Country Profiles

Has received substantial FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in the oil industry.

Nigeria

Notable Supranational Organizations other than UN: OPEC member, African Union member

Nigeria

Culture: Culturally diverse: Hundreds of languages spoken. No single language spoken by a majority as a first language. (English is official language)

Nigeria

Has suffered numerous armed conflicts between Christians and Muslims, as well as between rival ethnicities. (Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba )

Nigeria

One of the World’s poorest countries. Rich in natural resources, but poor infrastructure and decades of conflict have slowed or prevented economic development through much of the country (especially east near Rwanda and Burundi).

Morphology: DROC has a proruption (geographic extension) that gives it access to the ocean and prevents it from being landlocked.

Colonial era: Was a Belgian colony, awarded to Belgium at the Berlin Conference of the late 1800s. Widespread abuse of the locals was reported under Belgian rule, especially with regard to the rubber industry.

Population: Like many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, birth rates are high and the average age of the population is young.

South Africa:

Supranational organizations other than UN: Current member of the BRICS, African Union

Part of the global Semi-Periphery. Was under both British and Dutch rule, from the mid 1600s until the 20th Century.

Main language is Afrikaans, which is an Indo European (Germanic) language. This is a legacy Dutch colonialism, and it is based on Dutch, mixed with local languages and various other foreign influences.

Apartheid was an infamous system of racial segregation and oppression in South Africa, which ended in 1994.

Culture/ Ethnicity: South Africa, like much of the region of Southern Africa, was part of the British Empire. As a result of this, there are significant populations of people of European descent (also from Dutch rule), as well as people of South Asian descent in South Africa and the bigger region of Southern Africa. People from India, which was a British colony, migrated to various other parts of the British empire as well. This was not only to Africa, but also to colonies on other continents, like Guyana in South America.. This is an important aspect of the modern cultural makeup of many of these countries.

Europe

United Kingdom:

Relationship to the EU: The UK was part of the European Union but never part of the Eurozone (never used the Euro). Due to public concerns about the loss of sovereignty to the European Union, a referendum was voted on successfully to leave the EU in 2020. This is known as the Brexit.

Scotland referendum: Similar in some ways to the referendum in Quebec (Canada), Scotland held a referendum in 2014 to secede from the UK. It failed, like the referendum in Quebec. Like Ireland next door, many Scottish people see their cultural heritage as Gaelic rather than English. Unlike Ireland and more like England is the fact that Protestant is the largest Christian denomination in Scotland.

Legacy of Colonialism: The global dominance of the English language is largely due to the spread of the British Empire across the world. Most of the former British colonies are now independent countries, but in most cases English is still an important language in those countries. This is the case across large geographic areas of Eastern Africa and South Asia, among many other places on every inhabited continent.

Political organization: The UK is multiethnic and multinational, meaning Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are allowed to govern themselves, as far as most local affairs are concerned.

Northern Ireland conflict: Ireland (Catholic) fought a civil war to win independence from the UK (Protestant) in 1922-1923. The outcome was this: The Catholic part of the island was granted independence. The northern 6 counties were close to 50/50 split between Catholic and Protestant. These counties (Northern Ireland) were not granted independence. Catholics in Northern Ireland continued to fight locally and some began to resort to terrorist tactics (IRA). Reprisals from the other side started to do the same. This period, known as The Troubles, lasted until the end of the 20th Century.

Urban Pattern: London is a primate city (no rank size urban pattern in UK) meaning it is many times larger than any other city in UK.

Russia:

They are always russian to get things done. Russia is geographically the largest state (country) but has a small population for its size (about half that of the United States)

Part of the BRICS.

Development: Average income similar to China and Mexico. Listed now as a developing country by the UN. The Russian economy is heavily dependent on selling resources, such as oil.

Ethnicity: Russia is multiethnic (32 recognized ethnic groups in substantial numbers) and multinational (numerous ethnic groups govern their own republics within Russia.) Most Russians are Orthodox Christians.

Geopolitics: A lack of physical geographic boundaries between Russia and Western Europe creates geopolitical tension between them. (Russia was invaded by both Napoleon and Hitler.) Russia and Western Europe come into conflict as they each push their interests and influence into the Eastern European states between them. During the Cold War, these were known as “buffer states”

UNCLOS: Russia and its arctic neighbors have made conflicting claims, beyond their 200 mile exclusive economic zones, in the Arctic. Some of Russia’s claims have been recognized by the UN, but numerous territorial disputes between arctic countries are still ongoing.

Irredentism: Ukraine and Georgia (the country) were once under Russian control, as parts of the Soviet Union. Many Russians still live in Eastern Ukraine and the South Ossetia region of Georgia. Russia has sent troops into both regions and annexed Crimea (Ukraine) claiming, in part, to be looking out for the interests of Russians living in those areas.

Spain:

Located on the outside of the European economic core, and thereby less developed than wealthiest parts of Western Europe, such as France and Germany. (Spain is still considered a developed country/ MDC)

Ethnic conflict: (see below map) Spain is a multiethnic state.

Catalonia is an autonomous region in northeastern Spain (see map). Catalan is considered a distinct language, rather than a dialect of Spanish. Catalonia has experienced growing nationalism and calls for succession, due to political struggles against the ruling party of Spain’s central government.

Basque region: The Basque region of Spain is located in the Pyrenees Mountains (between Spain and France) Basque people speak a language with no surviving relatives. It is not related to Spanish. Basque nationalism/ separatism led to violent conflict that lasted from 1959 to 2011.

Iceland:

Ethnically homogeneous (nation-state). Consistently one of the word’s most developed countries, as measured by the UN’s HDI. Low birth rates (stage 4 DTM).

What is unique: They have lived in relative isolation for 1000 years. Therefore their language has changed less than any other Germanic language.

The Core (France, Germany, Belgium, etc)

Germany, France, and the region between them make up the world's wealthiest market area and one of the world’s three main economic cores (along with Japan and the Northeastern US/ Southeast Canada). It is also the center of the Eurozone, the part of the European Union that uses the Euro. Belgium is the location of the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank sets monetary policy (prints money) for the Eurozone. The tradeoff to using the same money is that the countries of the Eurozone can no longer print their own currency. In this way they have lost some control over their own economies (loss of sovereignty). The real or perceived loss of sovereignty, to supranational organizations, has led to the emergence of anti-globalization sentiment in many countries, both inside and outside of Europe.

Paris, France is a primate city (no rank size urban pattern in France) meaning it is many times larger than any other city in France.

Latin America

Mercosur:

Mercosur is not a country. It is an important trade agreement (supranational organization) between the countries of South America, identified on the map below. It began in the Southern “cone” and has increased in both size and importance over the last 30 years.

Mexico:

Has received a large amount of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) from the United States, in the form of manufacturing of goods, to be sold in the US. These American owned factories are known as maquiladoras. The creation of NAFTA (now USMCA) in the 1990s removed many restrictions of the geographic locations of maquiladora factories and led to significant increases of American factories moving to Mexico.

Uneven Development: Highest levels of development: Border states with US, coastal areas, Mexico city

Low development: Central interior of the country.

Mexico city: 7th largest city in the World. Prime example of Spanish colonial city design: Large open central plaza with a church. Grid pattern streets.

Mexico City is a primate city (no rank size urban pattern in Mexico) meaning it is many times larger than any other city in Mexico. (6 times larger than Tijuana)

Remittances from the United States are a major source of income for Mexico. According to CNBC, remittances in 2022 to Mexico were nearly 60 billion dollars.

The largest migrant stream in the World is from Mexico to the United States.

Mexico, like most of the semi-periphery, is in stage 3 of the demographic transition.

Average income and level of development are similar to China

Brazil:

Built Brasilia (capital) in the interior of the country to encourage people to move there and develop the area.

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (Southeast coast) are very populated (23 million in Sao Paulo metro area.)

Development and internal migration: The Southeast coast is the most developed part of the country. Interior/ Amazon region have low economic development. There is a large internal migration stream of poor migrants from these regions to the mega cities in the Southeast. Resulting slums radiate out in the peripheral areas of those cities. These neighborhoods are known as favelas. This phenomenon is common in large Latin American cities and mega cities in the Asian countries of the semi-periphery, but they are ONLY called favelas in Brazil.

Member of the BRICS, part of the global semi-periphery. Portuguese is the main language due to Brazil being a colony of Portugal.

Models: DTM stage 3, Latin American city model (Sao Paulo)

Asia:

China:

World’s second largest economy (or largest if adjusted for PPP). Average income and development comparable to Mexico and the global semi-periphery. As of 2023 second largest population in the world (1.4 billion). Part of the BRICS

Demographic issues: China had a strict One Child Policy, from 1978 until 2016. As a result, a very large percentage of China’s population will be coming to or near retirement and leaving the workforce in the next 10 to 20 years, with too few young people to replace them. This will likely create economic problems.

Trade: China’s economy has experienced massive growth over the past couple decades. It is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the developing world. Some factories that moved to China for cheap labor have since moved to poorer countries, like Vietnam, as incomes in China have risen.

Special Economic Zones: Regions of China that introduced reforms, starting in the 1980s, designed to attract foreign direct investment. Relaxed rules allowing the right to hire and fire workers, tax exemptions, and initiatives to develop infrastructure were implemented in numerous coastal cities. These so-called “special economic zones” were successful in attracting foreign direct investment and saw rapid economic development. Most of these could also be referred to as Export Processing Zones and they are mostly located in the East, near the Pacific coast.

Relationship to Taiwan: China fought a civil war between communists and nationalists that ended in 1949, with the communists taking control of all of mainland China. The defeated nationalists still maintained control of the island of Taiwan. Since then Taiwan has operated and viewed itself as an independent country. Mainland China insists Taiwan is a rogue province that will be brought back under the control of the mainland.

Relationship to Hong Kong: Hong Kong was under British control for over 150 years, until 1997, when control was given back to China. Under British rule in the late 20th century Hong Kong did very well economically. This is often attributed to Britain’s “hands off” approach to allowing Hong Kong to operate economically, with little to no interference. As a result the Chinese government has also allowed Hong Kong to operate with greater independence than it allows for other parts of China.

Culture: China’s two most important languages are Mandarin and Cantonese. China is a multiethnic state, with several other languages spoken in different parts of the country.

Political organization: China is a unitary state. With a few exceptions (like Hong Kong) the central government has more power over local areas than most other large, multiethnic states.

Chinese culture is sometimes referred to as “Confucian culture” in reference to the influence of Confucianism. Part of this influence is manifested as a general respect for authority and a long history of strong, centralized governments.

Farming: Initially, under communist rule (starting 1949), collective farms provided little incentive to be productive. Economic reforms of the 1970s involved privatization of farms and resulted in greater agricultural productivity, as well as economic growth.

Among other things, wet rice is a major crop (domesticated in China as well). It is grown intensively, especially in the southeast, to the point of terracing hillsides to enable them to hold water.

UNCLOS: China is involved in numerous disputes with Island countries in the South China Sea, over territory and rights it claims to the ocean, beyond its exclusive economic zone. China claims a historic right to an area that stretches far beyond its EEZ, and into waters with claims by other countries. China and several other countries, such as Japan and the Philippines, have started building islands in the South China Sea, with the intention of expanding their EEZs.

Uneven development: China, like much of the semi-periphery, has regions that have developed successfully and regions that lag behind. China’s east coast, especially around special economic zones, has developed substantially more than the Western part of the country.

India: