Brasilia is, today, a large metropolis of nearly 3 million people (the 5th most populous metropolitan area in Brazil). One of the stated motivations to build th

Brasilia is, today, a large metropolis of nearly 3 million people (the 5th most populous metropolitan area in Brazil). One of the stated motivations to build the city near the geographical center of the country was exactly to get more people to move to that region of Brazil, which was, and still is to some degree, severely underpopulated compared to the coast (and has a great terrain for sustaining large populations). Very large protests are commonplace, so if getting away from angry rioters was in the mind of certain politicians at some point :) it definitely did not work (as others said, the project was planned since 1891, started in the 1920's and only finished in 1960).