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Capital

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Politics and government

   In politics, a capital (also called capital city or political capital —
   although the latter phrase has a second meaning based on an alternative
   sense of "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 centre" 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 centre 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 centre
   is sometimes referred to as a primate city. Such is certainly the case
   with London 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 all of 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. 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. Likewise, occasionally
   the official "capital" as called is may be host to he seat of
   government, but is not always the geographic origin of political
   decision-making.
     * Former British protectorate of Bechuanaland, today Botswana, was
       administered from Mafeking (now Mafikeng), creating a unique
       situation of the capital of the territory being located outside of
       it.
     * Bolivia: Sucre is still the constitutional capital, but most of the
       national government long abandoned that region for La Paz.
     * Chile: Santiago is understood to be 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.
     * European Union: Brussels, Belgium is generally treated as the
       'capital' of the European Union, and the two institutions of the
       EU's executive, the European Commission and the Council of
       Ministers, both have their seats there. However, a protocol
       attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam requires that the European
       Parliament have monthly sessions in Strasbourg, France.
     * Nauru: Nauru, a tiny country of only 21 square kilometres (8 sq
       mi), has no capital city.
     * The Netherlands: Amsterdam is the constitutional national capital
       even though the Dutch government, parliament, supreme court and the
       palace of the queen are all located in The Hague.
     * In South Africa, the administrative capital is Pretoria, the
       legislative capital is Cape Town, and the judicial capital is
       Bloemfontein, the outcome of the compromise that created the Union
       of South Africa in 1910.
     * In Germany, the executive and legislative capital is Berlin,
       although a portion of various ministerial back offices are located
       in the former West German capital of Bonn. The judicial branch of
       the government is divided between Karlsruhe and Leipzig.

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 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 the country.
       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, while Kemal Atatürk did the same by actually moving
       east, to Ankara, away from more Ottoman Istanbul. The Ming Emperors
       moved their capital to Beijing from more central Nanjing as to
       better supervise the border. with the Mongols and Manchus. 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.
     * 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 small federal
       government could have been moved relatively easily in the era of
       railroads and telegraph.

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

   Countries whose capital city is not their most populous city
   Enlarge
   Countries whose capital city is not their most populous city

   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:
     * Africa: Cairo (11,146,000)
     * Asia: Tokyo (35,237,000)
     * Europe: Moscow (10,400,000)
     * North America: Mexico City (17,809,471)
     * Oceania: Wellington (445,400)
     * South America: Buenos Aires (14,230,000)

Lists of capitals

     * Lists of national capitals
          + by name
          + by country (with also the largest city)
          + by continent and country
     * List of historical national capitals
     * List of capitals of subnational entities
     * List of multiple capitals
     * List of countries that have the name of their capital included in
       their name
     * List of countries whose capital is not their largest city
     * List of purpose-built capital cities
     * List of capitals outside of the territories they serve

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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