Chapter 9 | The Contemporary Political Map

Political geography

Political geography

The study of the ways in which the world is organized as a reflection of the power different groups hold over territory

State

A politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population; a country

Sovereignty

The right of a government to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders

Nation

A cultural entity made up of people who have forged a common identity through a shared language, religion, heritage, or ethnicity—often all four of these

Nation-state

A politically organized and recognized territory composed of a group of people who consider themselves to be a nation

Multistate nation

People who share a cultural or ethnic background but live in more than one country

Irredentism

Attempts by a state to acquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation

Multinational state

A country with various ethnicities and cultures living inside its borders

Semiautonomous

Describing a region that is given partial authority to govern its territories independently from the national government

Stateless nation

A people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state

Territoriality

The attempt to influence or control people and events by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area; the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land

Colonialism

The practice of claiming and dominating overseas territories

Neocolonialism

The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies

Choke point

A narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass

Shatterbelt

A region where states form, join, and break up because of ongoing, sometimes violent, conflicts among parties and because they are caught between the interests of more powerful outside states

Self-determination

The right of all people to choose their own political status

Imperialism

The push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other nations or peoples

Devolution

The process that occurs when the central power in a state is broken up among regional authorities within its borders

Define (Boundaries)

To explicitly state in legally binding documentation such as a treaty where boundaries are located, using reference points such as natural features or lines of latitude and longitude

Delimit

To draw boundaries on a map, in accordance with a legal agreement

Demarcate

To place physical objects such as stones, pillars, walls, or fences to indicate where a boundary exists

Administer

To manage the way borders are maintained and how goods and people cross them

Antecedent boundary

A border established before an area becomes heavily settled

Subsequent boundary

A border drawn in an area that has been settled and where cultural landscapes exist or are in the process of being established

Consequent boundary

A type of subsequent boundary that takes into account the differences that exist within a cultural landscape, separating groups that have distinct languages, religions, ethnicities, or other traits

Superimposed boundary

A border drawn over existing accepted borders by an outside or conquering force

Geometric boundary

A mathematically drawn boundary that typically follows lines of latitude and longitude or is a straight-line arc between two points

Relic

A former boundary that no longer has an official function

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

The international agreement that established the structure of maritime boundaries

Exclusive economic zone (EEZ)

An area that extends 200 nautical miles from a state's coast; a state has sole access to resources found within the waters or beneath the sea floor of its EEZ