By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
S.Peelman on 30 March 2015
Edit Thread
Rogerioandrade said:
S.Peelman said:

The Netherlands

Amsterdam is the biggest city, with a population of almost 800,000. It is also our capital, but as the only country in the world (I think), our capital is ceremonial only, because our government is located elsewhere in The Hague.

That was a pleasurable read, actually. Thanks for posting.

This situation also happens in Bolivia, where the official capital is Sucre (but government offices are located in La Paz)

Thanks!

So there is another. I wasn't sure, because it's a strange situation. One learns something every day .

EDIT:

In our case (to elaborate ), The Hague was the place where the 'Stadthouder' (freely translated to 'keeper of the city'), who were rulers of the Burgundian Netherlands (more or less today's Netherlands and Belgium) in place when the German/Austrian (Holy Roman) or Spanish King or Emperor was absent, would rule in his stead. Stadthouder as such was a title for people mostly like what you would now call a 'governor'. At that time, our current house of parliament, or the oldest part of it anyway built as a castle around 1250, was used as their palace and their place of regency. The capital was an honorary title for a city and moved from place to place, depending on which county the current Stadthouder came from.

After our independence, the new Stadhouders kept ruling from The Hague, with a function more in line of a president today and The Hague became the permanent seat of government. There was never an official capital appointed, but defacto, it was The Hague. After our country was conquered by Napoleon in 1795, he disbanded the government and put his own puppet government in place led by his younger brother Louis (who ended up liking the Netherlands more than his brother's Empire and didn't really listen to Napoleon himself). He also demanded an official capital to be appointed by law. This capital became Amsterdam, which was the biggest and most important city (which it already had been). Louis briefly reigned from Amsterdam.

A little under two decades later however, when Napoleon's Empire fell in 1813, we regained our independence and welcomed back the last Stadthouder, who had gone into exile and was offered the title of King, to reunite the country. The original houses of parliament were reinstated, but Amsterdam never lost it's official status of capital. A situation that remains today.