Weird and Wild 8 Major Cities That Changed Their Names by museumoflostDecember 17, 2017January 15, 2022 The world's major cities seem as unchanging as the continents. But many of them have turbulent histories, and have changed hands, and names several times. FORGOTTEN PLACES <br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h2&gt;8 Major Cities That Changed Their Name&lt;/h2&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;Click Start to open the list.&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h2&gt;NEW YORK - Previously 'New Amsterdam'&lt;/h2&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;After Columbus made his way to the New World in 1492, the European powers of the era raced to try and establish a toe-hold there. In 1624, the Dutch founded a colony on an island in a protected east coast harbour; the island was Manhattan (taken from the native American name ‘Manna-Hatta’), and the township was called ‘New Amsterdam.’ Primarily a fur trapping colony, New Amsterdam occupied the southern tip of the island, roughly where The Battery is today. Note the wall at the eastern end in the picture above, which is where 'Wall St' derives its name. Despite a garrison of Dutch troops, the town's location, far from Europe, made it vulnerable, and in 1664 the English sent four warships to seize the island. This was achieved without bloodshed, the Dutch surrendered, but was the instigator of the second Dutch-English war, which lasted for three years. The British renamed the city New York, after the Duke of York, and were able to retain possession of it, and Manhattan, when a peace treaty was signed in 1667.&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h3&gt;ISTANBUL - Previously 'Byzantine' and 'Constantinople'&lt;/h3&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;Founded around 600 BCE, Turkey’s largest city was originally known as Byzantine, named after a legendary Greek King, Byzas. Classical Greek civilisation was dominant in the region at the time. The city flourished and was quickly established as a wealthy and strategically important trading post, connecting the Mediterranean to Asia. Three hundred years later, Rome was in the ascendancy, and the Roman Emperor, Constantine, took the city as his eastern Capital. He renamed it after himself; Constantinople, a name it would keep until the 20th century (an artists impression of Roman Constantinople is above). The origin of the name ‘Istanbul’ is disputed. Some scholars see it as a variation on the Islamic pronunciation of Constantinople, others as an evolution of ‘Islambul’ (City of Islam), by which the city was known colloquially. Whatever the origin, Istanbul was in common use by the 17th century. But it was not adopted formally until 1928, as part of the secular reforms launched by Ataturk.&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h3&gt;MELBOURNE - Previously 'Batmania'&lt;/h3&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;John Batman, a Tasmanian farmer with entrepreneurial zeal, funded a private expedition to what would become Melbourne in 1835. Navigating the swampy, shallow Yarra river, he was shortly greeted by an agricultural paradise; flat plains, plentiful fresh water, and rich, dark soil. Batman negotiated a treaty with the local Indigenous population, and returned later in the year with settlers and livestock (a rival expedition, lead by John Fawkner, had arrived in the meantime, but the two groups quickly made peace). Initially, Batman named the fledgling colony after himself, 'Batmania' (the picture above shows the town shortly after its founding). But the English colonial authorities, based then in Sydney, declared the settlement illegal, and sent a team to investigate, in 1835. They eventually reached agreement with Batman as well, and allowed the township to continue, with several provisos. One of these was that the town be renamed 'Melbourne', after the then British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne.&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h3&gt;MUMBAI - Previously 'Bombay'&lt;/h3&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;India's second largest city was founded on a series of islands, which were connected by English colonial authorities in the 18th century. The English knew the city as 'Bombay', and made it their administrative centre (one of many British remnants, the 'Gateway of India', is pictured above). But the origin of the name 'Bombay' is obscure. The traditional explanation is that this name derived in the early 16th century from merchant seamen, as a corruption of the Portuguese phrase 'bom baim', meaning 'Good bay'. Other historians trace the name much earlier than this, claiming it comes from the local deity 'Mamba Devi', who was worshipped in the area and who was sometimes referred to as 'Bomba.' Whatever the explanation, the name endured until the election of the nationalistic Shiv Sena party, in 1995. Forming part of a coalition government, Shiv Sena demanded the city name change to Mumbai, which was the traditional local name for the area.&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h3&gt;KANDAHAR - Previously 'Alexandria'&lt;/h3&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;Afghanistan has a long and violent history, with its territory fought over numerous times in the past two millennia. At different stages the country has been occupied by the Ottomans, the Mughals, the British and the Russians, but before any of these, it was invaded by the Macedonian armies of Alexander the Great. Alexander entered the area around 330BCE, as part of a wide ranging campaign against the Persians. Seizing enormous swathes of territory, Alexander founded a number of cities as he advanced, leaving behind a garrison of troops to protect his supply lines (the picture above shows the ruins of an Alexandrian castle, in Afghanistan). One of these new cities was named 'Alexandria', after its founder, and would later come to be known as 'Kandahar'. The exact origin of the name Kandahar is uncertain, although it is most likely a variant on the name Alexander in the local dialect, 'Iskander.'&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h3&gt;TOKYO - Previously 'Edo'&lt;/h3&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;With a population in the greater metropolitan area of around 37 million, Tokyo is one of the world's largest cities. But its origins can be traced to a humble fishing village called Edo, founded in the 12th century by the local Edo clan. The town's fate changed in the 16th century, with the rise of the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who used Edo as his base. A brutal, uncompromising commander, Ieyasu amassed an enormous army, and crushed his enemies at the battle of Sekigahara, in 1600. This lead to his ascension as Shogun, the supreme feudal leader of Japan, in 1603. Edo became the centre of the national government, and its largest city, with a population of 1 million by 1800. In 1868, Emperor Meiji decided to make Edo the Japanese capital, replacing Kyoto (a drawing of 19th century Edo, by Hokusai, is shown above). Local tradition dictated a change of name for the new captial, and the name 'To' (east) and 'Kyo (capital) was chosen.&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h3&gt;JAKARTA - Previously 'Sunda Kelapa' and 'Batavia'&lt;/h3&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is another city that has changed hands numerous times. The city was founded around the 4th century BCE, as part of the Hindu Kingdom of Sunda, which held sway over the western half of Java. It developed into a major trading port, and was called 'Sunda Kelapa' by the local population. European trading ships began arriving in the early 16th century, and Sunda Kelapa was soon at the centre of the lucrative spice trade. This lead to conflict, as the Dutch, Portugese and British all established forts, and competed with each other for supplies of nutmeg and cinnamon. The Dutch had the largest military presence in the area, and seized control of the city in 1619. They renamed it 'Batavia', after an isolated province in the east Netherlands (a 17th century drawing of Dutch Batavia is above). The Dutch retained control of the city, and Java, for a remarkable 300 years, only surrendering control in the aftermath of World War II. After independence in 1949, the local Indonesian authorities renamed the city Jakarta, a traditional name for the city that means 'victorious deed.'&lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;h3&gt;BEIJING - Previously 'Peking'&lt;/h3&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;The area around China's capital city, Beijing, has been occupied by humans for a staggering 250 000 years (predating the last ice age). A walled city has existed for at least 8 000 years, and has been known by many different names; Li, Yanjing, Jicheng, Zhongdu, Fanyang and finally, by the 14th century, Beijing (the Western gate of the city is shown, circa 1600). The city was also known as 'Peking' for several hundred years. In Chinese, 'Beijing' and 'Peking' both have the same spelling, with the latter pronunciation produced by southern Chinese dialects, and the former by dialects in the north. As Europeans first had contact with southern Chinese areas, the name 'Peking' was how the city was first known in the west. The name Beijing means 'Northern Capital'; for two thousand years, China had two capital cities; Beijing in the north, and Nanjing in the south, with the royal court moving between both. Beijing was finally established as China's sole capital in 1949, with the Communist declared Republic consolidating power in their northern stronghold. &lt;/p&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;/section&gt;<br /><br /> &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; More MUSEUM OF LOST Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Related