1w ago

Why do news articles and such call the governments of countries/groups of countries after the capital?

For example, “Washington” (US), “Brussels” (EU), “Moscow” (Russia).

I guess it’s a short hand for writing “US government”, “Russian government”, etc. but why? And what happens when you’re referring to a country with multiple capitals like South Africa?

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In general, I have seen mentioning the country after a city name quite often in American publications, and not only with capitals. Maybe this is because of the famous geographical knowledge of Americans?
- The US has a huge number of cities named after cities/regions in other parts of the world, e.g.:
  Moscow, Idaho
  Ottawa, Illinois
  Brussels, Wisconsin
  Ontario, California
  Paris, Texas
  etc!
  Adding the country or state designation after one of these names is helpful for clarity.
  
  Side note, Paris, Texas is a pretty great movie.
  
  Seconded, brilliant film.
- who knows

17 comments