AP Human Geo Unit 4 Vocab

city-state

A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediate hinterland.

colony

a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.

compact state

a state that possesses a roughly circular, oval, or rectangular territory in which the distance from the center is does not vary significantly

Elongated State

A state whose territory is long and narrow in shape.

Federal State

An internal organization of a state that allocates powers to units of local government.

Unitary State

An internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials

fragmented state

A state that includes several discontinuous, non-touching pieces of territory.

frontier

a zone where no state exercises complete political control

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Gerrymandering

manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.

Prorupted State

an otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension

Perforated State

A state whose territory completely surrounds that of another state.

Sovereignty

Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

territory

an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state.

state

An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government with control over its internal and foreign affairs.

Nation

a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.

nation-state

a sovereign state whose citizens or subjects are relatively homogeneous in factors such as language or common descent.

Multinational State

state with more than one nation within its borders

stateless nation

a group of people with a common political identity who do not have a territorially defined, sovereign country of their own

Democracy

A political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them

Colonialism

Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory.

World system theory

categorizes countries and emphasizes the inequalities of the division of labor at the global level

periphery countries

the least developed and least powerful nations; often exploited by the core countries as sources of raw materials, cheap labor, and markets

Core countries

the most advanced industrial countries, which take the lion's share of profits in the world economic system.

Centripetal

Forces that tend to unify a country—such as widespread commitment to a national culture, shared ideological objectives, and a common faith

centrifugal

a force that divides people and countries

Devolution

the transfer of powers and responsibilities from the federal government to the states

Supranational organization

An organization involving three or more nation-states involving formal political, economic, and/or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives. The European Union is one such organization

Heartland Theory

A geopolitical hypothesis, proposed by British geographer Halford Mackinder during the first two decades of the twentieth century, that any political power based in the heart of Eurasia could gain sufficient strength to eventually dominate the world.

Territorialization

The process by which people reorganize space to sustain themselves and their ambitions.

Reterritorialization

a term referring to a process in which people start to produce an aspect of popular culture themselves, doing so in the context of their local culture and place, making it their own. EX) Hip hop spread from NY and LA to major cities in Europe

Geometric boundary

Political boundaries that are defined and delimited by straight lines.

physical-political boundary

political boundary defined and delimited by a prominent physical feature in the natural landscape