AP Human Geography: Unit 4 Chapter 9 - Vocabulary (The Contemporary Political Map)

State

a politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population; a country

Nation

a cultural entity made up of people who have forged a common identity through a shared language, religion, heritage, or ethnicity—often all four of these

Nation-State

a politically organized and recognized territory composed of a group of people who consider themselves to be a nation

Stateless Nation

a people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state

Multinational State

a country with various ethnicities and cultures living inside its borders

Multistate nation

people who share a cultural or ethnic background but live in more than one country

Autonomous region

having the authority to govern territories independently of the national government; for example, by having a separate currency

Demarcate

to place physical objects such as stones, pillars, walls, or fences to indicate where a boundary exists

Administer

to manage the way borders are maintained and how goods and people cross them

Semi-autonomous region

describing a region that is given partial authority to govern its territories independently from the national government

Sovereignty

the right of a government to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders

Self-determination

the right of all people to choose their own political status

Independence Movement

a struggle by a people seeking self-determination to gain independence or sovereignty from colonial rulers or a dominant state

Devolution

the process that occurs when the central power in a state is broken up among regional authorities within its borders

Neo-Colonialism

the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies

Shatterbelt

a region where states form, join, and break up because of ongoing, sometimes violent, conflicts among parties and because they are caught between the interests of more powerful outside states

Choke point

a narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass