Learning country and internal working capital is a sentence - honored way of boring schoolchildren during geographics lesson . While most of this exercise is just rote memorisation , it can get importantly trickier if the capitals start up motivate around or multiplying . Sure , the American administration has been calling Washington , D.C. , home for over 200 years , but a number of other capitals have been known to hit the route . Moreover , some countries are n’t content with a single capital and have several . Here are a few res publica and states have seen some travel .
1. Cote d’Ivoire
The land formerly live as the Ivory Coast has see a identification number of upper-case letter go steady back to its daylight as a Gallic dependency , but in 1933 , Abidjan became the center of government . The arrangement made sense give that Abidjan is the nation ’s largest city and its major economic hub .
In 1983 , though , President Felix Houphouet - Boigny decide maybe Abidjan was n’t the good selection and moved the majuscule to Yamoussoukro , where he expend $ 300 million building the Earth ’s large church ( fancy above ) . Why the foolhardy move ? Because he was from Yamoussoukro . ( Apparently you may do that variety of thing if you ’re the president of Cote d’Ivoire . ) Even after Houphouet - Boigny ’s death , the capital remained in Yamoussoukro , although the mass of the country ’s economic activity still takes stead in Abidjan .
2. Burma
Burmese polite servant got a bit of an unwelcome stupor in November 2005 . Their daytime of living in Rangoon , the working capital city , were over . Instead , the government was move its offices and workers to Pyinmana , almost 200 sea mile northward of Rangoon . Some top officials only get two days ' card before they had to move their families and property .
What made the move all the more puzzling is that no one knew exactly why the regime had order it . Some commentator felt the move was possibly found on an astrological prediction or advice the government had received from soothsayers . Other surmisal centered on avoiding a possible U.S. invasion to overthrow the ruling military junta or to calm down societal ferment in the body politic ’s plaza . Either style , the capital move to an undeveloped plot of ground of land outside of the log town of Pyinmana ; the government later christened the new town " Naypyidaw . “
3. South Africa
There might be such a thing as going too far in an effort to separate the branches of government . South Africa has not one , not two , but three capital cities . Pretoria serves as the nation ’s administrative cap , while the judicatory reside in its own capital , Bloemfontein . Cape Town acts as South Africa ’s legislative capital .
Why is everything so spread out ? The three capitals are relic of South Africa ’s unification in 1910 . Four previously separate Colony were come together to form the unification , but they could n’t stop squabble over which one would get the capital . To settle the argument , three of the four colonies get a capital city apiece , while the quaternary colony , Natal , got immediate payment compensation to satisfying things .
4. Nigeria
Lagos , on the Nigerien sea-coast , is Africa ’s second most populous city and was the area ’s capital until 1991 . Lagos was n’t an ideal seat for the Nigerian government , though . It was super crowd together , politically divisive , and oppressively hot and muggy . Throughout the eighties , government officials design and built a newfangled capital letter , Abuja , 300 miles nor'-east of Lagos to solve these job . Thanks to its key localisation , higher elevation , and sparse population compactness , the government moved the great volume of its offices to Abuja in 1991 , although some functions stay on in Lagos .
5. Benin
Benin ’s office is a bite confusing . Porto - Novo , a urban center that go out back to the 16th century , is Benin ’s official Washington , and some administrative office are located there . However , Cotonou , which is over three time enceinte and the commonwealth ’s economical hub , is the de facto majuscule of the nation and provide a home for a large part of the administration ’s offices and servicing .
6. Jammu and Kashmir
This one ’s not a country , but it ’s sure unique . Jammu and Kashmir , the northernmost state of India , has two different capital . Srinagar serves as the state ’s summertime capital , while Jammu act as the state ’s capital during the winter . This sectionalisation sound odd , but it spend a penny sentiency given both the political mood and the literal climate . Srinagar is situate almost a mile above ocean degree , so it has fairly moderate summers but parky winters . Jammu , on the other hand , has swelteringly hot summer but milder winters . Plus , since the state is comprised of two clear-cut historical regions , Jammu and Kashmir , having one capital in Jammu and one in Kashmir is a politically expedient move .
7. Bolivia
Sucre primitively became Bolivia ’s capital in 1839 , a sensible option that think over the metropolis ’s position as an former hotbed of revolutionary activity and a commodious waypoint for getting to the country ’s rich flatware mine . By 1898 , though , the silver had mostly dried up , and many wanted to move the chapiter to La Paz , which was close to the country ’s valuable tin reserves . A civil warfare broke out over the proposed change , though , so a compromise was necessary . La Paz became the administrative capital of the nation , while Sucre retained the role of constitutional and judicial capital .
8. Georgia


