AP Human Geo: Unit 4

Political Geography

The study of the ways in which the world is organized as a reflection of the power that different groups hold over territory

State

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

Sovereignty

The right of a government to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its boarders 

Nations

Cultural entities made up of individuals who have forged a common identity through a shared language, religion, ethnicity or heritage

Nation-state

The territory occupied by a group who view themselves as a nation is the same as the politically recognized boundaries of the state they call their own

Irredentism

Attempts to acquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation

Multinational State

A country with various ethnicities and cultures living inside its boarders

Autonomous

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

Semi-autonomous

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

Stateless nation

A people united by culture, language, history, and tradition

Territoriality

The attempt to influence or control people and events by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area like connection of people, their culture, and their economic system

Neocolonialism

Using economic, political, cultural, and/or other pressures to control or influence another country especially for former dependencies

Choke point

A narrow, strategic passageway to another place that is difficult to pass through

Shatterbelt

The quest for power that leads to a region becoming instable

Self-determination

The right of all people to choose their political status

Devolution

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

Defining boundaries

Countries that explicitly state in legally binding documentation like treaties where their border is located that uses lines of latitude and longitude or natural features

delimit boundaries

Countries that draw their border on a map according to a legal agreement

Demarcate boundaries

A physical object like a stone, fence, pillar, or wall that indicate where a boundary is

Administer boundaries

To manage the way boundaries are managed and how goods and services (people) cross them

Antecedent boundaries

A border established before an area is heavily settled in

Subsequent boundaries

A border drawn in areas that have been settled by people and where cultural landscapes already exist/ in the process of establishment

Consequent boundaries

A type of subsequent boundaries that takes into account the difference that exist within a cultural landscape, separating groups with distinct cultural traits

Superimposed

Boundaries drawn over existing accepted border by an outside conquering force

Geometric boundaries

Boundaries that are mathematical and typically follow lines of latitude and longitude/ a straight-line arcs between 2 points instead of physical and cultural features

Relics

Former boundaries that once existed but no longer have an official function

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

The international agreement that established the structure of maritime boundaries

Exclusive Economic Zone

An area that extends 200 nautical miles from a state’s coast, a state has sole access to resources found within the waters or beneath the sea floor of EEZ

Federal State

The organization of  a state  in which power is shared between the federal government and its internal regional units

Unitary State

An organization of a state in which power is concentrated in a central government

Concurrent

Shared power

Reapportionment

The redistribution of representative seats among states based on shifts in population

Electoral College

A set of people called electors who are chosen to elect the president

Redistricting

The redrawing of internal territorial and political boundaries

Gerrymandering

The drawing of legislative boundaries to give  one political party an advantage to the election

Majority-minority districts

An electoral district in which the majority of voters are members of an ethnic or racial minority

Ethnic separatism

The process by which people of a particular ethnicity in a multinational state identify more strongly as members of their ethnic group than citizens of their state

Ethnic cleansing

The process when a state attacks an ethnic group and tries to eliminate them through expulsion, imprisonment, or killing

Supernational organization

An alliance of 3 or more states that work together in pursuit of common goals or to address an issue or challenge that these countries share

Economies of Scale

More goods and services can be produced for less money on average 

Ethnonationalism

The process where people of a country identify as having one common ethnicity, religious belief, and language that creates a sense of pride and identify that is tied to territory (also called ethnic nationalism)

Ethnic Nationalism

A form of nationalism that puts up barriers for participation in the life of the state, because identifying a country by ethnicity, religion, and language excludes people who don’t fit within the parameters