In the period 1900-2000, which national capital served as a capital for the shortest time?

AyatollahK

Tough question. Dili became capital of East Timor when the UN sent in a peacekeeping force to enforce its separation from Indonesia as of October 25, 1999. However, it's possible to argue that full East Timor independence wasn't achieved until the UN troops left in 2002. Prior to that, the shortest-lived capital that I can think of is Asmara, Eritrea, which became capital upon Eritrea's formal independence in 1993. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea It's certainly possible that other capitals were shorter-lived, but I can't think of any "moved capital" that was a capital for less than 9 years (Abuja, Nigeria). Nanjing, for example, was capital of China for 22 years. Dodoma has been a co-capital of Nigeria since 1973, although a lot of administrative buildings weren't moved until the 1990s. Oct 30 07, 9:13 PM