recently, we can see the roads plan of 1926, the highways plan of 1985, the current railroads... Most cross in Madrid
The goal of Madrid's airport was to do the same connecting Spain with the world. It's now the 5th busiest airport in Europe
So Madrid is unique, because its geography had very little to offer—except it was central
But that centrality made it a capital
That centrality gave it infrastructure
That infrastructure made it the most connected place in Spain, hence the biggest market, hence the biggest city
If you want to know more, I have an upcoming article on Madrid. Sign up to the free newsletter to receive it.
And follow me for more threads like that! One every week/month unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/subscribe
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
What makes Budapest unique?
It wasn't just 2 cities (Buda + Pest) but 3-4!
Why?
And why is it where it is?
Why did it become the capital of Hungary?
It's no coincidence, and it explains the history of the country
Look at this:
Thread 🧵
The Pannonian Basin, this huge plain surrounded by mountains, was going to have a capital. But where would it be?
It would probably be on the main artery: the Danube, which splits the plain in half 1. Navigable all the way to Germany—fantastic for trade 2. Drinking water, great for living 3. Water for irrigation ➡️ crops
But early on the Danube had another huge advantage:
Why is Hungary so small?
As this map shows, it could be bigger
It used to host one of the world’s most powerful empires—Austria-Hungary
Now it’s tinier & poorer. What happened?
Explaining it also explains Orbán, or why Hungarians hate their borders🧵
You see that big plain surrounded by mountains? That's a perfect region for a single country: well-connected, fertile plains, protected by an easily-defensible wall of mountains.
That is, indeed, where Hungary was for nearly 1000 years!
It's called the Pannonian Basin
All these mountains catch humidity that flows down as rivers, which criss-cross the country, bringing lots of irrigation
The biggest one is the Danube, so big & gentle that it's navigable, connecting it with Germany & creating trade and wealth along its controllable path
Two shocking events from last week unmasked eco-terrorists disguised as environmentalists:
1. The Philippines banned golden rice, condemning thousands of children to blindness and death 2. German Greens lied to closed nuclear plants
This is what happened and how to reverse it:
1. Golden Rice Ban
Golden Rice has added vitamin A over 100,000 children every year and turns blind over 100,000 more
Golden Rice has additional vitamin A, and eliminates that problem
But Greenpeace got a Filipino court to ban it. Why?
The court says "there's not enough evidence". But there is, proven by safety tests from countries like the US, Canada, and NZ. It is just like rice, except with more Vit A
You think housing prices will keep going up because you've seen it all your life. But this is a historic anomaly that is likely to reverse soon: Prices might start shrinking in many places.
This thread is the case against investing in housing:
Our perception of real estate prices is extremely biased.
Most ppl alive today have only experienced them since WW2, but that's a completely anomalous period!
Prices before did not grow as much. Here are real prices for 14 countries
What happened?
Supply and demand
The last 80 years have seen a growth of housing demand never seen before. At the same time, supply has been shrinking consistently. These trends are all reverting now. Let's look at them in detail:
Why do Jamaicans speak English, when most of its neighboring countries don’t?
Why was the pirate capital there?
Why is it underwater now?
Why did pirates drink rum?
Why are most Jamaicans black?
This map of shipping lanes today gives you a hint:
Jamaica is in the middle of all these shipping lanes, but isn't a major shipping hub today
This is not new: Back in Spanish colonial times, Jamaica was not in the main trade routes either
Spain's main goods were silver from Mexico and Peru and luxury goods from China
Spaniards gathered them in Panama, Portobello, Cartagena, and Veracruz
Ships arrived from Spain to Puerto Rico and left via Habana (Cuba)
Jamaica was not a main port
Why?