Why is the state capital important
How is the Capital City of a Country decided?
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the capital of a country is usually the
largest city where the government of a
country function where there is the
highest code of justice embassies good
infrastructure and a lot of people for
example London is the capital city of
United Kingdom simply because it is the
most important and the largest city in
the country in the same way the capital
of Japan is Tokyo and the capital of
France is Paris both being the largest
cities and the center of political and
economic activity in their respective
country but is this always the case
actually no because the capital of
Australia is Canberra instead of Sydney
or Melbourne which are much larger
similarly the capital of United States
is not New York City but Washington DC
even though New York is more than ten
times larger than Washington DC there
are so many other examples where the
capital city is not the largest or the
most important city in the country so
what exactly is the criteria for
deciding the capital of a country
because of capital city in a way
represents the nation so how is it all
decided historically the major economic
center of a region or the place where
the king resided would naturally become
the capital of the kingdom a good
example of this is the city of
Constantinople which served as the
capital of Roman Byzantine and the
Ottoman Empire Constantinople was the
largest and the wealthiest city in
Europe in the medieval times but in
modern times the pattern and criteria
for selecting a capital city began to
change for example take Australia in
Australia there was a rivalry between
Sydney and Melbourne to become the
national capital of the country
Melbourne had become the largest and the
richest city in Australia by that time
but Sydney was the older city with much
more history due to this fierce
competition between the two cities it
was decided that neither of them would
be named as the capital so that you know
none of them feels bad
instead as a compromise a new capital
was built midway between Sydney and
Melbourne and was named as Canberra
today Canberra is the eighth largest
city in Australia much smaller than both
Sydney and Melbourne an important factor
while selecting a capital city is
adequate security the capital city is
always a primary target in war as
capturing it would mean the fall of the
government this is the reason why Ottawa
was selected as the capital of Canada
instead of Toronto or Montreal because
it was further away from the border than
other cities this would make the city
much more defensible in case of an
attack from the United States in the
same way they'll heat the capital of
India is at a safe distance from the
border and hence the seed of the
government is well protected but some
countries like to have their capitals on
their coasts in fact 79 countries in the
world have core coastal capitals but
having a capital on the coast can make
it cone to attacks to see also it would
be difficult to administrate the whole
country from the coast especially if the
country is big like Brazil between 1763
and 1960 the capital of Brazil was Rio
de Janeiro on the southeast coast Rio is
an iconic city the main cultural hub of
Brazil and it rightly fitted as their
capital but in 1955 the newly elected
president whose original Cuba check I
hope I pronounced that correctly decided
that the capital of Brazil should be
shifted to the interior of the country
the intention was to develop the
underdeveloped inner regions of Brazil
of capital in the center of the country
would result in better governance and
also help to populate the inner parts of
the country so a new city was built from
scratch between 1956 and 1960 this
planned city was named as priscila
Brasilia lies in the heart of Brazil
much further away from all the important
cities from the southeast coast like Rio
and Sao Paulo
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there are many more other examples of
capital relocations like how India's
capital was shifted from Calcutta to
Delhi during British Raj or how the
capital of Turkey was change from
Istanbul to Ankara in 1923 also a future
capital change is possible in Iran the
capital of Iran the Heron lies on about
hundred fault lines and may experience a
catastrophic earthquake in the future so
the government is studying for places
near home and is fahan for a new capital
but some Iranian think that the change
in capital is to avoid protests against
the government similar to what my Anwar
did but some countries have two capitals
currently there are 15 countries which
have more than one capital one of them
is Malaysia which has two capitals one
is Kuala Lumpur and the other is
Putrajaya this was done because Kuala
Lumpur had become overcrowded and
politically congested as the only
capital of Malaysia so the government
decided to build a new capital 33
kilometers south of kuala lumpur named
Putrajaya then there is one country with
three capitals South Africa is the only
country in the world to have not one not
two but three capitals the
administrative capital is Pretoria the
legislative capital is Cape Town and the
judicial capital is Rome Fontaine
even though Johannesburg is the largest
city in South Africa it is still not one
of the three capitals of the country
well at this point you might be thinking
that every country has at least one
capital right actually known some small
countries like Hong Kong Monaco and
Singapore are classified as city states
where the nation itself is the capital
and then there is this country called
now - in the Pacific Ocean which has no
official capital since there are no
cities in the country so there is no
exact criteria for deciding of capital
city it all depends on various factors
the most important of them being
strategic location political economic
cultural importance as well as
historical significance
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