When our country was founded, several states wanted to have the capital in their state. It was decided instead that the capital should be on -federal- land, land not belonging to any state. So some land was taken from Virginia and Maryland and the capital was built on this land.Originally there were no people actually living in this district, it was just govt. buildings. It s only recently that people in DC were allowed to vote in national elections!The District fo Columbia is named after Columbus. A lot of people think the New World should have been named Columbia rather than America, after Amerigo Vespucci, who was only a mapmaker. The South American nation of Colombia (notice different spelling) is also named after Columbus.
Back in the early days of the United States, the states had much more control than they do now. A riot broke out in Philadelphia against the members of the federal delegation. The federal delegation was powerless to force the Pennsylvania authorities for help and the federal delegation had to flee to nearby New Jersey.To prevent a similar situation, the federal government decided to be located in a city that it had control over. It created the federal Territory of Columbia which became the District of Columbia in 1871.Columbia (with a u) is a poetic term for America. The unofficial national anthem was Hail Columbia prior to The Star Spangled Banner . It has nothing to do with the South American country of Colombia (with an o), other than they both derive their names from Christopher Columbus.