12 Countries whose capitals many people still tend to confuse

People are often surprised when they learn at school the real capitals of famous countries and are shocked to find out that the capital of Australia is not Sydney, as they thought, but Canberra, and that of Turkey is Ankara, and not Istanbul.

Despite the ease provided by the Internet at the time of research, many people still make mistakes when it comes to this topic, confusing capitals with large local cities.

At the awesome.club we discovered some curiosities and now we will share 12 of them with you.

On this map are marked the countries whose capitals are not the most populous cities in the country.

The first idea that comes to mind when answering the question about the capital of Switzerland is Zurich, and the second, Geneva. But Zurich is the country’s financial center and the city of Geneva is considered the diplomatic center. In fact, the capital of Switzerland is not documented, but the city of Bern was approved as the official seat of government of the country.

Contrary to the widely held perception that the capital of this dwarf state is Monte Carlo, the current administrative center of the country is monaco, same. To differentiate the name of the principality from the name of the city, they sometimes call it Monaco-Ville (from the French word ville, which means city). The location, however, does not appear to be a city. With a population of just 975 people, Monaco-Ville is a historic district.

The capital of Vietnam is Hanoi, the second largest city in the country, with a population of 7.7 million. The largest is Ho Chi Minh City, which has a population of 8.4 million. during the famous Vietnam War, this city, also known as Saigon, was the capital of the so-called South Vietnam, a country supported by the USA and which fought against North Vietnam, part supported by China and the former Soviet Union and whose capital was… Hanoi . When American troops left the country, North Vietnam ended up invading South Vietnam and changing the name of its capital (the aforementioned Saigon) to Ho Chi Mihn — which refers to one of the North Vietnamese leaders during the war. In any case, today the country is unified and relations with the US have been normalized for years.🇧🇷

Shanghai is the second largest city in the world in terms of population: 24 million people live there. The largest city in the world is the Chinese municipality of Chongqing, with over 30 million inhabitants. The capital of China, Beijing (Beijing) is not far behind on such a scale, with a population of 21 million.

Beijing’s history spans over 3,000 years, during which time the city has been renamed 19 times. The last time from Beiping to Beijing (the third time in the past 600 years) was in 1949, when the Communists came to power.

This country is the most economically developed on the continent. In addition, it also has the highest proportion of white, Asian and mixed population. There are 11 official languages ​​spoken here. South Africa is distinguished by its capitals, which are three: Pretoria, the administrative capital; cape town, the legislative capital; and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital. However, the largest city in the country is Johannesburg — which is just 60 kilometers from Pretoria. Its population is around 4.4 million people.

Of course, we Brazilians know that the capital of the country is Brasilia. But abroad, many people are still confused — not thinking it’s Buenos Aires, as you might imagine, but Rio. As you may know, Rio was indeed the country’s capital from 1763 to 1960, but today it loses in terms of population to São Paulo — which has 12.11 million inhabitants. According to an old Brazilian Constitution of 1891, the capital should be a city located in the geographic center of the country. And so, in 1960, it was inaugurated Brasilia.

Since the creation of the UAE Federation in 1971, Abu Dhabi was established as its temporary capital. The Constitution of the new State, at the time, stipulated the construction of a new city, Al Karama, destined to be the capital. However, that city was never built. Since 1966, Abu Dhabi has become the permanent capital of the Emirates. The largest city in the country is Dubai, whose population is 3 million people.

The capital of New Zealand, wellington, is 3 times smaller than the biggest city in the country, Auckland: it has 415 thousand inhabitants, against 1.6 million inhabitants, respectively. Although the latter was the official capital for a short time, since 1865, due to rapid population growth, the capital has been moved to Wellington. It is the southernmost capital in the world.

The fight for the title of the main city of the country lasted 26 years, between Toronto and Québec. Until, in 1857, Queen Victoria (British queen, as Canada is also governed by English monarchs) took the decision to bring the capital to ottawa🇧🇷 Today the city ranks fourth on the list of the largest in the country. The first is Toronto, home to 2.7 million people.

The peculiarity of the Indian capital, New Delhi, is to be located in the district of the second largest city in the country: Delhi. In 1911, the British viceroy’s residence was moved from Calcutta to Delhi. But after the proclamation of India’s independence in 1947, the capital moved to New Delhi. The country’s largest city, Mumbai, used to be called Bombay, and its population numbers 12.5 million people.

Maybe you have no idea what the capital of this far away country is. But we will tell: it is astana, the youngest capital in the world, and which means “capital” in the country’s language. It has the status of main city since 1997. Formerly called Akmola, it is the second most populous city in the country with more than 1 million inhabitants. The largest city is the former capital Alma-Ata, with a population of 1.8 million.

The particularity of Islamabad, the current capital of Pakistan, is that this city was specially designed and built as the future capital. And, as you already understood, it would not have been part of this post if it were the largest city in the country. The leader is Karachi, with a population of approximately 15 million, having been the country’s capital for 11 years.

What curious facts about the capitals of the world would you add?