Temporary capital

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A temporary capital or a provisional capital is a country or a town chosen by a government as an interim base of operations due to some difficulty in establishing control in another metropolitan area. This is common during a civil war, when one faction lacks control of the capital, or during an invasion, when the usual capital is taken or threatened by invaders.

Examples include:

• During World War II due to evacuation actions the Soviet Union had different de facto capitals:
  • Kuybyshev (now Samara) — planned temporary capital in case of occupation of Moscow and de facto temporary administrative and diplomatic capital
  • Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) — de facto temporary industrial capital
  • Kazan — de facto temporary scientific capital
  • Tyumen — de facto temporary spiritual capital
• Bonn — temporary capital of West Germany (1949—1990)
• Similarly the Republic of China maintained a temporary capital in Chongqing while Japan occupied Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and following the Chinese Revolution the Republic of China established a capital in Taipei.
• The Pan-Russian "White" regime of A.Kolchak in Omsk during the Russian Revolution
• During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists initially had a temporary capital at Burgos; once the Nationalists took Madrid, the Republicans maintained temporary capitals first at Valencia and finally at Barcelona.
• The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Bir Lehlou, rather than El Aaiún, Western Sahara, but with its de facto headquarters in Tindouf, Algeria.
• The government of Somalia in various locations within their territory and Kenya, rather than Mogadishu.
• Lithuania in Kaunas rather than Vilnius during the interwar period when Poland controlled the latter city (see Temporary capital of Lithuania).
• The Parliament of Finland moved from Helsinki to Kauhajoki during Winter War.