How many capitals do I have?

 

You probably know the capital of India- the letter i, sorry I mean Delhi. But do you know that there are  some countries that have  more than one official capital?  Also some countries have one official capital but have other government departments in an other city, which makes them unofficial capital. Lets have a look at them. 

South Africa: South Africa is the only country in the world, that has 3 capitals. They are  …. Wait!! We already told about this in a previous post so if you haven't read it, go and check out here Country Facts Countdown



Eswatini: Eswatini, one of the smallest  country in Africa  has two capitals. They are Mbabane which is the administrative capital and Lobamba which is the legislative and the royal capital.




Malaysia: You probably think Malaysia’s capital is Kuala Lumpur. But in 1995, due to overcrowding, the Malaysian government made Putrajaya, which is 25 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur as the Administrative Centre. From then on, Malaysia's  administrative capital is in Putrajaya.  Kuala Lumpur continues to act as legislative capital of the country. 

Bolivia: This south American country has two capitals, namely Sucre and La Paz. When Bolivia was a Spanish colony,  Sucre was a hub for silver mining  and became the first capital of Bolivia. Later silver lost its importance as a global mineral and  the capital was moved to La Paz. Still Sucre acts as a Constitutional / Judicial capital of the country. La Paz acts as a executive capital, where most of the government functions from.  But Bolivia’s largest city is actuality Santa Cruz de La Sierra



Sri Lanka: Colombo has been the capital of Sri Lanka since its independence.  In 1982,  the Parliament was moved to the small town of Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, which is very close to Colombo (9 kms). and is now official capital of the country.  Colombo is now the executive and judicial capital  of Sri Lanka.




Netherlands: The official capital of Netherlands is Amsterdam, but most of the government buildings are in the Hague. This is because until the 16th century, the capital of the counts of Holland (which consisted of only the provinces of North and south Holland and composed 1/6th of the modern Netherland) was Hague but the cultural and trading capital was Amsterdam but when it became Netherlands, the government services were still in Hague but the official capital was in Amsterdam.



Chile: Next we have Chile whose official capital is in Santiago but other government services were also present in Valparaiso. However when Chile got independence, Santiago became the capital but in the 20th century, some ministries moved to Valparaiso as a campaign for decentralization even though both cities are only 115 km apart

 

 

British India:

 In the past, when British ruled India, they also had two capitals, Delhi, which acted as the summer capital and Shimla, which acted as winter capital. 

Even now, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu acts a Winter capital and Srinagar acts as Summer capital.

There are also other less popular examples, like Czechia and Honduras but these are the famous ones

So, if you get tired learning ask this stuff,  come for vacation to Gurupur, one of the 27 capitals Guru Nadu  

Comments

  1. பாஸ்கி19 July 2022 at 17:28

    Very nice

    ReplyDelete
  2. Raghavan Subramaniyan30 July 2022 at 22:28

    Good information. I think it would be a good idea for a country like India to have more capitals. Talking of capitals, it is interesting to see how the US has selected capitals for their states. Unlike most other countries, it is mostly not the biggest city in the state, but a much smaller one, which often is not known outside the US; e.g. Springfield is the capital of Illinois, and not Chicago. It's like making "Theni" the capital of Tamil Nadu.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Prabhu Kettavaram Ramanathan 10 May 2024 at 13:51

    Dearest Chellam, well done and awesome thangam. I'm so happy to see your writings. Keep writing pls. In your age, all I know is Eat, Sleep, and Repeat.

    Can you check this info in your blog? "Delhi, which acted as the summer capital and Shimla, which acted as winter capital". I guess it should be the opposite.

    This is an additinal info. I copied the info from Wikipedia. "In 1858, Allahabad (now Prayagraj) became the capital of India for a day when it also served as the capital of North-Western Provinces.[3]
    During the British Raj, until 1911, Calcutta was the capital of India.[4]
    By the latter half of the 19th century, Shimla had become the summer capital.[5]
    King George V proclaimed the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi at the climax of the 1911 Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911. The buildings housing the Viceroy, government, and parliament were inaugurated in early 1931".

    ReplyDelete

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