The capitals of South America

With 12 countries, South America is the continent you can know entirely in an evening. Most capitals are also their country's largest city — Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago, Bogotá, Montevideo, Caracas, Quito, Asunción, Georgetown, Paramaribo. Two exceptions, and one quarrel.

Sucre or La Paz?

Bolivia is the only country on the continent whose capital is disputed. The constitution names Sucre as the capital — the Supreme Court sits there, and independence was proclaimed there in 1825. But the government and parliament have been in La Paz since the civil war of 1899, making it the de facto seat of power, and the highest capital in the world at 3,600 metres.

Both answers have their defenders. The convention used here, as in most atlases, is Sucre, the constitutional capital.

Brasília, the capital raised on the plateau

Brazil inaugurated Brasília in 1960, a thousand kilometres from the coast, to draw its population inland from a country that lived entirely on its shoreline. Rio de Janeiro, capital since 1763, lost the title overnight. The city, designed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer in the shape of an aeroplane, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site — the only twentieth-century urban ensemble to hold that status.

Ecuador completes the list of exceptions: Quito is the capital, but Guayaquil is more populous.

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