Capital cities with word city

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Capital cities in Europe

Capital cities in the Americas

Capital cities on the Australian continent

Capital cities in Africa

Capitals of Oceania

What is a capital city?

In most cases, the capital is a central city with the most important collection of political institutions. Originally this meant the seat of government. However, as it happens from time to time, that a seat of government is moved, and the term persisting capital has become more and more popular. Today, this term has mainly symbolic meaning and is not always synonymous with the seat of government.

For example, the Dutch have the seat of government in The Hague, while the capital is Amsterdam. Germany also had several seats of government (Berlin, Bonn and for a short time Flensburg) while the capital city was Bonn from 1949 to 1990. Before and after that, it has always been Berlin.

There is a special feature in South Africa. Here there is no official single capital city, as its tasks were distributed over several cities. The seat of the executive is Pretoria, the legislative has its seat in Cape Town and the judiciary in Bloemfontein. The seat of government, however, is only in Pretoria, which is why this city is usually considered the de facto capital.

Political and economic center

In many cases, the capital is also the largest or at least one of the largest cities in the country. The capital is considered a stable center and therefore attracts large companies. However, there are exceptions to this rule: Washington D.C. may be the capital of the USA, but due to the vastness of the country, it has never been able to develop into the economic center. To date, Washington is not even among the 20 largest cities in the country.

Smallest capitals in the world

By far, the smallest capitals in the world are Adamstown on the Pitcairn Islands with 40 inhabitants and King Edward Point on the South Sandwich Islands with only 18 inhabitants. Neither of these are independent and sovereign states, but British overseas territories. Montserrat is also a British overseas territory. According to the constitution, the city Plymouth is still the official capital. After several volcanic eruptions between 1995 and 1997, there is no longer a single resident and access to the city is closed. The city of Brades became the de facto capital afterwards.

Data as CSV file

A more detailed list of all capital cities can also be found as a CSV file in the download area.

World Capital Cities — Sortable alphabetically by World Capitals or Countries

World Capital Cities with their country
in a sortable table.

Click the table headings to sort the capital cities or countries alphabetically.

Country and Capital City columns can also be switched:

¹ The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government is in Cotonou.

² La Paz is the seat of the government and the de facto capital of Bolivia. Sucre is the official capital, as defined in the Bolivian constitution.

³ The political capital of Burundi is Gitega (December 2018). Bujumbura remains the seat of the government and economic capital.

⁴ The political capital of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is Yamoussoukro in the centre of the country, while its economic capital and largest city is the port city of Abidjan.

⁵ Czechia was made the official short name of Czech Republic on 14 April 2016.

⁶ England is a constituent part of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom. Although not fully independent, it is widely referred to as a country.

⁷ In 2018 the king of Swaziland proclaimed his nation would be henceforth known as Eswatini. The country’s name in its constitution has not yet been changed from Swaziland.

⁸ Mbabane is the administrative capital of Eswatini (Swaziland), while Lobamba is the legislative and royal capital of the country.

⁹ Construction of a new capital city, Nusantara, is planned to begin in mid-2023 and is set to replace Jakarta as Indonesia’s capital by late 2024.

¹⁰ Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital and its unresolved status is one of the core questions at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in December 1949 in defiance of the UN General Assembly’s decision earlier that month to reaffirm the international neutral zone (Corpus Separatum) status of the city. Due to the UN decision, very few countries recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and as a result almost all the international embassies in Israel are located in Tel Aviv.
Most countries maintain a position of ‘non-recognition’ of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Non-recognition is a legal term used in international law to apply to any situation established in violation of the League of Nations Pact (resolution 11 March 1932). UN Security Council resolutions 476 and 478 (1980) assert that Israel is in violation of the Pact, having unlawfully occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem since 1967. Under international law, such an occupation precludes Israel from claiming sovereignty on the city.
More than 135 United Nations member countries recognise Palestine as an independent state, but Israel and a few other countries, including the United States, do not make this distinction. The United States recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, a significant but rare exception to the decades of international non-recognition consensus on the highly contested city.

¹¹ Astana (previously named Nur-Sultan) is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The name was changed to Nur-Sultan in March 2019, in honour of outgoing President Nursultan Nazarbayev, reverting to Astana in September 2022.

¹² Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city of Malaysia while Putrajaya is the seat of federal government.

¹³ Construction of Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, began in secrecy in 2002. Built under military rule, it is four times the size of London and strangely empty.

¹⁴ Amsterdam is the constitutional capital of the Netherlands. The Hague is the seat of the government and residence of the monarchy.

¹⁵ As a result of a dispute with Greece over the name ‘Macedonia’, the country renamed itself Republic of North Macedonia in February 2019.

¹⁶ Northern Ireland is a constituent part of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom. Although not fully independent, it is widely referred to as a country.

¹⁷ Palestine is a partially recognised sovereign state, recognised by 138 of the 193 UN members. It has had a status of a non-member observer state in the United Nations since 2012.

¹⁸ The status of Jerusalem is disputed in both international law and diplomatic practice, with both the Israelis and Palestinians claiming Jerusalem as their capital city. Israel exercises de facto control over Jerusalem, but Palestine and Israel’s claims to Jerusalem are not recognized by the international community. Ramallah is the administrative capital where government institutions and foreign representative offices are located, while most countries maintain their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv.

¹⁹ Scotland is a constituent part of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom. Although not fully independent, it is widely referred to as a country.

²⁰ South Africa has no legally defined capital city. The country’s three branches of government are split over different cities: Pretoria (executive), Bloemfontein (judicial) and Cape Town (legislative). Most foreign embassies are located in Pretoria.

²¹ Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the administrative capital of Sri Lanka and official seat of government. It is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.

²² Taiwan is officially known as the Republic of China (ROC) and has limited diplomatic recognition as an independent country. China claims sovereignty over its territory.

²³ De facto Tanzania’s capital remains in Dar es Salaam, the site of the executive branch offices and diplomatic representation.

²⁴ Turkey is now officially known as Türkiye after the country’s government moved to escape associations with the ground-feeding festive bird and a term for failure. The United Nations adopted the new name in June 2022 at Ankara’s request.

²⁵ The de facto capital of Tuvalu is the village of Vaiaku, where most government offices are located.

²⁶ Wales is a constituent part of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom. Although not fully independent, it is widely referred to as a country.

²⁷ Yemen’s constitutionally stated capital is Sana’a, but this city has been under Houthi rebel control since February 2015. Yemen’s capital has been temporarily relocated to the port city of Aden, the former capital of South Yemen.

Complete the text with the words from the box.
capital, founded, exhibitions, cities, interest, sights, worth

Cardiff is the largest city in Wales. It is also the capital of the country. Cardiff is one of the greenest _ in Great Britain. Cardiff has a lot of places of _ . One of its most famous _ is Cardiff Castle. It is situated in the centre of the city. Cardiff Castle was _ 2,000 years ago and it is the symbol of the city. Tourists from different countries visit the city every year. They go sightseeing, visit museums and _ , and walk in the green parks. The city is _ visiting.

So I get strange queries. I noticed one recently from somebody who wanted to know the name of each national capital city composed of two or more words. No, I didn’t try to figure out the logic. I have no idea why they wanted to find this. If people ever learned to do things like Google “wikipedia list of capital cities” then my one-time readership would drop like a rock. However I’m frequently happy to indulge these anonymous requests because they provide good source material for the blog. Often I learn something new along the way.

Generating the List

I’ll start by defining some rules and parameters. Let’s include true national capitals and not the government seats of territories that fall within the control of parent nations. Unfortunately this removed my favorite town name, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas on the island of Tristan da Cunha, part of a British Overseas Territory. Well, if you’re going to name your town after a place that already exists, go big I always say. So the founders weren’t content with New Edinburgh or something lame like that. Edinburgh of the Seven Seas has a much more wonderful and imaginative ring to it.

Next, let’s realize that I’m looking at lists in English. Some cities may not be composed of multiple words when viewed in their native languages. Therefore this whole exercise is silly to begin with. So what. I’m going with it anyway.

Finally, we need to deal with punctuation. I considered a hyphen a separator between words but an apostrophe as joining the parts into a single word. Again, it’s arbitrary. Let’s not over-think it.

National capitals of two or more words began to fall into distinct patterns. I’m not sure if this would remain true if we considered the larger list of single-word national capitals. Maybe I’ll save that for a future article if the audience expresses interest.

Religious Etymology

Examples include:

• Antigua and Barbuda: St. John’s
• Argentina: Buenos Aires
• Bolivia: La Paz
• Cambodia: Phnom Penh
• Costa Rica: San José
• Dominican Republic: Santo Domingo
• El Salvador: San Salvador
• Grenada: St. George’s
• San Marino: San Marino
• São Tomé and Príncipe: São Tomé

Lots of capitals derive their names from highly pious people. Christian saints were particularly popular, brought across oceans by colonial powers whether English (Saint, St.), Spanish (San, Santo) or Portuguese (São). As an aside, does anyone know when San versus Santo should be used in Spanish? I’ve wondered about that intermittently. What makes a holy person a San versus a Santo?

Argentina and Bolivia are perhaps less obvious. It becomes much more clear when one understands that the original name for Buenos Aires is Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre (“City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds”) and the full name of La Paz is Nuestra Señora de La Paz (“Our Lady of Peace”). That realization delivers us back to that saintly theme again.

I think my favorite is Phnom Penh. The city name references a temple of the Lady Penh. By legend, she’s credited with building the original temple at this spot in the 14th Century.

Named for What Surrounds It

I reserved this category for city planners with little imagination, a.k.a the Boring Category. “Hey, I’ve got an idea — let’s name the capital for the land that surrounds it.” Yawn.

Examples include:

• Andorra: Andorra la Vella
• Guatemala: Guatemala City
• Kuwait: Kuwait City
• Mexico: Mexico City
• Panama: Panama City
• Vatican City: Vatican City

There are some little trivial nuggets even within this bland grouping. La Vella translates to “The Old” so at least they recognize an original Andorra and the rest of Andorra. Also, I’d always assumed that the Vatican referred to something early in the history of Christianity. In that instance it could be included on the religious etymology list. Actually it’s considerably older and may even date back to the Etruscan era. It refers to the name of the hill sitting under the city (which is not one of the seven hills of Rome by the way. But that’s a different story).

Recognizing the Role of Commerce

Examples include:

• Benin: Porto-Novo
• Hait: Port-au-Prince
• Mauritius: Port Louis
• Papua New Guinea: Port Moresby
• Trinidad and Tobago: Port of Spain
• Vanuatu: Port Vila

Trade and commerce come to mind with this particular grouping. Once again we see the old hand of colonial powers at work, as they extracted commodities from various corners of the globe. Ports became important conduits, which became significant towns and eventually national capitals after the Europeans relinquished their empires. The most poignant of these locations has to be Porto-Novo, Benin. In Portuguese this translates to “New Port” and the cargo passing through this portal were humans shackled into generations of slavery.

… And the Rest

The final group fell into a miscellaneous category. Their etymologies were often more interesting than the other groupings.

• Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur started as a Nineteenth Century mining town and translates to “muddy confluence,” where the Gombak and Klang Rivers joined.
• United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi means “father of deer.” There’s no consensus around how this came about.
• Ethiopia: Addis Ababa is the “new flower” in Ethiopia’s Amharic language. This makes sense when one learns that Addis Ababa dates only to 1886 in this otherwise ancient land.
• Brunei: Bandar Seri Begawan was named for the Sultan’s late father in 1970. Before that it was Bandar Brunei (i.e., Brunei Town) so it’s been rescued from the unimaginative category

Here’s a mystery for the 12MC crowd: What is the story behind Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka? That’s the only one I couldn’t find.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the government’s offices and meeting places; the status as capital is often designated by its law or constitution. In some jurisdictions, including several countries, different branches of government are in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the official (constitutional) capital and the seat of government, which is in another place.

English-language news media often use the name of the capital city as an alternative name for the government of the country of which it is the capital, as a form of metonymy. For example, «relations between Washington and London» refers to «relations between the United States and the United Kingdom».^[1]

Terminology and etymology[edit]

The word capital derives from the Latin word caput (genitive capitis), meaning ‘head’.

In several English-speaking states, the terms county town and county seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In some unitary states, subnational capitals may be known as ‘administrative centres’. The capital is often the largest city of its constituent, though not always.

Origins[edit]

Historically, the major economic centre of a state or region has often become the focal point of political power, and became a capital through conquest or federation.^[2] Examples are ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, ancient Athens, Rome, Bratislava, Budapest, Constantinople, Chang’an, ancient Cusco, Kyiv, Madrid, Paris, Podgorica, London, Beijing, Prague, Tallinn, Tokyo, Lisbon, Riga, Vilnius, and Warsaw. (The modern capital city has, however, not always existed: in medieval Western Europe, an itinerant (wandering) government was common.)^[3]

The capital city naturally attracts politically motivated people and those whose skills are needed for efficient administration of national or imperial governments, such as lawyers, political scientists, bankers, journalists, and public policy makers. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres,^[4] e.g. Constantinople (more than one religion), Rome/Vatican City (the Roman Catholic Church), Jerusalem (more than one religion), Babylon, Moscow (the Russian Orthodox Church), Belgrade (the Serbian Orthodox Church), Paris, and Beijing. In some countries, the capital has been changed for geopolitical reasons; Finland’s first city, Turku, which had served as the country’s capital since the Middle Ages under the Swedish rule, lost its right during the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812, when Helsinki was made the current capital of Finland by the Russian Empire.^[5]

The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal. Traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e.g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its capital city, as occurred at Babylon^[6] and Cahokia. «Political nomadism» was practiced in ancient Near East to increase ties between the ruler and the subjects.^[7]

Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, including Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, and Wellington. They are recognized as capitals as a matter of convention, and because all or almost all the country’s central political institutions, such as government departments, supreme court, legislature, embassies, etc., are located in or near them.

Modern capitals[edit]

Many modern capital cities are located in the centre of countries so they are more accessible to its population and have better protection from possible invasions. (See also § Capitals in military strategy) The location may also be based on a compromise among two or more cities or other political divisions, historical reasons, or enough land was needed to deliberately build a new planned city for the capital.^[8] The majority of national capitals are also the largest city in their respective countries, but this is not the case in some countries.

Counties in the United Kingdom have historic county towns, which are often not the largest settlement within the county and often are no longer administrative centres, as many historical counties are now only ceremonial, and administrative boundaries are different. The number of new capitals in the world increased substantially since the Renaissance period, especially with the founding of independent nation-states since the eighteenth century.^[9]

In Canada, there is a federal capital, while the ten provinces and three territories each have capital cities. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil (including the famous cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, capitals of their respective states), and Australia also each have capital cities. For example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the term «capital cities» is regularly used to refer to those six state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra, and Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory. Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and also of the United Arab Emirates overall.

In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent nations, such as the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Denmark, each will usually have its own capital city. Unlike in federations, there is usually not a separate national capital, but rather the capital city of one constituent nation will also be the capital of the state overall, such as London, which is the capital of England and of the United Kingdom. Similarly, each of the autonomous communities of Spain and regions of Italy has a capital city, such as Seville and Naples, while Madrid is the capital of the Community of Madrid and of the Kingdom of Spain as a whole and Rome is the capital of Italy and of the region of Lazio.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, each of its constituent states (or Länder, plural of Land) has its own capital city, such as Dresden, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, and Munich, as do all of the republics of the Russian Federation. The national capitals of Germany and Russia (the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the federal city of Moscow) are also constituent states of both countries in their own right. Each of the states of Austria and cantons of Switzerland also have their own capital cities. Vienna, the national capital of Austria, is also one of the states, while Bern is the (de facto) capital of both Switzerland and of the Canton of Bern.

Planned capitals[edit]

Governing entities sometimes plan, design and build new capital cities to house the seat of government of a polity or of a subdivision. Deliberately planned and designed capitals include:

• Abuja, Nigeria (1991)
• Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil (1855)
• Ankara, Turkey (1923)
• Astana, Kazakhstan (1997)
• Austin, Texas, US (1839)
• Belmopan, Belize (1970)
• Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil (1897)
• Brasília, Brazil (1960)
• Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India (1948)
• Canberra, Australia (1927)
• Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana, India (1966)
• Columbia, South Carolina, US (1786)
• Constantinople, Roman Empire (324–330)
• Frankfort, Kentucky, US (1792)
• Gaborone, Botswana (1964)
• Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India (1960)
• Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil (1933)
• Huambo (Nova Lisboa), Huambo, Angola (1912)
• Indianapolis, Indiana, US (1825)
• Islamabad, Pakistan (1960)
• Jefferson City, Missouri, US (1821)
• La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina (1882)
• Nava Raipur or Atal Nagar, Chhattisgarh, India (2003)
• Naypyidaw, Myanmar (2005–2006)
• New Delhi, British India (1911)
• Nusantara, Indonesia (2024)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US (1889)
• Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (1857)
• Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil (1989)
• Putrajaya, Malaysia (1995)
• Quezon City, Philippines (1948–76)
• Raleigh, North Carolina, US (1792)
• Smederevo, Serbian Despotate (1428–1459)
• Soltaniyeh, Ilkhanate (1306–1335)
• Valletta, Malta (1571)
• Washington, D.C., US (1800)
• Zhongxing New Village, Nantou County, Taiwan Province, Rep. of China (1956)

These cities satisfy one or both of the following criteria:

1. A deliberately planned city that was built expressly to house the seat of government, superseding a capital city that was in an established population center. There have been various reasons for this, including overcrowding in that major metropolitan area, and the desire to place the capital city in a location with a better climate (usually a less tropical one).
2. A town that was chosen as a compromise among two or more cities (or other political divisions), none of which was willing to concede to the other(s) the privilege of being the capital city. Usually, the new capital is geographically located roughly equidistant between the competing population centres.

Compromise locations[edit]

Some examples of the second situation (compromise locations) are:

• Canberra, Australia, chosen as a compromise location between Melbourne and Sydney.
• Washington, D.C., United States, founded as a compromise between more urbanized Northern states and agrarian Southern slave states to share national power. The Compromise of 1790, resulted in the passage of the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River on land ceded from Maryland and Virginia.^[10]
• Frankfort, Kentucky, midway between Louisville and Lexington.
• Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, along the boundary between the two former colonies that formed the core of pre-Confederation Canada—primarily English-speaking Upper Canada and primarily French-speaking Lower Canada. Today, this border separates the two most populous of Canada’s ten modern provinces, Ontario and Quebec.
• Tallahassee, Florida, chosen as the midpoint between Pensacola and St. Augustine, Florida – then the two largest cities in Florida.
• Wellington became the capital city of New Zealand in 1865. It lies at the southern tip of the North Island of New Zealand, the smaller of New Zealand’s two main islands (which subsequently became the more populous island)^[11] immediately across Cook Strait from the South Island. The previous capital, Auckland, lies much further north in the North Island; the move followed a long argument for a more central location for parliament.^[12]
• Managua, Nicaragua, chosen to appease rivals in León and Granada, which also were associated with the liberal and conservative political factions respectively
• Jefferson City, Missouri was selected as the state capital in 1821, the year after Missouri was admitted to the Union, due to its central location within the state. It is almost halfway between Missouri’s two largest cities, Kansas City in the west and St. Louis in the east, although Kansas City was not incorporated until 1850.

Changes in a nation’s political regime sometimes result in the designation of a new capital. Akmola (renamed Astana in 1998) became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Naypyidaw was founded in Burma’s interior as the former capital, Rangoon, was claimed to be overcrowded.^[13]

Unusual capital city arrangements[edit]

A few nation-states have multiple capitals, and there are also several states that have no capital. Some have a city as the capital but with most government agencies elsewhere.

There is also a ghost town which is currently the de jure capital of a territory: Plymouth in Montserrat.

• Belize: Belmopan was designated the national capital in 1971, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Belize City.
• Canary Islands (Spain): Until 1927, the capital of the Province of Canarias was Santa Cruz de Tenerife. When the Canary Islands became an autonomous community in 1982, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria were both given capital status.^[14][15] There is currently a balance of institutions between the two capitals; the Canary Islands is the only autonomous community in Spain which has two capitals.
• Chile: Santiago is the capital even though the National Congress of Chile meets in Valparaíso.
• Estonia: the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Education and Research are located in Tartu.
• France: The French constitution does not recognize any capital city in France. By law^[16] Paris is the seat of both houses of Parliament (the National Assembly and the Senate), but their joint congresses are held at the Palace of Versailles. In case of emergency, the seat of the constitutional powers can be transferred to another town, in order for the Houses of Parliament to sit in the same location as the President and Cabinet.
• Germany: The official capital Berlin is home to the parliament and the highest bodies of the executive branch (consisting of the ceremonial presidency and effective chancellery). Various ministries are located in the former West German capital of Bonn, which now has the title «Federal City». The Federal Constitutional Court has its seat in Karlsruhe which, as a consequence, is sometimes called Germany’s «judicial capital»; none of Germany’s highest judicial organs are located in Berlin. Various German government agencies are located in other parts of Germany.
• India:
  • Andhra Pradesh: Hyderabad is the de jure capital of the state until 2024, while Amaravati is the de facto seat of government. The Governor of Andhra Pradesh has his official residence in Vijayawada
  • Chhattisgarh: Raipur is the administrative and legislative capital, while the high court (judiciary capital) is located in Bilaspur. The proposed future capital is Nava Raipur.
  • Jammu and Kashmir: Srinagar serves as the summer capital of the state while Jammu is the winter capital. Every six months, the entire state machinery shifts from one city to another.
  • Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram is the administrative and legislative capital of the state, while the high court is located in Ernakulam.
  • Himachal Pradesh: Shimla is the primary capital city. Dharamshala, which is also the headquarters of the Central Tibetan Administration, is the second winter capital of the state.
  • Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal is the administrative and legislative capital of the state, while the high court is located in Jabalpur.
  • Punjab and Haryana: Both states share Chandigarh as their capital city. The city itself is administered as a Union territory.
  • Odisha: Bhubaneswar is the administrative and legislative capital of the state, while the high court is located in Cuttack.
  • Rajasthan: Jaipur is the administrative and legislative capital of the state, while the high court is located in Jodhpur.
  • Uttarakhand: Dehradun is the administrative and legislative capital, while the high court is located in Nainital. The proposed future capital is Gairsain.
  • Ladakh: Leh and Kargil serve as joint capitals of the Union Territory.
• South Korea: Seoul remains as the capital and seat of the government’s branches, but many government agencies have moved to Sejong City.
• Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur is the constitutional capital, home of the King, and seat of Parliament, but the federal administrative centre and judiciary have been moved 30 kilometres (19 mi) south to Putrajaya.
• Monaco, Singapore, and the Vatican City are city-states, and thus do not contain any distinct capital city as a whole. However, in Singapore’s case, the main judiciary and legislative offices are located in the Downtown Core. Similarly, while Victoria was the capital of colonial Hong Kong, the heart of old Victoria, now known as Central, serves as the seat of government offices today. Vatican City, however, is the religious centre of the Roman Catholic Church and houses the offices and departments of Holy See which serves as the government of both the city-state and worldwide Catholic Church.
• Montenegro: The official capital Podgorica is home to the parliament and the executive, but the seat of the presidency is in the former royal capital of Cetinje.
• Myanmar (Burma): Naypyidaw was designated the national capital in 2005, the same year it was founded, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Yangon (Rangoon).
• Nauru: Nauru, a microstate of only 21 square kilometres (8.1 sq mi), has no distinct capital city, but has a capital district instead.
• Pakistan: Islamabad is a modern purpose-built capital city. Its construction started in 1960 and was completed in 1966. The capital was first shifted temporarily from Karachi to Rawalpindi in 1960, and then to Islamabad when essential development work was completed. It was built as a forward capital for strategic and economic reasons.
• Philippines: Presidential Decree No. 940, issued on 24 June 1976, designates the whole of National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila as the seat of government, with the City of Manila as the country’s capital.^[17] Some national government institutions and agencies are located within the Manila capital city, while others are scattered on other parts of the metropolitan area. The presidential palace (Malacañang Palace, serving as the seat of the President of the Philippines) and the Supreme Court are located within the capital city while the two houses of Congress are located outside the capital Manila but within the metropolis of the same name.
• Portugal:
  • National capital: the Portuguese constitution has no reference to a capital. Although Lisbon is home to the Parliament, the President’s and the Prime Minister’s official residences, all the Government’s departments, all the embassies and the highest courts, no Portuguese official document states that Lisbon is the national capital.^[18]
  • Azores: since the establishment of local autonomy in 1976, the Azores has three designated regional capital cities: Ponta Delgada at São Miguel Island (seat of the Autonomous Government); Horta at Faial Island (seat of the Legislative Assembly); and Angra do Heroísmo at Terceira Island (seat of the judiciary and the historical capital of the Azores, in addition to being the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Angra).
• Sri Lanka: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is designated the administrative capital and the location of the parliament, while the former capital, Colombo, is now designated as the «commercial capital».^[19][20] However, many government offices are still located in Colombo. Both cities are in the Colombo District.
• South Africa: The administrative capital is Pretoria, the legislative capital is Cape Town, and the judicial capital is Bloemfontein. This is the outcome of the compromise that created the Union of South Africa in 1910. Despite Bloemfontein’s status as the judicial capital, the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, sits in its largest city, Johannesburg.
• Switzerland: Bern is the Federal City of Switzerland and functions as de facto capital. However, the Swiss Supreme Court is located in Lausanne which is also the Olympic Capital.
  • Canton of Zurich: Zurich is the de facto capital of the canton, but the cantonal constitution makes no mention of a capital city.^[21]
• Tanzania: Dodoma was designated the national capital in 1996, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Dar es Salaam.^[22]
• United States:
  • California: The executive and legislative branches and most government agencies are based in Sacramento but the California Supreme Court is headquartered in San Francisco with secondary meeting places in Sacramento and Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}
  • Illinois: Springfield has the seats of the branches of government and serves as the official capital. However various Illinois government officials primarily reside in or are primarily active in Chicago.^[23][24] (see: Government of Illinois § Capital city for a further explanation)
  • Louisiana: The executive and legislative branches and most government agencies are based in Baton Rouge, but the Louisiana Supreme Court is located in New Orleans.
  • New York: The state capital and government are headquartered in Albany, but many officials are mostly active in or live in New York City.^{[citation needed]}
  • Pennsylvania: The capital is Harrisburg but each one of the state Supreme Court and its two appellate courts holds hearings in the three cities of Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Also, most statewide elected officials and officers who are based in Southeast Pennsylvania (City of Philadelphia, Bucks County, Montgomery County, Delaware County, and Chester County) prefer working mostly in Philadelphia.^{[citation needed]}

Capitals that are not the seat of government[edit]

There are several countries where, for various reasons, the official capital and de facto seat of government are separated:

• Benin: Porto-Novo is the official capital, but Cotonou is the seat of government.
• Bolivia: Sucre is the constitutional capital, and the supreme tribunal of justice is located in Sucre, making it the judicial capital. The Palacio Quemado, the national congress and national electoral court are located in La Paz, making it the seat of government.
• Ivory Coast: Yamoussoukro was designated the national capital in 1983, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Abidjan.
• Netherlands: Amsterdam is the constitutional national capital even though the Dutch government, the parliament, the supreme court, the Council of State, and the work palace of the King are all located in The Hague, as are all the embassies. (For more details see: Capital of the Netherlands.)

Some historical examples of similar arrangements, where the recognized capital was not the official seat of government:

• Kingdom of England: The traditional capital was the City of London, while Westminster, outside of the boundaries of the City of London, was the seat of government. They are both today part of the urban core of Greater London.
• Kingdom of France: The traditional capital was Paris, though from 1682 to 1789 the seat of government was at the Palace of Versailles, located in a rural area southwest of Paris.

Disputed capitals[edit]

• Cyprus and Northern Cyprus: Nicosia, «the last divided capital»,^[25] is divided in two by the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus (Green Line). Both the Republic of Cyprus,^[26] which has de facto control of the south, and the largely unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,^[27] which has de facto control of North Nicosia, claim the entire city as their capital.
• Israel and Palestine: Both the Government of Israel^[28] and the Palestinian Authority^[29] claim Jerusalem as their capital. Jerusalem serves as Israel’s capital, with the presidential residence, government offices, supreme court and parliament (Knesset) located there, while the Palestinian Authority has no de facto or de jure control over any of Jerusalem. Many countries, with the notable exception of the United States, which recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,^[30] take the position that the final status of Jerusalem is unsettled pending future negotiations. Most countries maintain their diplomatic missions to Israel in Tel Aviv, while diplomatic missions to Palestine are in various places such as Ramallah, Gaza City, Cairo and Damascus.

Capital as symbol[edit]

With the rise of the modern nation-state, the capital city has become a symbol for the state and its government, and imbued with political meaning. Unlike medieval capitals, which were declared wherever a monarch held his or her court, the selection, relocation, founding, or capture of a modern capital city is a highly symbolic event. For example:

• The ruined and almost uninhabited Athens was made capital of newly independent Greece in 1834, four years after the country gained its independence, with the romantic notion of reviving the glory of Ancient Greece.^[31] Similarly, following the Cold War and German reunification, Berlin is now once again the capital of Germany.^[32] Other restored capital cities include Moscow after the October Revolution.
• A symbolic relocation of a capital city to a geographically or demographically peripheral location may be for either economic or strategic reasons (sometimes known as a forward capital or spearhead capital). Peter the Great moved his government from Moscow to Saint Petersburg to give the Russian Empire a European orientation.^[33] The economically significant city of Nafplion became the first capital of Greece, when Athens was an unimportant village.^[34] The Ming emperors moved their capital to Beijing from the more central Nanjing to help supervise the border with the Mongols. During the 1857 rebellion, Indian rebels considered Delhi their capital, and Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed emperor, but the ruling British had their capital in Calcutta. In 1877, the British formally held a ‘Durbar’ in Delhi, proclaiming Queen Victoria as ‘Empress of India’. Delhi finally became the colonial capital after the Coronation Durbar of King-Emperor George V in 1911, continuing as independent India’s capital from 1947. Other examples include Abuja, Astana, Brasília, Helsinki, Islamabad, Naypyidaw, and Yamoussoukro.
• The selection or founding of a «neutral» capital city, one unencumbered by regional or political identities, was meant to represent the unity of a new state when Ankara, Bern, Brasília, Canberra, Madrid, Ottawa and Washington became capital cities. Sometimes, the location of a new capital city was chosen to terminate actual or potential squabbling between various entities, such as in the cases of Brasília, Canberra, Ottawa, Washington, Wellington and Managua.
• The British-built town of New Delhi represented a simultaneous break and continuity with the past, the location of Delhi being where many imperial capitals were built (Indraprastha, Dhillika, and Shahjahanabad) but the actual capital being the new British-built town designed by Edwin Lutyens. Wellington, on the southwestern tip of the North Island of New Zealand, replaced the much more northerly city of Auckland to place the national capital close to the South Island and hence to placate its residents, many of whom had sympathies with separatism.
• During the American Civil War, tremendous resources were expended to defend Washington, D.C., which bordered on the Confederate States of America (with the Commonwealth of Virginia), from Confederate attack even though the relatively small federal government could easily have been moved elsewhere. Likewise, great resources were expended by the Confederacy in defending the Confederate capital from attack by the Union, in its exposed location of Richmond, Virginia, barely 100 miles (160 km) south of Washington, D.C.^[35]
• Two national capitals refer to another sovereign state. The name of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is thought to be derived from Taani linn, originally meaning «Danish Castle» and now «Danish Town» in Estonian, named after the Toompea Castle, which Denmark controlled in 1219–1227, 1238–1332 and in 1340–1346.^[36] Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, was named so in Spanish by the first settlers from Spain in the 16th century.^[37] See List of national capital city name etymologies for more.

Capitals in military strategy[edit]

The capital city is usually but not always a primary target in a war, as capturing it usually guarantees capture of much of the enemy government, victory for the attacking forces, or at the very least demoralization for the defeated forces.

In ancient China, where governments were massive centralized bureaucracies with little flexibility on the provincial level, a dynasty could easily be toppled with the fall of its capital. In the Three Kingdoms period, both Shu and Wu fell when their respective capitals of Chengdu and Jianye fell. The Ming dynasty relocated its capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where they could more effectively control the generals and troops guarding the borders from Mongols and Manchus. The Ming was destroyed when Li Zicheng took their seat of power, and this pattern repeats itself in Chinese history, until the fall of the traditional Confucian monarchy in the 20th century. After the Qing dynasty’s collapse, decentralization of authority and improved transportation and communication technologies allowed both the Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists to rapidly relocate capitals and keep their leadership structures intact during the great crisis of Japanese invasion.

National capitals were arguably less important as military objectives in other parts of the world, including the West, because of socioeconomic trends toward localized authority, a strategic modus operandi especially popular after the development of feudalism and reaffirmed by the development of democratic and capitalistic philosophies. In 1204, after the Latin Crusaders captured the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, Byzantine forces were able to regroup in several provinces; provincial noblemen managed to reconquer the capital after 60 years and preserve the empire for another 200 years after that. The British forces sacked various American capitals repeatedly during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, but American forces could still carry on fighting from the countryside, where they enjoyed support from local governments and the traditionally independent civilian frontiersmen. Exceptions to these generalizations include highly centralized states such as France, whose centralized bureaucracies could effectively coordinate far-flung resources, giving the state a powerful advantage over less coherent rivals, but risking utter ruin if the capital were taken.

See also[edit]

• Capital region
• Lists of capitals
• List of countries whose capital is not their largest city
• List of countries with multiple capitals
• Primate city
• Temporary capital

Further reading[edit]

• Andreas Daum, «Capitals in Modern History: Inventing Urban Spaces for the Nation», in Berlin – Washington, 1800–2000: Capital Cities, Cultural Representation, and National Identities, ed. Andreas Daum and Christof Mauch. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 3–28.
• Capital Cities: International Perspectives – Les capitales: Perspectives internationales, ed. John Taylor, Jean G. Lengellé and Caroline Andrew. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-7735-8496-9.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Capitals at Wikimedia Commons

List of World Capitals and Their Countries

A capital or simply put as the capital city is a district or town or a municipality that holds the primary status within a country, province, state or another administrative region, generally as its seat of government. The 197 towns or cities as identified as the capital cities of their countries constitute the world capitals and each of them differ in terms of currency, healthcare, pollution level, inhabitants, standard of living, safety and many other factors. All these factors prompt towards the quality of life. Thus, one of the most frequent question striking our mind could be that what is the best place to live? Well, as per the survey Australian capital Canberra is the world’s best place to live in and thereafter the Canadian Ottawa. Apart from this London- the capital city of the Great Britain is one of the most visited towns of the world followed by Bangkok- the capital city of Thailand and then the capital city of France i.e. Paris.