Aphg unit 5-7

State

An area of land with fixed boundaries that is under the control of a certain government

sovereignty

The right of a government to make laws within a state

nation-state

A country where most people are the same ethnicity

Multiethnic state

A country with more than one major ethnicity

Shatterbelt

a region of instability at the intersection of rival powers

Unitary state

a country where all power is held by the central government; everyone follows the same laws 

Balkanization

a country where all power is held by the central government; everyone follows the same laws 

Stateless nation

an ethnicity that does not control a state

Devolution

movement of power “downward” from central government to regional governments

Supranational state

movement of power “downward” from central government to regional governments

Electoral geography

The division of a country into voting districts

Redistricting

the process of changing electoral districts to keep equal population (every 10 yrs) 

Gerrymandering

redistricting in a way that gives one party an electoral advantage

Neolithic revolution

the transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to sedentary farming (~8,000 BCE)

subsistence agriculture

growing crops for personal consumption

shifting cultivation

a form of subsistence agriculture in which plots of land are cultivated for a few years, then abandoned until fertility is restored

slash-and-burn cultivation

form of shifting cultivation in which soil is prepared by cutting and burning vegetation

Pastoral nomadism

rm of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of animals

Commercial farming

Growing groups for sale

Plantation

Form of commercial agriculture based on the production of cash crops

Von thunder model

Model describing the relationship between land use and the distance from the market

Factory farming

System of raising livestock meant to maximize production and profit

Food desert

An area where residents have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables

Green revolution

Huge increase in food production in LDCs in 1950s

Sustainability

Way of meeting peoples needs that do not compromise the ability of future generations that meet their own needs

HDI

A measurement of health, wealth, and education in a country

Transnational corporations

Company that does business in many countries

Island of development, SEZ, EPZ, maquiladora

Build up by country’s government to attract foreign investment

Walersteins world system theory

A way of explaining development by focusing on economics relationships among states

Dependency theory

idea that core countries develop at the expense of the peripheryidea that core countries develop at the expense of the periphery

Neocolonialism

economic and political policies that allow countries to continue to dominate their former colonies

Wallersteins site factors

land → cost  

labor →cost OR access to skilled labor

capital → access to loans

Wallersteins situation factors

Proximity to inputs

Proximity to markets

Friction of distance

Distance increases the cost of movement increases

Webers least cost theory of industrial location

the idea that an industry will choose a location for a factory that minimizes production costs.

Agglomerations

the clustering of similar businesses for easier access to skilled workers and capital

Labor intensive industry

an industry in which workers’ wages are a high percentage of total production costs → textiles

the new international division of labor

the mass production of goods in LDCs, with corporate HQ, research, and development in MDCs

Offshoring

Moving production to a foreign country

Deindustrialization

The loss of factory jobs from a region

Right to work laws

laws that prevent labor unions from requiring all workers in a business to pay union dues

Global warming

an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s climate, caused by the burning of fossil fuels