Capital city
A capital city or just capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational division, 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, sometimes meaning multiple official capitals. 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, the "relations between London and Washington" refers to the "relations between the United Kingdom and the United States".[1]
Terminology and etymology
The word capital derives from the Latin word caput (genitive capitis), meaning 'head'.
In several English-speaking
Origins
Historically, the major economic centre of a state or region has often become the focal point of political power, and became a capital through
The capital city naturally attracts politically motivated people and those whose skills are needed for efficient
The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal. Traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals as is the case with
Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no such legal designation, 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
Many modern capital cities are located near the centre of the country, so that they are more accessible to its population and have better protection from possible invasions.
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
In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent nations, such as the
.In the
Planned capitals
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)
- Atal Nagar, Chhattisgarh, India (2003)
- Naypyidaw, Myanmar (2005–2006)
- British India(1911)
- Nusantara, Indonesia(2024)
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US (1889)
- 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)
- Teresina, Piauí, Brazil (1852)
- 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:
- 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).
- 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
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]
- 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.
Unusual capital city arrangements
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 of the then British Honduras in 1971, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Belize City.
- 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.
- Cabinet.
- Federal Constitutional Court has its seat in Karlsruhewhich, 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 since 2014. The Governor of Andhra Pradesh has his official residence in Vijayawada
- 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.
- King, and seat of Parliament, but the federal administrative centre and judiciary have been moved 30 kilometres (19 mi) south to Putrajaya.
- Roman Catholic Church and houses the offices and departments of Holy Seewhich 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.
- 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.
- Philippines:
- National capital: 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.
- Cavite: Imus is designated as the provincial capital, while government offices are in Trece Martires.[18]
- Portugal:
- National capital: 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".[20][21] 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.
- 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 Zürich: Zürich is the de facto capital of the canton, but the cantonal constitution makes no mention of a capital city.[22]
- Tanzania: Dodoma was designated the national capital in 1996, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Dar es Salaam.[23]
- United States:
- 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 state government and serves as the official state capital. However various Illinois government officials primarily reside in or are primarily active in Chicago.[24][25] (see: Government of Illinois § Capital city for a further explanation)
- Louisiana: The state 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 state 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
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.
- 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.
- 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
- Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,[28] which has de facto control of North Nicosia, claim the entire city as their capital.
- 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
With the rise of the modern
- The ruined and almost uninhabited newly independent Greece in 1834, four years after the country gained its independence, with the romantic notion of reviving the glory of Ancient Greece.[32] Similarly, following the Cold War and German reunification, Berlin once again became the capital of Germany.[33] 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 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.[36]
- 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.[37] Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, was named so in Spanish by the first settlers from Spain in the 16th century.[38] See List of national capital city name etymologies for more.
Capitals in military strategy
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
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
- 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
- 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
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External links
- Media related to Capitals at Wikimedia Commons