MAPS -- Ultimate Study Guide

Maritime Choke Points

Panama Canal, Bering Strait, Korea Strait, Malacca Strait, Hormuz Strait, Bab el Mandeb, Suez Canal, Bosporus Strait, Denmark Strait, Gibraltar Strait

Cyber Choke Points

Northern Virginia, Fortaleza, Bude, Djibouti, Mumbai, Singapore

Agricultural Production Areas

Mississippi Triangle, South American Soy Zone, North European Plains, Slavic Black Soil Region, Indo-Gangetic Plains, Eastern China, Southeast Asian Deltas

Mississippi Triangle

Soy, Corn (exporting)

South American Soy Zone

Soy, Corn (exporting)

North European Plains

Wheat

Slavic Black Soil Region

Wheat (exporting)

Indo-Gangetic Plains

Wheat, Rice

Eastern China

Rice

Southeast Asian Deltas

Corn, Wheat Rice (exporting rice)

Global Wind, Precipitation and Temperature Patterns

Cold at poles; precipitation at 60N, 0, and 60S; little precipitation at 30N and 30S; Northeast winds, southwest winds, northwest winds, southeast winds.

Orographic Rainfall

Rain on one side of a mountain, arid rain shadow on the other.

Air cools when it rises over mountains and can’t hold as much moisture.

Exotic River

Rain generated in mountains forms a river that flows into an arid area.

What/Where/Water

Lots of precipitation at Equator (0); little precipitation at sub-tropical highs (30N/S); Mountains have orographic rain and rain shadows; Asian monsoons overpower global patterns. Energy creates water; money creates and imports water; political and military power controls access to water.

Sahel

Divides Africa into pastorial/agricultural, Islam/Christianity, Equatorial/North Africa

Natural Border

A border made from a natural features, such as a river or a mountain range.

Resource Curse

Countries rich in natural resources are exploited and suffer economically.

Rentier State

State that gains its wealth from hosting foreign governments and businesses.

Berlin Conference

European colonial powers splitting Africa up into colonies — ignored natural borders and ethnic divides, focused on resource extraction.

A

Jos Plateau

B

Fouta Djallon

C

Angolan Highlands

D

Ethiopian Highlands

E

Drakensberg Plateau

F

Congo River

G

Zambezi River

H

Nile River

I

Orange River

J

Senegal River

K

Niger River

States without tsetse fly

Kenya, Namibia South Africa

Allowed Colonial Settlement

Capitals: Nairobi, Windhoek, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Cape Town

A

Nairobi (Colonial capital)

B

Dodoma (Post-colonial capital)

C

Windhoek (Colonial capital)

D

Abuja (Post-colonial capital)

E

Yaoundé (Post-colonial capital)

I (southern F)

Cape Town (Colonial capital)

G

Pretoria (Colonial capital)

H

Bloemfontein (Colonial capital)

African State/Border Changes

Tanzania — merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar

Eritrea — split from Ethiopia in 1993 after joining in 1952

South Sudan — split from Sudan in 2011, world’s youngest state

Somaliland — de facto independent from Somalia

Dependency Ratio

Ratio of young and old to those 16-64. Africa has the highest dependency ratio in the world, will have the lowest by 2100. Will have the highest working age population.

SWANA Border Changes

Two Yemens merged in 1990

Western Sahara is de facto part of Morocco, but has world’s longest sand berm.

Palestine/Israel

Orientalism

Defining of other places/peoples from an outside perspective, based on book by Edward Said

Nation

A large population with political aspirations that shares a culture

State

An independent political entity with clear geographic boundaries

Nation-State

A state whose population is made up of a single nation

State-Nation

A state created before those within its borders have developed a shared sense of nationhood

Sykes-Picot

1916 agreement between UK and France to divide the Ottoman Empire into the modern Middle East states

A

Nile River

B

Jordan River

C

Tigris-Euphrates River

D

Judean Hills

E

Atlas Mountains

F

Anatolian Plateau

G

Zagros Mountains

Shia Majority

Bahrain, Iran, Iraq

Non-Arab majority

Turkey, Israel, Iran

Yemen and Iraq religious majorities

Yemen has a large Shia minority, Iraq has a large Sunni minority.

Water stress in SWANA

Very dry area, but wealthier countries have significantly less water stress.

Divided Place: Palestine

1. British Mandate for Palestine established under Sykes-Picot, which was subdivided into Mandate Palestine (current Israel, West Bank, and Gaza), which allowed Jewish settlement, and Transjordan, which did not.

2. Transjordan becomes independent in 1946.

3. In 1947, the UN proposed dividing Mandate Palestine into Jewish and Arab states with Jerusalem as an international city.

4. Arab League rejects this plan, and war breaks out in 1948 when Israel declares independence.

5. The war resulted in the expansion of Israeli territory beyond the UN plan: creation of Jordanian-controlled West Bank, Egyptian-controlled Gaza, Israeli West Jerusalem and Jordanian East Jerusalem

6. Israel captured Golan Heights from Syria in 1967

7. Gaza, the West Bank, and West Jerusalem are nominally under Palestinian Control.

Giordano Line

Drawn from St Petersburg to Sea of Azov. 43 countries on one side, 1 on the other

Strategic Depth

Distance between the front lines or battle sectors and the combatants’ industrial core areas, capital cities, heartlands, and other key population and military centers.

Irredentism

Territorial claim based on a national, ethnic, or historical basis

Yalta

Post-WWII conference that split Europe and created Soviet satellite states.

The Steppe

Extends Slavic Black Soil region eastward through Mongolia.

A

Dniepro River

B

Volga River

C

Lena River

D

Ob River

E

Yenisei River

F

Amu Darya

G

Syr Darya

H

Kaliningrad

I

St. Petersburg

J

Murmansk

K

Sevastopol

L

Vladivostok

GIUK Gap

Gap between Iceland and the UK that limits the utility of Russian ports, along with other choke points.

Soviet Union States

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan

Warsaw Pact

Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania

Ethnically Russian Baltic States

Estonia and Latvia

A

Kaliningrad

B

Chechnya

C

Transnistria

D

Abkhazia

E

South Ossetia

F

Luhansk

G

Donetsk

H

Crimea

1

Fulda Gap

2

Sulwalki Gap

3

Smolensk Gate

Carpathians

Mountain range crossing through Romania, Ukraine, and Poland

Caucuses

Mountain range across Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia

Centrifugal forces

Forces that pull a state/area apart — geographic features, natural borders, poor governance, poor infrastructure

Centripetal forces

Forces that pull a state/area together — shared culture, religion, “civilization”

EU Countries

Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Malta

NATO Countries

EU Countries + Iceland, Norway, UK, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Turkey, US, Canada - Sweden, Austria, Malta, Cyprus

NATO/EU and Europe Unification

Overcoming centrifugal forces and break cycle of European conflict

Divided Place: Ireland

1. Protestant England took control of Catholic Ireland in the 16th century

2. English and Scottish Protestant settlers displaced many Irish, particularly in the North

3. Conflict led to a 1922 partition into an independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which became a part of the UK

4. Violence within Northern Ireland ended with the 1998 Belfast Agreement, which kept an open border

5. Brexit restarted the open border question, reinvigorated discussion of Irish unification and talk of Scottish and Welsh secession from the UK