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Why are American capitals smaller than other cities?

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Alright so this is something I've been thinking about (Im studying geography) and there's got to be a reason for it but I just can't figure out why. In America the capital is and has always been Washington DC which has a very small population compared to the largest American cities. This also applies at the state level - state capitals in America usually have smaller populations than larger cities in their vicinity, for example NYC isn't the capital of its state, neither is LA, Chicago or Houston. This applies countrywide with few exceptions (there are some, I know). This seems to be the case for Canada too.

The question is why does America have this unique phenomenon while other countries do not? I'm not only talking about developing countries but also developed countries like Europe, Japan etc. - this trend is peculiar to the Americas. Thanks for the help.