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Richmond is the capital of the US state of Virginia. Richmond was founded by William Byrd II in 1737 and named after the English town of Richmond, as the view of the winding James River was similar to that of the River Thames from Richmond Hill. Richmond was incorporated as a town in 1742, and Richmond became the state's new capital on 18 April 1780 due to its central location. In 1781, Loyalist general Benedict Arnold burned Richmond during the Virginia campaign at the end of the American Revolutionary War. After the war, Richmond recoverd and thrived, and the Virginia State Capitol was completed in 1788. Richmond became a port along the James River after President George Washington helped design the James River and Kanawha Canal, and Richmond's canal and hydropower resulted in the city becoming an important industrial center, especially with its iron works and flour mills.

During the American Civil War, Richmond was chosen as the capital of the secessionist Confederacy due to its industrial might; it held the largest arms factory in the Confederacy, the Tredegar Iron Works. Richmond was threatened by Union armies in 1862 and from 1864 to 1865, and the fall of Petersburg to the Union Army in April 1865 led the Confederates to burn down their capital on 3 April 1865 to deny the city's industrial capacity to the federal government. 25% of the city was destroyed, but the city was quickly rebuilt and canal traffic peaked in the 1860s, after which Richmond became a major railroad crossroads and home to the world's first triple railroad crossing. The tobacco industry also played a major role in Richmond's growth, as did the opening of the city's electric trolley system in 1888; these trolleys were replaced by streetcars in 1947. By 1900, Richmond had over 85,000 residents, of whom 62.1% were white and 37.9% Black. While segregated, Richmond was home to a thriving Black business community in the Jackson Ward. In 1910, the former city of Manchester consolidated with Richmond, followed by parts of Henrico County in 1914. During the 1960s, Downtown Richmond experienced a construction boom, and the 1990s saw the creation of a flood wall that enabled business growth in the River District and the development of entertainment, dining, and nightlife activities along the Richmond Canal Walk. However, the construction of highways through Black neighborhoods and deindustrialization led to rising crime in Richmond; by 2005, the city was home to the 2 UP, Baywood Souljas, Blackwell Bottom Boys, Bloods, Boulevard Boys, Brick Yard Block, Broadrock Boys, Chippenham Money-making Boys, Crips, Fulton Hill, Gangster Disciples, Lakeview and Claiborne, Latin Kings, MS-13, Meadow Bridge Boys, Mosby Court Posse, Outcast MC, Rainbow City Coalition, Sureños 13, Vatos Locos, and Ville Boys gangs, to be joined by the Young Guns, 13th Gang, Double II Bloods, Nine Trey Bloods, the Sex Money Murder Bloods, 400, Rollin' 30s Harlem Crips, Hells Angels, Mongols MC, Pagans MC, Wheels of Soul, Black Disciples, 2 Times, Fuck the Opps, Only the Family, Los Lobos, Dolow Crips, and 9 Boyz gangs by 2014. Gentrification led to declining crime rates in former hotspots such as Church Hill, but parts of that neighborhood, as well as Gilpin Court, remained highly dangerous areas. Richmond was among the most dangerous cities in the country from the 1980s to the early 2000s, but, by 2012, the city was no longer in the top 200.

During the 2010s and 2020s, the Richmond area attracted several Fortune 500 companies due to its relatively low taxes and home prices, resulting in the diversification of its population, a boomnig job market, gentrification, and a cultural reckoning about the city's racist past. In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests of 2020, the Confederate monuments along Monument Avenue were taken down, and the city sought to rebrand itself as "RVA" rather than as the "capital of the Confederacy." By 2020, Richmond had 226,610 people, of whom 42.02% were white, 39.93% Black, 10.48% Hispanic, and 2.74% Asian.

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