Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
4.3.2.1
The Characteristics of the Period and Its Refl ection on the Design
and Plan of the Capital
The construction of the city of Washington was one of the victorious achievements
gained by the North American people who fought against the colonization of its suzerain
state the Great Britain. The nature of this struggle was fully expressed in the Declaration
of Independence approved by the Continental Congress convened by delegates from 13
colonies in North America. The Declaration held “all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the original draft there was a chapter concern-
ing the abolition of slavery, but it was deleted for the opposition from the representatives
of the State of South Carolina. Karl Marx highly esteemed the Declaration and he
claimed that “It is the fi rst declaration of human rights”.
9
It was the time of the rise of
capitalism in North America, and the people of all classes reacted enthusiastically to the
Declaration, including the most oppressed blacks, who also joined in the struggle against
the British oppressors and made signifi cant contributions.
After the War of Independence, the ruling class of the new born country came to
realize that their acquired social status and power must be further confi rmed and
consolidated. Hence they started the Constitution Movement, in an attempt to
defend their acquired privilege by means of the establishment of the American
Constitution. Two years before the founding of the United States of America, in
Philadelphia, the old capital or temporary capital before the building of the city of
Washington, the Constitutional Convention took place and created the United States
Constitution, which formulated the three divisions of power—the Legislature, the
Judiciary, and the Executive, as the principle of governmental organization. Later,
when L'Enfant set out to plan the construction of the new capital Washington, this
principle was also adopted as the guiding line, which was shown in the layout of the
three main structures of the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court. It is
diffi cult to identify the exact location of the Supreme Court in today's city plan. The
present Supreme Court is built to the northeast of the Capitol, not far away from the
latter. Nevertheless, such layout still indicates the idea of the division of power.
The most salient and infl uential feature of L'Enfant's plan is the determination of
main axis line centered on the Capitol Hill, and along the axis he reserved the space for
the Mall, which laid the basis for the development of the nuclear area of Washington in
the future. This section of the axis resembled that part from the Scenic Hill (Jing Shan)
to the Zheng Yang Men on the axis of Old City of Beijing in its signifi cance to the
whole plan of the city. Nevertheless, the concepts represented by the two were totally
different for the one in the Old City of Beijing emphasized the doctrine of “Almighty
Sovereignty” while its counterpart in Washington tried to demonstrate the importance
of human rights. Thus the approaches to municipal design and planning were also dif-
ferent. The former chose the strictly enclosed design, while the latter chose to be “com-
pletely open to all”. Different concepts gave rise to different forms of expression.
9
Complete Works of Marx and Engels
(in Chinese), vol. 16, People's Press, 1964, p. 20.
