Unit 4 HuGeo Vocab

Autonomous Region

an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy or has freedom from an external authority.

Imperialism

The forceful expansion by a state to take permanent and pervasive control over large areas of land, to spread the state’s culture, economy, and form of governance to the conquered lands.

Defined Boundaries

A geographic boundary agreed to be made between 2 parties in a legal doc or treaty.

Delimited boundaries

A geographic boundary that is drawn on a map.

Neocolonialism

Use of economic and political policies by which major developed countries are seen to retain or extend influence over less developed countries.

Demarcated boundaries

Boundaries made visible by things such as a fence, flags, posts in the ground and gates.

Redistricting

the drawing of new electoral district boundary lines in response to changing patterns of population of changing legal requirements.

Demilitarized zones

areas in which treaties or agreements between nations forbid military installation, activities, or personnel.

Relic boundaries

a former boundary line that is still discernible and marked by some cultural landscape feature, such as a fence.

democratization

process of establishing representative and accountable forms of government led by popularly elected officials.

self-determination

the right of a group to govern itself in its own state or territory.

devolution

the transfer of certain powers from the state central government to separate political subdivisions within the state’s territory.

shatterbelts

a region of countries or territories with internal conflicts that could become the location of conflict between the major powers.

sovereignty

the right of self-governance as a state, whereby other states acknowledge that status.

stateless nation

a group that identifies itself as a nation based on ethnicity, linguistic, or religious identity, but lacks a state that it considers home.

ethnic cleansing

the attempts by a dominant ethnic or national group to violently eliminate a less powerful ethnic/national group from a geographic area.

ethnic nationalist

someone who’s form of nationalism is where the nation and nationality are defined by ethnicity.

superimposed boundaries

a boundary line placed over and ignoring an existing cultural pattern.

ethnic seperatism

when an ethnic group desires to sperate from a larger group

supranationalism

the process of nation states organizing politically and economically into one organization or alliance.

ethnonationalism

form of nationalism where the “nation” is defined by ethnicity.

territoriality

an individual or group attempt to identify and establish control over a defined territory.

failed state

a state that has lost its effective ability to govern its populace

federal state

a state made up of more or less equal provinces each with relatively large regional autonomy and government responsibility.

unitary state

a state where the central government dictates the degree of local or regional autonomy. State/ country with strong national identity and homogeneousity.