Capital cities

Every country has leaders who make the rules.

The city where they work is called the capital. Big government buildings are there. States and provinces can have capitals too.

A capital is the city where a region's government is located. That is where the government buildings are and where government leaders work. The region can be a whole country, or a smaller part of one, such as a state or province. In the United States, a county's capital is usually called a county seat.

Most capitals are old cities that grew slowly. But a few were built on purpose, just to be capitals, such as Brasília in Brazil.

National Geographic Education defines a capital as a city where a region's government is located, where its government buildings stand and its leaders work. The region may be a nation, a state, a province or another political unit; at the county level, capitals are usually called county seats.

The word can also be used more precisely. Some countries name one city as the official or constitutional capital while government works mostly somewhere else, which is called the seat of government. Encyclopedias such as Britannica use those terms for countries like the Netherlands and Bolivia, so it is worth checking which meaning a list of capitals is using.

Many capitals are very old cities.

Long ago, people built them next to big rivers. Boats and traders came. The cities grew bigger and bigger.

Many capitals are also a country's biggest center for business, culture and people. Lots of them are old cities that grew up as places for trade, travel and sending news.

London and Paris, for example, grew up hundreds of years ago beside large, busy rivers: the Thames in London and the Seine in Paris. Baghdad in Iraq and Damascus in Syria have been busy cities for thousands of years.

A capital is frequently a country's business, cultural and population center, and many began as historical centers of trade, communication and transportation. National Geographic Education gives London and Paris as examples, cities that developed hundreds of years ago around large, busy rivers, the Thames and the Seine, and Baghdad and Damascus as urban centers that have thrived for thousands of years.

Rarely, a country builds a capital just to be a capital. National Geographic Education gives Brazil as its example: the previous capital, Rio de Janeiro, was crowded, and its government buildings stood far apart amid heavy traffic, which hindered government work.

Not every list of capitals is the same.

Some lists use the city named by law. Some use the city where leaders work. In a few places, people disagree about the capital.

Because some countries split their capital's jobs, lists of capitals do not always match. One list might give Sucre as Bolivia's capital; another might give La Paz. Both can be right, as long as they say which kind of capital they mean.

In a few places, the capital itself is disputed, which means governments disagree about it. When you read about those places, look for a note that explains the disagreement.

A capital may be defined by law (the official or constitutional capital), by where the executive works (the seat of government), or by where each branch sits, so reference works sometimes disagree. Britannica's Bolivia article gives both Sucre (constitutional) and La Paz (administrative); the South African government names three cities and a fourth for the Constitutional Court.

In a few places, which city is the capital, or whether a government's chosen capital is recognized, is disputed. When you compare lists of capitals, check how each one defines the word and whether it notes a dispute.