From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Often, 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.
.^ However, the Commission is not the Government and it does not enjoy the executive privilege which sometimes results in what is called "acts of state" against which a foreigner has no remedy before the courts.- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
^ CAPITAL CITIES CABLE, INC. V. CRISP, 467 U. S. 691 (1984) -- US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions .- CAPITAL CITIES CABLE, INC. V. CRISP, 467 U. S. 691 (1984) -- US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC supreme.justia.com [Source type: Original source]
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.
.^ An overall policy is demanded in the interests of prospective licensees and of the public under such a regulatory regime as is set up by the Broadcasting Act.- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
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 that were
built as an alternative to the seat of government residing in an
established population centre for various reasons.
.^ If Rogers are not considered as rebroadcasting, then this means that they are considered as a mere conduit and, in that view of the case, the deletion of commercials is an interference.- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
^ If Rogers were not considered to be rebroadcasting they would have to be considered as a conduit and, on that view of the case, the deletion of commercials would be interference.- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
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.
- Benin: Porto-Novo is the official capital, but Cotonou is the seat of
government.
- Bolivia: Sucre is still the constitutional capital, but most of the
national government long abandoned that region for La Paz.
- Chile: Santiago is the
capital even though the National Congress of Chile
is in Valparaíso.
- Côte
d'Ivoire: Yamoussoukro was designated the national
capital in 1983, but most government offices and embassies are
still located in Abidjan.
- Czech
Republic: Prague is the
sole constitutional capital. .
- France: The French
constitution does not recognize any capital city in France.^ Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm.
- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
^ Search Français Home Contact Us Important Notices Mailing Lists Advanced Search Citation: Capital Cities Comm.- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
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.
- Germany: The official
capital Berlin is home to seat
to the parliament. However, various ministries are located in the
former West German capital of Bonn, which has now the title Federal City. The
judicial branch is divided between Karlsruhe, Kassel, and Leipzig.
- Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur is the
constitutional capital but the federal administrative centre was
moved 30 kilometres south to Putrajaya in the late 1990s. .
- 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.
- The Netherlands: Amsterdam is the constitutional national
capital even though the Dutch government, parliament, supreme court and the residential
palace of the queen are all located in The Hague.^ However, the Commission is not the Government and it does not enjoy the executive privilege which sometimes results in what is called "acts of state" against which a foreigner has no remedy before the courts.
- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
^ Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm.- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
(For more
details see: Capital of the
Netherlands).
- Sri Lanka: Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is
the official capital and the location of the parliament, while the
former capital, Colombo, is
now designated as the "commercial capital". 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.
- Switzerland: Bern is the Federal City of
Switzerland and functions as de facto capital. However,
the Swiss Supreme
Court is located in Lausanne.
- Tanzania: Dodoma was designated the
national capital in 1973, but most government offices and embassies
are still located in Dar es Salaam.
- Monaco, Singapore and the Vatican City are city-states, and thus do
not have a capital city distinct from the country as a whole.
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.
.^ Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm.- Supreme Court of Canada - Decisions - Capital Cities Comm. v. C.R.T.C. 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC scc.lexum.umontreal.ca [Source type: Original source]
For example:
- Ruined and almost uninhabited Athens was made capital of newly independent Greece with the romantic notion
of reviving the glory of Ancient Greece. .^ Germany, Overseas Program in (Berlin Consortium for German Studies) .
- Columbia University: A–Z Index 16 September 2009 21:35 UTC www.columbia.edu [Source type: Academic]
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 I of
Russia moved his government from Moscow to Saint Petersburg to give the Russian Empire a
western
orientation. The Ming Emperors
moved their capital to Beijing from more central Nanjing as to better supervise the border with
the Mongols and Manchus. During the 1857 war of independence, Indian rebels considered Delhi their capital and Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed emperor,
though 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, continuing as
Independent India's capital from 1947. Other examples include Abuja, Astaná, Brasília, Helsinki, Islamabad, Naypyidaw and Yamoussoukro.
- 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 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 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.
Relative size of capital
cities
In most countries the seat of government is situated in the
largest city; exceptions to this practice are listed below.
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
Other
capitals
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
- London to Pitcairn
Islands, UK,
14,900 km (9,300 mi)
- Washington, DC to Attu Island, US, 7,800 km (4,800 mi)
- Moscow to Kunashir
Island, Russia,
7,050 km (4,380 mi)
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).
- The second closest two capital cities between two sovereign
countries are Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the
Congo and Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, which are
about 1.6 km (1 mile) apart, one upstream from the other on
different banks of the Congo River (the distance between the
middle points is about 10 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.
References
See also
Wikis
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