What is the capital: the importance of the city in the life of the country

The capital is the main city of the state. Regardless of its size, population and level of development of the urban economy, it is the political center of the country. It is in the capital that the state policy is determined, its budget is set and the direction of state development is formed.

What is the capital and what are its functions

In the overwhelming majority of cases, the capital is the country's largest city, which also serves as a financial and industrial center, but there are a large number of countries in which the capital is not the largest city.

Quite often it happens that the complex federal structure of the state is controversial because of the location of the capital, when various cities and regions of the country claim the right to take over the capital functions. In this case, a decision is made to allocate a separate territory with a special status for the construction of a new capital. Such measures were taken in the US and Brazil, in Kazakhstan the capital was moved to Astana - a new city in the northern part of the country.

But very often the most reasonable solution, which does not require huge expenses, is the division of the capital functions between several of the largest or historically important cities. This has happened more than once in the history of major empires. For example, in the Austro-Hungarian capitals there were at once two cities - Vienna and Budapest. In the Netherlands, the residence of the head of state is in Amsterdam, and the government is located in The Hague. In South Africa, three cities perform various functions in the capital: the administration of the state is in Pretoria, the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein, and the parliament in Cape Town.

Large cities: former capitals

It often happens that the city becomes too large, and some of its functions are superfluous, creating an unnecessary burden on the social infrastructure. This happened with the former capital of Tanzania (the city of Dar es Salaam), from where the government had to transfer. Now the formal capital of the country was Dodoma, but due to lack of funds, the government could not move.

Sometimes it happens that the capital status deprives the city of the elements. So the most powerful hurricane that hit the countries of Latin America in 1961, caused significant damage to the city of Belize - at that time the capital of the country of the same name. After this, the capital was moved further from the coast to the city of Belmopan.

The capitals of the former colonies

It is worth explaining what is the capital for emerging economies. In most of the countries that became independent from the colonial liberation movements, the capitals are located in the largest cities that served as administrative centers, of which the colonial authorities ruled the local population.

Each of these cities bears an indelible imprint of colonial rule. Last but not least, this concerns architecture. Wanting to get rid of the legacy of the former enslavers, many countries began to transfer the capital to new lands. So did Brazil.

The first plan for the transfer of the capital there was developed in the distant 1893, but subsequently postponed repeatedly postponed. Only in 1960 the capital was moved from Rio de Janeiro to a new city, built especially for this purpose in the geographical center of the country. So there was a capital, called Brasilia.

Conclusion

What is the capital? To summarize, it must be said that this is not always the largest, but always the most significant in the political sense of the city. Also, several cities in the country can be capitals, in such cases the highest state authorities are in two or more cities.

Sometimes the capital is transferred to a new city in order to reduce the burden on infrastructure or to avoid conflict between the territories because of the status of the capital city, which can bring financial profit and financing of various projects from the national rather than the municipal budget.

It is worth mentioning separately what is the capital of the state, region or department. As a rule, this is a city where local self-government bodies or representatives of the central government are located, as is the case with the overseas territories of France. In the United States, the capital of the state is the city where the governor's residence is located.