Dodoma is the capitol of Tanzania. In a quick perusal of the Dodoma wikipedia and Tanzania subreddit, I was surprised by how much of the history of the city infrastructure is from 2000 on.

At first I attributed it to some technological bias (perhaps it became easier to record and report on the East African nation with the advent of the internet and camcorder)? But Dodoma itself is a relatively young city.

It was founded in 1907 by German colonists constructing a railway (to which I'll attribute the "wild west" aesthetic in the photos I've seen of it).

This was following over two years of rebellion by several African tribes against German colonial rule. A few dozen Germans died, and ~75000 to ~300000 African people from various tribes died, mostly due to famine. Wikipedia lists this war under the "Scramble for Africa". I kind of wish I learned about any of this in highschool.

I can't find any history of the location of Dodoma prior to 1907, which may be because it was never a well-populated location in human history, or because conquest sweeped all that other history under the rug. My fledgling African history knowledge is being built up by the minute.

Anyways, Dodoma remained pretty small until independence from British rule, and then a move towards Pan-Africanism and socialism in 1967. At this point, Coastal Dar es Salaam was the capitol of Tanzania, but for socialism reasons I didn't read up on, that was undesirable. Dodoma was chosen as a best next capitol.

A lot was planned for Dodoma that took decades to come to fruition, with a large part due to investment from the Chinese government in the 00s onward, predating China's "Belt and Road Initiative".

Anyways, if you go on r/Tanzania, you'll see some of the most beautiful photos you've ever seen.