Capital
In politics, a capital is the principal
city or
town associated with a country's government. It is almost always the city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and fixed by
law.
The word
capital is derived from the
Latin caput meaning "head," and the related term
capitol refers to the building where government business is chiefly conducted.
Seats of government in major substate 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.
Encyclopedia
In politics, a
capital is the principal
city or
town associated with a country's government. It is almost always the city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and fixed by
law.
The word
capital is derived from the
Latin caput meaning "head," and the related term
capitol refers to the building where government business is chiefly conducted.
Seats of government in major substate 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 state of the United States of America is usually called its "capital", but the main city in a region of England is usually not. 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 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 and
Buenos Aires among national capitals, and
Irkutsk or
Salt Lake City in their respective state or province.
Capitals are sometimes sited to discourage further growth in an existing major city.
Brasília was planted in
Brazil's interior because the old capital,
Rio de Janeiro, along with entire Southeastern Brazil, was considered already crowded. The government of
South Korea announced in 2004 it would move its capital from
Seoul to Yeongi-Gongju — even though the word
Seoul itself means "capital" in the
Korean language.
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, or
Edinburgh by
Glasgow. The decline of a dynasty or culture could mean the extinction of its capital city as well, as occurred with
Babylon and
Cahokia. And many modern capital cities, such as
Abuja,
Canberra and
Ottawa, were deliberately fixed outside existing economic areas, and may not have established themselves as new commercial or industrial hubs since.
Unorthodox capital city arrangements
A number of cases exist where states or other entities have multiple capitals, and there are also several states that have no capital. In others, the "effective" and "official" capital may differ for pragmatic reasons, resulting in a situation where a city known as "the capital" is not, in fact, host to the seat of government.
Sucre is the constitutional capital [i] of Bolivia [i], seat of the Supreme Court , and capital of ...
is still the
constitutional capital, but most of the national government long abandoned that region for
La Paz.
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:
- Ruined and almost uninhabited Athens was made capital of newly independent Greece
Greece lies at the juncture of Europe [i], Asia [i], and Africa [i]. ...
with the romantic notion of reviving the glory of the ancients. Similarly, following the
Cold War and
German reunification,
Berlin is now once again the capital of a prosperous and influential country. Other restored capital cities include
Moscow after the October Revolution.
...
a western orientation, while Kemal Atatürk did the same by actually moving east, to
Ankara, away from more
Ottoman Istanbul. 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.
Strategic importance of capitals
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 old
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
Cheng Du and Jian Ye 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
Manchus 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 1205, 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.
Largest national capital cities
Some of the largest cities in the world are not national capitals. The largest national capitals on each continent, by urban/metropolitan area population, are:
...
| [i] ||
AR-C ...
Lists of capitals
- Lists of national capitals
...
