A
capital is the area of a
country, province, region, or state, regarded as enjoying primary status; although there are exceptions, a capital is almost always a city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the
seat of government and fixed by
law. Alternate terms include
capital city and
political capital; the latter phrase has
a second meaning based on an alternative sense of
capital. Usually, a capital city is the largest city in that country but not always.
The word
capital is derived from the
Latin caput meaning "head," and, in the
United States, the related term
Capitol refers to the building where government business is chiefly conducted.
The seats of government in major sub-state jurisdictions are often called "capitals", but this is typically the case only in countries with some degree of
federalism, where major substate jurisdictions have an element of
sovereignty. In
unitary states, "administrative center" or other similar terms are typically used. For example, the seat of government in a
U.S. state is usually called its "capital", but the main city in a region of England is usually not, even though in Ireland, a county's main town is usually regarded as its capital. At lower administrative subdivisions, terms such as
county town,
county seat, or
borough seat are usually used.
Historically, the major economic center of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or amalgamation. This was the case for
London,
Berlin, and
Moscow. The capital naturally attracts the politically motivated and those whose skills are needed for efficient administration of government such as
lawyers,
journalists, and
public policy researchers. A capital that is the prime economic, cultural, or intellectual center is sometimes referred to as a
primate city. Such is certainly the case with
Paris,
London and
Madrid among national capitals, and
Milan,
Irkutsk or
Phoenix in their respective state or province.
Capitals are sometimes sited to discourage further growth in an existing major city.
Brasília was situated in
Brazil's interior because the old capital,
Rio de Janeiro, and southeastern Brazil in general, were considered over-crowded.
The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal. Traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, as occurred with
Nanjing by
Shanghai. The
decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its capital city, as occurred with
Babylon and
Cahokia. Many present-day capital cities, such as
New Delhi,
Abuja,
Ankara,
Brasília,
Canberra,
Astana,
Islamabad,
Ottawa and
Washington, D.C. are
planned cities were built as an alternative to the seat of government residing in an established population centre for various reasons. In many cases in their own right they have become gradually established as new business or commercial centres.
Unorthodox capital city arrangements
A number of cases exist where states have multiple capitals, and there are also several states that have no capital. In other cases, the
official capital is not the
effective one for pragmatic reasons. That is, the city known as
the capital is not the seat of government. Occasionally, the official
capital may host the seat of government, but is not the geographic origin of political decision-making. The following list specifies the details observed in sovereign states.
- France: The French constitution does not recognize any capital city in France. Paris is de facto capital of France (seat of the Presidency, the Government, the National Assembly and the Senate), but the parliament holds its joint congresses in Versailles.
- Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur is the constitutional capital but the federal administrative centre was moved 30 kilometres south to Putrajaya in the late 1990s. The parliament remains in Kuala Lumpur.
- 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 tiny country of only 21 square kilometres (8 sq mi), has no distinct capital city, and thus has a capital district instead.
- Tanzania: Dodoma was designated the national capital in 1973, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Dar es Salaam.
Capitals that are not the seat of government
Countries in the world where capital and seat of government are currently separated:
International entities
Capital as symbol
With the rise of modern
empires and the
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 an emotional affair. For example:
- The selection or founding of a "neutral" capital city — i.e. one unencumbered by regional or political identity — was meant to represent the unity of a new state when Bern, Canberra, Madrid, Ottawa, and Washington, D.C. became capitals. 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 e.g. Indraprastha, Dhillika and Shahjahanabad, but the actual capital being the new British built town designed by Edwin Lutyens.
- During the American Civil War, tremendous resources were expended to defend Washington, D.C., which bordered the Confederate States of America, from Confederate attack, even though the then-small federal government could have been moved relatively easily in the era of railroads and telegraph.Likewise, great resourses were expended by the Confederacy, in defending, and by the Union, in attacking, the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
Capitals in military strategy
The capital city is almost 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 the
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 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, due to 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 frontiersmen-civilians. 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 is taken; in their military strategies, traditional enemies of France such as
Germany focused on the capture of
Paris.
Capital cities
Listed below are capital cities located outside the largest urban area of a given country.
Capitals located in the 2nd largest city
Capitals located in the 3rd largest city
Capitals located in the 4th largest city
Capitals located in the 5th largest city
Capitals located in the 6th largest city
Capitals located in the 7th largest city
Capitals located in the 8th largest city
Capitals located in the 9th largest city
Capitals located in the 10th largest city
Capitals located in the 15th largest city
Capitals located in the 22nd largest city
Unless otherwise stated population data is based on figures presented in their respective Wikipedia articles. There is insufficiently recent population data to rank the size of the new Burmese capital
Naypyidaw.
Distance to the capital
The greatest distance between a capital and the remotest part of the country is from
Other great distances are
Distances Between Capital Cities (Nearest & Farthest)
The closest two capital cities of two sovereign countries are
Vatican City, Vatican, and
Rome,
Italy, one of which is inside the other (the distance between the middle points, St.Peter's Square/Piazza Venezia is about 2 km).
Vienna and
Bratislava, sometimes erroneously considered the two closest capitals, are actually 55 km (34 miles) apart.
The longest distance from one capital of a sovereign country to the one closest to it is 2330 km (1448 miles) between
Wellington,
New Zealand and
Canberra,
Australia. Each is nearer to the other than to the capital of any other sovereign country.
The greatest distance between the capitals of two sovereign countries that share a border is 6423 km (3991 miles), between
Pyongyang,
North Korea and
Moscow,
Russia.
