Some countries have multiple
capitals
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
. In some cases, one city is the capital for some purposes, and one or more others are capital for other purposes, without any being considered an official capital in preference to the others.
There are also cases where there is a single legally defined capital, but one or more other cities operate as the
seat of government
The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority".
In most countries, the nation’s capital is also seat of its government, thus that ...
of some or all parts of the national government.
More than one capital at present
More than one capital in the past
These countries have had two cities that served as administrative capitals at the same time, for various reasons such as war, weather or partition. In some cases, the second capital is considered a
temporary capital A temporary capital or a provisional capital is a city or town chosen by a government as an interim base of operations due to some difficulty in retaining or establishing control of a different metropolitan area. The most common circumstances leadin ...
.
See also
*
Historical capitals of China
This is a list of historical capitals of China.
Four Great Ancient Capitals
There are traditionally four major historical capitals of China referred to as the "Four Great Ancient Capitals of China" (). The four are Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang and ...
*
List of purpose-built national capitals
This is a list of capital cities that were specially designed, planned, and built to be a national or regional capital.
Built
Currently proposed or under construction
Former proposals and attempts
* Welthauptstadt Germania was the ...
References
{{reflist
Multiple capitals
Countries with multiple
de:Hauptstadt#Staaten und subnationale Entitäten mit mehreren Hauptstädten