Which country most recently changed its capital?

mibmob

Zimbabwe Aug 12 05, 7:14 AM

author

In Zimbabwe Salisbury changed to Harare in the early 80s. Many capitals have changed since then. Some of the most recent are Sri Jayewardenapura Kotte of Sri Lanka and Putrajaya of Malaysia. Aug 13 05, 7:40 AM

author

Of course, one could argue that all of the governemnt offices have not yet been moved from the previous capitals of Sri Lanka (Colombo) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). This is also the case in Ivory Coast (changed from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro), Nigeria (changed from Lagos to Abuja) and Tanzania (changed from Dodoma to Dar es Salaam). Which makes this a difficult question to answer. And Zimbabwe, remember, just changed the name of the capital, not the city. Aug 13 05, 7:54 AM

Flynn_17

Palau are currently in the middle of doing it. Of course, there is also the little South Korea fiasco, and let us not forget when the people in Nigeria's former capital woke up one morning to find it had been moved 400 miles up the road. Nigeria - Lagos became Abuja South Korea - Seoul to Taegu (apparently) Palau - Koror to an as yet unnamed site near Mount Ngerchelchuus Kazahkstan - Almaty to Astana I wish people could make their minds up. Aug 13 05, 1:08 PM

Flynn_17

And also, Putrajaya is the administrative centre of Malaysia, not the capital. Check the latest update of the CIA factbook. Aug 13 05, 1:11 PM

author

The capital of Palau will not be changed until 2010. It will be sited on the island of Melekeok, the name of the capital will probably be the same? Taegu, capital of South Korea? Never heard of that. I don't know the answer to my question, but Kazakhstan (Almaty changes to Astana) seems like a good guess. Or some Pacific nation. What about Tuvalu, for example? It changed to Vaiaku a short time ago. Or even Micronesia, changed to Palikir not long ago. The problem with these Pacific states is that some of them seem to define their capital as either the town/site/village on an island, or they use the name of the island itself. That's why you will never know exactly what is the official capital of for example Tuvalu, Marshall Islands, Micronesia or even US dependencies as Northern Mariana Islands. Which of them acutually "changed" the capital and which just redefined it? Aug 14 05, 9:01 AM

Flynn_17

They won't really be able to keep the name of the Palauan capital as there is actually a large-ish town that is called Koror. Aug 14 05, 1:22 PM