UNIT QUATRO

Apartheid

A social policy or racial segregation involving political and economic and legal discrimination against non-whites.

Balkinization

Process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities

Balkanized

Descriptive of a small geographic area that could not successfully be organized into one or more stable states because it was inhabited by many ethnicities with complex, long-standing antagonisms toward each other.

Blockbusting

A process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that persons of color will soon move into the neighborhood

centrifugal force

a force that divides people and countries

centripetal force

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

ethnic cleansing

Process in which more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region

Ethnicity

Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.

Genocide

Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group

multi-ethnic 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.

Nationalism

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

nation-state

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

nationally

the condition of belonging to a particular nation

race

A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns or genetically inherited characteristics.

Racism

Belief that one race is superior to another

racist

A person who subscribes to the beliefs of racism.

Self-determinism

Concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves

Sharecropper

A person who works fields rented from a landowner and pays the rent and repays loans by turning over to the landowner a share of the crops.

Shatterbelt

a region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals (e.g., Israel or Kashmir today; Eastern Europe during the Cold War,...).

Sovereignty

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

Triangular Slave Trade

A practice, primarily during the eighteenth century, in which European ships transported slaves from Africa to Caribbean islands, molasses from the Caribbean to Europe, and trade goods from Europe to Africa.

Annexation

The adding of a region to the territory of an existing political unit.

antecedent boundary

a boundary line established before the area in question is well populated

Autocracy

a system of government by one person with absolute power.

Benelux

the economic union of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg

Balance of Power

Condition of roughly equal strength between opposing countries or alliances of countries.

boundary

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

city-state

a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state.

Colonialism

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

colony

A group of people in one place who are ruled by a parent country elsewhere.

compact state

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

Democracy

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

Devolution

the transfer of powers and responsibilities from the federal government to the states

Elongated State

A state with a long, narrow shape.

enclave

a distinct region or community enclosed within a larger territory

Exclave

a part of a country that is seperated from the rest of the country and surrounded by foreign territory.

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.

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Landlocked State

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

Microstate

A state that encompasses a very small land area.

Perforated State

a state that completely surrounds another one

Purported State

An otherwise compact state with a large projecting extensions.

relic boundary

a former boundary line that is still discernible and marked by some cultural landscape features

Sovereignty

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

subsequent boundary

a boundary line that is established after the area in question has been settled and that considers the cultural characteristics of the bounded area

superimposed boundary

a boundary line placed over and ignoring an existing cultural pattern

state

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

Terrorism

Acts of violence designed to promote a specific ideology or agenda by creating panic among an enemy population

Unitary State

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