Studied by 1190 peopleBritish geographer
________, Mackinder identified agricultural land as the primary commodity that states were interested in.
Difficulty
________ occurs when uninhabited small islets, exposed reefs, and sandbars above water are claimed by more than one country.
Wealthy businesspeople
________ and corporations have replaced the aristocracy in terms of the control of money, land, and resources.
Operational
________: when borders are agreed on, but passage across the border is a problem.
Creativity
________ and economic productivity stagnated because of a lack of incentive in the system that would motivate people to have better lives.
current form of constitutional monarchy
EX: The ________ in Great Britain has been in place since the Magna Carta was signed in 1215.
Communist Party members
________ made up about 6 percent of the USSR population and enjoyed many perks.
country
an identifiable land area
nation
a population with a single culture
state
a population under a single government
nation-state
a single culture under a single government
sovereignty
means that a state is fully independent from outside control, holds territory, and that it has international recognition from other states or the United Nations
multi-national states
made up of a number of different nations represented by the multitude of culture groups who have migrated and intermixed around the world
nationalism
can derive from an existing culture group that desires political representation or independence, or from a political state that bonds and unifies culture groups
stateless nations
where a culture group is not included or allowed a share in the state political process
(EX
full independence of Kurdistan is limited geopolitically due to Turkish government resistance to their sovereignty, based upon Kurdish Marxist rebels, the PKK, who have been fighting in Turkey for several decades)
federal states & confederations
provides military protection, administers foreign diplomacy, and regulates trade as well as a number of internal administrative (executive branch), legislative, and judicial services across the country
(EX
federal government regulates interstate trade, whereas states can make rules about the sale of goods within each state)
unitary system
a single centralized government
(EX
Peoples Republic of China)
microstates
sovereign states that despite their very small size still hold the same position as much larger states
(EX
Andorra is landlocked)
autonomous regions
certain parts of certain nations have been granted freedom from central authority, usually for historical, geographical, religious, or linguistic reasons
(EX
the Basque region of northeastern Spain has its own language, Euskara, which is thousands of years old and is unrelated to any of the Romance languages that surround it)
semi-autonomous regions
have the same freedom as autonomous regions, but to a lesser degree
supranationalism
the concept of two or more sovereign states aligned together for a common purpose
supranational organizations
organizations formed for the purposes of trade alliances, military cooperation, and diplomacy
EX
European Union (28 members)
Free-trade union
No taxes or tariffs are charged on goods and services that cross the internal borders of the EU
Open-border policy
Between EU member states, there are no longer any border-control stations for immigration or customs inspections
Monetary union
In 2000, the first EU members began converting to the Euro and phasing out their old forms of money
Judicial union
The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg provides a legal venue for cases between litigants in separate EU member states
Legislative and regulatory bodies
The 751-seat EU Parliament was established to propose and approve laws within the union
Fortress Europe
describes the concept of sealing EU borders
territoriality
the expression of political control over space
citizenship
the legal identity of a person based on the state where he or she was born or where he or she was naturalized as an immigrant
political boundaries
as expressions of political control, must be definable and clear
finite lines
the borders between political states and political sub-unit areas (counties, parishes, parliamentary districts, and city limits)
expatriate populations
citizens living outside of their borders
enclave
a minority culture group concentrated inside a country that is dominated by a different, larger culture group
(EX
enclaves were formally established within Bosnia to separate warring Serb, Croat, and Muslim communities)
exclave
a fragmented piece of sovereign territory separated by land from the main part of the states territory
(EX
Alaska is an exclave whose controlling state is the United States and is separated by Canada.)
United Nations Conference on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS)
proposal of standard oceanic boundaries for all UN member states that was fully ratified in 1994
(EX
The Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, are claimed by China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei
territorial sea
Sovereign territory that includes the area of sea from shore out to the 12-nautical-mile limit
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
Exclusive economic rights from shore out to the 200-nautical-mile limit
admiralty law
a part of international law that dictates legal procedures on the high seas
the 1986 International Whaling Commission
a moratorium on commercial whale hunts that banned whaling after centuries of hunting dangerously depleted populations
antecedent
Boundary lines that exist from prehistoric times
relic
Former state boundaries that still have political or cultural meaning
subsequent
Lines resulting from conflict or cultural changes, such as war and migration
(EX
German-Polish border after 1945; Kaliningrad to the USSR in 1946)
superimposed
Lines laid down for political reasons over existing cultural boundaries
(EX
Sub-Saharan Africa after the Berlin Conference of 1884; Yugoslavia and Iraq after the 1919 Treaty of Versailles)
delimitation
when borders are put on the map
demarcation
when markers are placed on the ground to show where borders lie
physical
natural boundaries such as rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains, or deserts
cultural
estimated boundaries between nations, ethnic groups, or tribes
geometric
boundaries surveyed mostly along lines of latitude and longitude
definitional
when border treaties are interpreted two different ways by states
(EX
Russian-Japanese Kuril Islands under Soviet control in 1945)
locational
when the border moves, like a river changing course or a lake drying up
(EX
India-Bangladesh territory along the Ganges-Brahmaputra River Delta)
operational
when borders are agreed on, but passage across the border is a problem
(EX
New passport requirements for entry into the United States after September 11, 2001)
allocational
when a resource lies on two sides of a border
(EX
Mexico-United States river allocations for irrigation and drinking water on the Colorado River and Rio Grande)
frontier
open and undefined territory
state morphology
the shape of a country that also impacts its society and external relations with other countries
annexation
the addition of territory as a result of a land purchase or when a territorial claim is extended through incorporation
(EX
The United States originally purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7,000,000 in gold and it became a full state in 1948.)
(EX
Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States at a national and federal level.)
planned capital cities
cities located in places where cities did not previously exist
(EX
Sydney was the old capital of Australia
EX
In the U.S., presidential elections are decided through voting by the Electoral College
gerrymandering
the irregularly shaped districts that are highly elongated and prorupt
aristocracy
a peerage of lords, earls, marquis, barons, dukes, princes, kings, and queens
debt peonage
peasants paid rent and had their harvests taxed for the right to live on and work the land, keeping them in a cycle of debt
absolute monarchy
where the supreme aristocrat, a king, prince, or duke, was both
(EX
the French Revolution of 1789 inspired many monarchs to accept power-sharing with commoners to avoid losing control)
constitutional monarchy
where the supreme aristocrat remains head of state, but the leader of the elected parliament is the head of government, with integrated legislative and executive powers
the monarch retains the power to
dismiss parliament; appoints judges, ambassadors, and other officials; is commander and chief of the military; and retains significant land holdings and estates
prime minister (premier)
one who appoints senior members of parliament to be ministers or secretaries of executive-branch departments
EX
The current form of constitutional monarchy in Great Britain has been in place since the Magna Carta was signed in 1215
House of Lords
the upper house of parliament, which also serves as the supreme court
Commonwealth of Nations
independent former parts of the British Empire that retain the British monarch as their head of state
free-market democracies
countries with elected-representative parliamentary systems commonwealth countries, and other constitutional monarchies or republics
republics
governments free of aristocracy or monarchical control and are fully under the control of the "common" people, as opposed to hereditary monarchy
separation of powers
where the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government are held by separate groups of people that keep each other in check
Communism
Karl Marxs political-economic theories attempted to right the wrongs of feudalism and inequalities of capitalism in free-market democracies
Marxism
the goal to create a class-free society where there were no inequalities in terms of wealth or power
planned economy
an economy that does not rely on supply and demand like capitalism
Example
The Soviet Union
Five-Year Plans
comprehensive long-term economic plans that dictated all production in minute detail that were developed by the USSR
geopolitics
the global-scale relationships between sovereign states
centripetal forces
factors that hold together the social and political fabric of the state
centrifugal forces
factors that tear apart the social and political fabric of the state
EX
Josip Tito became a centripetal force representing the two largest ethnic groups in the country
balkanization
a situation in which the political landscape goes from a larger state to several smaller states
Note 
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