Strange, Unique & Interesting Capital Cities

#Geography

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[XiongBearTravel]

Plymouth in Montserrat(British Overseas Territory) is the only capital city with a population of 0 due to a volcano eruption in the 1990s. Most of the island’s population is in Brades which is the de facto capital

[sanjarsocool]

I feel like Turkmenistan’s capital is way more strange than Pyongyang

[chaoss]

The Netherlands only have one capital which is Amsterdam. The Hague is the city were the government resides, but doesn't have the status of capital.

[marcosettembre]

Bratislava is the only capital that borders two other countries. Kinshasa and Brazzaville are the closest capitals

[orak]

12:20 “Russia apparently moved its capital to Moscow to be more western”.

Actually, Moscow as a capital succeeded Vladimir due to Mongol invasions.

Yet, lately there is another capital which was build on swamps to take control of the baltic, legitimate Russian occupation in the area and defend the empire against Swedes in the beginning of the 18th century, the city where I was born : St Petersburg.
This city was intended to be more western.

[davidmohan]

Did Kazakhstan also move its capital? I thought it was Alma-Ata/Almaty, but did they then move it to Astana? I used to have them all memorized, but there are so many changes!

[ianhoad]

You mentioned New Zealand moving its capital from Auckland to the more central Wellington. But that was the second move. They previously moved from Russell to Auckland.

[clemente]

Nairobi is the only capital with a national park in it, with all the big five fenced yes lions and only lions do escape to the suburbs.

[Sanandaj_geo]

You forgot the most interesting part of "moved capital cities" : Iran
Iran has moved its capital almost 70 times during different dynasties and you can even make a whole separate video about it :)

[giladspanier]

Great video. I've waited all the video for Jerusalem and it's complicated situation, but when I think about it, it probably need a video of its own. Very interesting city. Please consider making a video on it.😊

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Guinea-Bissau added its capital to its name to separate itself from neighboring Guinea. When it was Portuguese, it was just called Província Portuguesa de Guiné or the Portuguese (overseas) province of Guinea. Bissau in turn comes from the name of a clan N'nssassun, in its plural form Bôssassun. Intchassu (Bôssassu) was the name given to the nephew of King Mecau—the first sovereign of the island of Bissau. Pyongyang is that way because it's a transit city, with four tram lines, two Metro lines, and twelve trolleybus lines. Not to mention people who bike!

And regarding Sejong, originally it WAS gonna be the new national capital replacing Seoul. ROK president Roh Moo-hyun, who was president from February 2003 to 2008, proposed moving the national capital of the ROK from Seoul to Sejong. But because of backlash from his opposition as well as a court ruling that Seoul MUST remain the national capital under the constitution, the Roh administration was forced to modify the project to relocate the majority of government ministries and institutions to Sejong. And it would become a special self-governing city in 2012, and eventually an administrative capital. Sejong was named in honor of King Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

For Malabo it also has to do with colonial history. The island of Bioko was a hub for slave trading. In 1642, the Dutch East India Company established trade bases on the island without Portuguese consent. It temporarily centralized from there its slave trade in the Gulf of Guinea. The Portuguese appeared again on the island in 1648, replacing the Dutch Company with one of their own. Bioko and the rest of what's now Equatorial Guinea became Spanish in 1778. The British set up a base on Bioko in 1821, and Malabo was founded seven years later as Port Clarence (renamed to Santa Isabel in 1844 and then Malabo in 1973. Quite simply, the colonials opted to develop the island instead of the mainland.

Palau's capitol building looking like the US Capitol does make a lot of sense considering Palau was once under an UN trusteeship controlled by the US from 1947 until 1994 and are part of the Compact of Free Association with the US, so there's a lot of American influence. However, the building was actually completed thanks to the Taiwanese! Basically, planning for it began in the late 1980s but progress for it was slow because a lot had to be imported and they lacked engineers. Then in the early 2000s, the Taiwanese sent a 20-million-dollar loan which secured Palau's recognition of Taiwan and thus construction truly began and was completed in 2006.

[weterpebb]

Had to laugh when the picture over the intro when you said "some are downright boring" was of Canberra

[GenericUsername]

4:44 Cape Town has a pretty nice backdrop to be fair

[lachlanhuby]

the so-called "boring city" pictured is just the arboretum in the less populated part of Canberra, the south. also, its basically a museum of trees from around the world

[jskelly]

You missed an opportunity to talk about Djibouti's strategic location on the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, which is the gateway between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. A path in which many ships travel, to save time, by navigating through the Suez Canal. And in a time of war, any and every country will want to be able to control this choke point and that is why there are several foreign military bases in Djibouti. This includes the U.S., China, Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the U.K.

[les]

panama, guatemala and mexico really lazy on naming their capital since they're not microcountry or city statt, especially mexico, they're giant in both area and population

[thehanakk]

I’m waiting for Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar. It is coldest capital also Ulaanbaatar itself change locations 28 times

[johane]

Thank you for a well-researched video. Although your mispronunciation of Malaysia's administrative city (not the capital; the parliament, courts and palace are still in KL) Putrajaya as 'Putrajava' may cause a little stir due to its meaning, but I'm sure it was unintentional.

[JamesDunmore]

That picture of Tokyo with Mt Fuji behind is fake and it annoys me 🤣 You can never see Fuji that clearly. Most days you can’t see it at all