AP HuG Unit 4 - Political Geography

Anocracy

A country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic, displays a mix of both

Autocracy

A country that is run according to the interest of the ruler rather than the people

Boundary

An invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory

City-state

A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediate hinterland

Colonialism

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

Commonwealth

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

Compact state

A state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly

Democracy

A country in which citizens elect leaders and can run for office

Elongated state

A state with a long, narrow shape

Federal state

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

Fragmented state

A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory

Frontier

A zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control

Gerrymandering

Process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power

Landlocked state

A state that does not have a direct outlet to the sea

Microstate

A state that encompasses a very small land area

Multiethnic state

A state that contains more than one ethnicity

Multinational state

State that contains two or more ethnic groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities

Nation

A politically organized body of people under a single government

Nation-state

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality

Perforated state

A state that completely surrounds another one

Prorupted state

A state that exhibits a narrow, elongated land extension leading away from the main territory

Self-determination

Concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves

Sovereignty

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

Stateless nation

A nationality that is not represented by a state

State

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

Unitary state

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

Annexation

Legally adding land area to a city in the United States

Antecedent boundary

A boundary line established before an area is populated

Berlin Conference (1884)

A meeting amongst powers of Europe where every country who wanted a part of Africa attended, and the continent was divided so no one would get into a conflict over the land, for the gain of natural resources

Border landscape

Two types: exclusionary, meant for keeping people out, and inclusionary, meant to facilitate trade and movement

Brandt Line

Divides the more developed north from the less developed south of the United States

Buffer state

A small neutral state between two rival powers

Capital

The most important city or town of a country or region, usually its seat of government and administrative center

Centrifugal force

A force that divides people and countries

Centripetal force

An attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state

Confederation

An organization that consists of a number of parties or groups united in an alliance or league for a common purpose

Consequent boundary

A type of political boundary that is drawn to accommodate the cultural, ethnic, or linguistic differences among the people living in a particular area

Decolonization

The acquisition, by colonized peoples, of control over their own territory

Devolution

Transferring responsibility for policies from the federal government to state and local governments

Domino theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control

Electoral regions

Electoral regions are the different voting districts that make up local, state, and national regions

Enclave

A piece of territory that is surrounded by another political unit of which it is not a part (landlocked within the country which surrounds them)

Exclave

Bounded (non-island) piece of territory that is part of a state but lies separated from it by territory of another state

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a maritime zone extending up to 200 nautical miles from a coastal state's baseline, where the state has exclusive rights to explore and exploit marine resources

Forward capital

A capital city placed in a remote or peripheral area for economic, strategic, or symbolic reasons

Geopolitics

An interest in or taking of land for its strategic location or products

Growth pole

An urban center deliberately placed by a country's government to stimulate economic growth in the hinterland

Irredentism

A policy of advocating the restoration to a country of any territory formerly belonging to it

Landlocked boundary

A boundary with no connection to the sea or ocean

Mackinder Heartland Theory

World power will belong to those controlling the "heartland"

Median-line principle

A method of dividing a body of water, like a river or sea, between two countries by drawing a line that is equidistant from both coastlines, essentially splitting the area in half and ensuring equal access to resources

Mercantilism

Belief in the benefits of profitable trading

Nation iconography

Figural representations, either individual or symbolic, religious or secular; more broadly, the art of representation by pictures or images, which may or may not have a symbolic as well as an apparent or superficial meaning

Nationalism

A strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's country

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

An alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country (US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries)

Nunavut

An Arctic territory in northern Canada created in 1999 and governed solely by the Inuit

Raison d'être

Reason or justification for existing

Ratzel Organic Theory

States are biological organisms and become powerful by growing and obtaining new territory

Reapportionment

Process by which representative districts are switched according to population shifts, so that each district encompasses approximately the same number of people

Regionalism

Loyalty to the interests of a particular region

Relict boundary

A political boundary that has ceased to function but the imprint of which can still be detected on the cultural landscape

Satellite state

Independent nation under the control of a more powerful nation

Separatism

A movement to win political, religious or ethnic independence from another group

Shatterbelt

A region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals

Spykman's Rimland Theory

Theory that the domination of the coastal fringes of Eurasia would provide the base for world conquest

Subsequent boundary

A boundary that developed with the evolution of the cultural landscape and is adjusted as the cultural landscape changes

Superimposed boundary

A boundary line placed over and ignoring an existing cultural pattern

Supreanationalism

When multiple nations come together to form an organization or alliance where they cooperate on issues like economics, politics, or security, often requiring them to cede some degree of sovereignty to the larger group

Territoriality

The act of claiming and defending a space or territory

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

An international treaty that governs the use of the world's oceans and seas

Wallerstein's World Systems Theory

Theoretical framework that views the global economy as a single interconnected system where some countries ("core" nations) exploit others ("periphery" nations) through unequal trade and power dynamics, creating a hierarchy of development with a "semi-periphery" acting as a middle ground between the two extremes

Warsaw Pact

A military and political alliance between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries during the Cold War