World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities
Grade 8 world capitals exercises — matching, multiple-choice, fill-blank, and short-answer — focused on countries whose capital is not their largest city.
20 questions · Matching · Multiple choice · Fill in the blank · Short answer · Analysis
This Grade 8 worksheet challenges students to move beyond simple memorization of world capitals and think analytically about why governments locate their seats of power where they do. Students match countries to their capitals, identify capitals in multiple-choice questions, complete statements with the correct capital names, and write extended responses examining the political, historical, and geographic factors that shape capital city decisions. Special attention is given to countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Nigeria, and Pakistan, where the capital is not the largest or most commercially prominent city. The sheet suits a world geography or global studies unit and pairs well with map work or primary source analysis on nation-building and sovereignty.
World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities — Grade 8
Complete each section to demonstrate your knowledge of world capitals, including countries where the seat of government differs from the most prominent city.
Remember
- A country's capital is its official seat of government and is not always its largest or most internationally recognized city.
- Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, and Pakistan each built a new capital to avoid regional rivalry or to promote development of the interior.
- Locating a capital reflects a government's priorities: sovereignty, national unity, geographic access, and historical identity.
Part A — Match each country to its capital city
Match each country in the left column to its capital city in the right column by writing the correct letter on the line provided.
Choose from
- A. New Delhi
- B. Canberra
- C. Ottawa
- D. Brasilia
- 1.
Australia
- 2.
Brazil
- 3.
Canada
- 4.
India
Part B — Choose the best answer for each question
Circle the letter of the best answer for each question below.
- 5.
Brasilia replaced which city as Brazil's capital in 1960, as part of a plan to shift the political center toward the country's interior?
- A.Sao Paulo
- B.Salvador
- C.Belo Horizonte
- D.Rio de Janeiro
- 6.
Which country's capital is Canberra, a city purpose-built after federation to resolve a rivalry between two larger cities?
- A.New Zealand
- B.South Africa
- C.Argentina
- D.Australia
- 7.
What is the capital of Pakistan, a planned city that replaced the country's largest port city as the seat of government?
- A.Lahore
- B.Peshawar
- C.Quetta
- D.Islamabad
- 8.
Which country moved its capital from Lagos to the newly built city of Abuja in 1991 to secure a more central and neutral location?
- A.Ghana
- B.Kenya
- C.Senegal
- D.Nigeria
- 9.
What is the capital of India, situated within the National Capital Territory in the northern part of the subcontinent?
- A.Mumbai
- B.Kolkata
- C.Chennai
- D.New Delhi
- 10.
Which city serves as the capital of Egypt and is widely recognized as the largest city in the Arab world?
- A.Alexandria
- B.Luxor
- C.Aswan
- D.Cairo
Part C — Complete each statement with the correct capital city
Write the correct capital city in each blank to complete the statement.
- 11.
The capital of Australia is ____, a planned city built between Sydney and Melbourne after federation in 1901.
- 12.
Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to ____ in 1960 to encourage development of the interior.
- 13.
The capital of Canada is ____, not Toronto, which is the country's most populous city.
- 14.
____ is the capital of Japan, home to the national government and the Imperial Palace.
- 15.
Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to ____ in 1991, selecting a central and politically neutral location.
- 16.
The capital of Germany is ____, a city that also served as the capital when Germany was first unified in 1871.
Part D — Answer each question with analysis and specific evidence
Answer each question in two to three complete sentences, using specific evidence and reasoning to support your response.
- 17.
Why do some countries build planned capitals rather than choosing an existing major city? Use a specific example to support your answer.
- 18.
Compare why Australia and Canada each chose a capital that was not the country's largest city. What do the two situations have in common?
- 19.
What political or historical factors might lead a government to place its capital in a city other than its largest commercial center?
- 20.
How does the concept of sovereignty relate to a country's choice of capital location? What does a capital symbolize beyond government?
Answer key
Part A — Match each country to its capital city
- 1.Canberra
- 2.Brasilia
- 3.Ottawa
- 4.New Delhi
Part B — Choose the best answer for each question
- 5.Rio de Janeiro
- 6.Australia
- 7.Islamabad
- 8.Nigeria
- 9.New Delhi
- 10.Cairo
Part C — Complete each statement with the correct capital city
- 11.Canberra
- 12.Brasilia
- 13.Ottawa
- 14.Tokyo
- 15.Abuja
- 16.Berlin
Part D — Answer each question with analysis and specific evidence
- 17.Example: Countries sometimes build new capitals to prevent one region from gaining political dominance over others, or to direct economic development toward an underpopulated interior. Brazil constructed Brasilia during the late 1950s and officially relocated the government there in 1960, replacing Rio de Janeiro in order to shift investment inland and signal a break from the colonial-era coastal economy. A purpose-built capital can also be sited at the geographic center of a large nation, making the seat of government more equally accessible to all citizens.
- 18.Example: Both Canberra and Ottawa were selected as compromise capitals because rival cities within each country refused to cede the honor to the other. In Australia, Sydney and Melbourne each sought to become the capital after federation in 1901, so a new city was planned in the territory between them. In Canada, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa in 1857 partly to defuse tension between Toronto and Montreal, and partly because its inland location was considered more defensible; in both cases, the chosen capital remained smaller than the country's largest commercial cities.
- 19.Example: A government may choose a capital that is geographically central so it is equally accessible to all regions of the country, rather than favoring the coastal ports that grew wealthy under colonial trade. Historical factors such as post-independence nation-building can also play a decisive role; Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to the inland city of Abuja in 1991 partly to select a site that no single ethnic or regional group associated with its own power base, thereby reinforcing national unity and reducing the concentration of both political and economic power in one city.
- 20.Example: Sovereignty is a nation's supreme authority over its own territory and people, and the capital city is the most visible physical symbol of that authority — it is where laws are enacted, treaties are ratified, and the head of state exercises power. When a newly independent or newly unified nation moves or builds its capital, it asserts that its sovereignty is self-determined rather than inherited from a colonial power or imposed by geography. Brazil's decision to build Brasilia, for instance, signaled that the country's future would be shaped by its own interior rather than by the Atlantic ports through which colonial trade once flowed.
What this sheet teaches
- Identify the capital cities of selected countries, including nations that have purpose-built planned capitals.
- Explain the political and historical reasons why some countries have moved or established new capital cities.
- Compare the circumstances that led different nations to place their capitals outside their largest or best-known cities.
Notes for the adult
- Students commonly assume a country's most famous city is its capital; address this misconception explicitly before beginning Section A.
- When a student names an incorrect capital, ask them to explain what that city is known for, then redirect toward the correct answer using that contrast.
- A student is ready to move on when they can explain, not just name, why a country's capital differs from its largest commercial center.
What is on the page
Printed on one side, World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities runs to four parts and 20 exercises. Matching, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank and short-answer work, in that order, so a student who has understood the material has to show it in more than one form before the page is finished.
Part A Match each country to its capital city sets four items against four lettered options, one lettered option per item, which means the last pair can be reached by elimination. Part B Choose the best answer for each question asks six multiple-choice questions with four printed options each. Part C Complete each statement with the correct capital city gives six sentences with a blank each and no word bank, so the wording has to come from the student. Part D Answer each question with analysis and specific evidence is four short-answer questions with twelve ruled lines between them, which is the part of the sheet that takes the longest.
Twelve ruled lines are printed for written answers on World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities, which decides how long it takes more than the question count does. The answer key prints on its own page at the end, so the sheet can be handed out without it.
What it asks of the student
World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities puts about 479 words of reading in front of the student — the fact box, the directions, every question, and every printed option. That is the number worth checking against a class before it goes out, because a sheet that is pitched right on the history and wrong on the reading fails for the same child either way. The longest single prompt on it runs to 24 words.
Writing runs the other way on World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities: twelve ruled lines for four of the 20 exercises, and the full answer key comes to 395 words. Everything else is answered in a blank, in a box, or on the map itself, which is why the sheet takes a lesson rather than a homework slot.
Where this one sits
World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities is one of ten World Geography sheets on this site and one of eleven written for grade 8. two of them share its topic, world capitals, which is worth knowing before printing two that overlap.
The closest things to it are World Rivers and Mountains Worksheet (grade 8) and Climate Zones Worksheet — Tropical, Temperate and Polar (grade 4). If World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities lands well, those are the ones to reach for next; if it lands badly, the analysis sheets a grade either side are usually the adjustment rather than a different topic altogether.
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World Capitals at other grades
This sheet: Grade 8, 20 questions — matching, multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer. The same topic is also written for:
- World Capitals: Countries and Their Capital Cities — Grade 7 · 18 questions, multiple choice, fill in the blank, true or false, short answer · analysis work