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Natural Earth 1:50m · 35 capitals
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Capitals of the Americas Quiz

Thirty-five capitals on a flat map of the Americas, from Ottawa to Buenos Aires and the island capitals of the Caribbean. Each card names a city — click its country or drag the card onto it. Three tries per card, then the map shows the answer. Three flags, three hints and three skips are free for the round.

Read the capital on the card, then click its country or drag the card onto it. Flag turns the card into that country's flag, Hint opens all three facts about it; after three misses, or Skip, the map places it for you. Scroll or pinch to zoom in.

All 35 capitals and their countries, the flags explained, more maps ↓

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Capitals of the Americas Quiz

Thirty-five capitals of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean on one flat map. Read the city, click its country.

Capitals that are not the biggest city

The cards that cost the most time are the capitals that were built or chosen on purpose, away from the main city. Washington was laid out on the Potomac in the 1790s as a compromise between the northern and southern states, and it is no rival to New York in size. Ottawa was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1857, a compromise among Montreal, Toronto, Quebec and Kingston. Brasília was built from nothing on the central plateau and replaced Rio de Janeiro in 1960, to pull the country inland. Belmopan took over from Belize City after Hurricane Hattie flooded the coast in 1961. Sucre is Bolivia's constitutional capital and the seat of its supreme court, while the government sits in La Paz; the deck follows the constitution and asks for Sucre. Quito is smaller than Guayaquil, and Guatemala City replaced Antigua Guatemala after the earthquakes of 1773 destroyed the old capital.

Compromises, saints and a lake bed

Managua became Nicaragua's capital in 1852 to end the feud between León and Granada, which had taken turns. Mexico City stands on the drained lake bed where Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, stood before the conquest. Lima was founded by Pizarro in 1535 and Bogotá by Jiménez de Quesada in 1538; Santo Domingo, founded in the 1490s, is the oldest European city in the Americas still in use as a capital. Quito and Sucre both sit above 2,800 metres, and Bogotá above 2,600. Six capitals are named for saints, San José, San Salvador, Santo Domingo, Santiago, Saint John's and St. George's, and three simply repeat the country, Mexico City, Guatemala City and Panama City.

The Caribbean: ports, kings and one letter

The island cards are short names that are easy to swap. Kingston is Jamaica and Kingstown, one letter longer, is Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Saint John's is Antigua and Barbuda, St. George's is Grenada. Port of Spain is Trinidad and Tobago and Port-au-Prince is Haiti. Basseterre on Saint Kitts and Castries on Saint Lucia keep French names from the islands' colonial past, and so does Roseau on Dominica. Nassau in the Bahamas is named after the House of Orange-Nassau, the family of William III, and Georgetown in Guyana after George III. Bridgetown, Barbados, is named after a bridge. Georgetown and Paramaribo, on the coast of the Guianas, are the only mainland capitals of South America where neither Spanish nor Portuguese is the official language, and Montevideo faces Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata.

All 35 capitals and their countries

35 capitals are in the deck, listed in alphabetical order by city, each with its country. Every country on the map is in the deck.

  1. AsunciónParaguay
  2. BasseterreSaint Kitts and Nevis
  3. BelmopanBelize
  4. BogotáColombia
  5. BrasíliaBrazil
  6. BridgetownBarbados
  7. Buenos AiresArgentina
  8. CaracasVenezuela
  9. CastriesSaint Lucia
  10. GeorgetownGuyana
  11. Guatemala CityGuatemala
  12. HavanaCuba
  13. KingstonJamaica
  14. KingstownSaint Vincent and the Grenadines
  15. LimaPeru
  16. ManaguaNicaragua
  17. Mexico CityMexico
  18. MontevideoUruguay
  19. NassauBahamas
  20. OttawaCanada
  21. Panama CityPanama
  22. ParamariboSuriname
  23. Port of SpainTrinidad and Tobago
  24. Port-au-PrinceHaiti
  25. QuitoEcuador
  26. RoseauDominica
  27. Saint John'sAntigua and Barbuda
  28. San JoséCosta Rica
  29. San SalvadorEl Salvador
  30. SantiagoChile
  31. Santo DomingoDominican Republic
  32. St. George'sGrenada
  33. SucreBolivia
  34. TegucigalpaHonduras
  35. Washington D.C.United States of America

Questions about the capitals

Is the capital of Bolivia La Paz or Sucre?

Both, in a sense. Sucre is the constitutional capital and the seat of the Supreme Court; La Paz is the seat of the government and the legislature, and it is far larger. The deck uses Sucre, which is the answer the Bolivian constitution gives.

Why is the capital of Brazil not Rio de Janeiro?

Rio de Janeiro was the capital from 1763, when it replaced Salvador, until 1960. Brasília was planned by Lúcio Costa, with buildings by Oscar Niemeyer, and built on the central plateau in under four years to draw people and development into the interior. It was inaugurated on 21 April 1960.

Which capitals of the Americas are not their country's largest city?

Washington, Ottawa, Brasília, Belmopan, Sucre and Quito are the clear cases: New York, Toronto, São Paulo, Belize City, Santa Cruz and Guayaquil are bigger. Port of Spain has been overtaken by Chaguanas. Almost everywhere else on the map the capital is also the largest city, from Mexico City and Havana to Lima, Bogotá and Buenos Aires.

More maps

Flags of the same map: Americas. Other maps: US state capitals, European capitals, Asian capitals, African capitals, French regional capitals, Spanish regional capitals, Italian regional capitals, Brazilian state capitals, German state capitals, Canadian provincial capitals. All 235 flags of the world with their capitals: Flags of the world · all modes.