Political Geography Review

Flashcards for reviewing key concepts in political geography.

What is a country, in the context of political organization?

An identifiable land area.

What is a nation, in the context of political organization?

A population with a single culture, also known as a culture group.

What is a state, in the context of political organization?

A population under a single government, implying a sovereign territory.

What is a nation-state?

A single culture under a single government.

What does sovereignty mean?

A state is fully independent from outside control, holds territory, and has international recognition.

What are multi-national states?

States made up of different nations represented by various culture groups, also known as multiethnic states.

What is nationalism?

Derives from a culture group desiring political representation or independence, or from a political state that unifies culture groups.

What are stateless nations?

Culture groups not included or allowed a share in the state political process.

What do federal states and confederations provide?

Military protection, foreign diplomacy, trade regulation, and internal administrative, legislative, and judicial services.

What is a unitary system?

A single centralized government where ultimate authority lies with the central government.

What are microstates?

Sovereign states that hold the same position as larger states despite their small size.

What are autonomous regions?

Parts of nations granted freedom from central authority for historical, geographical, religious, or linguistic reasons.

What are semi-autonomous regions?

Regions with freedom from central authority, but to a lesser degree than autonomous regions.

What is supranationalism?

The concept of two or more sovereign states aligned together for a common purpose.

What are supranational organizations?

Organizations formed for trade alliances, military cooperation, and diplomacy (e.g., European Union).

What are the 5 main purposes of the EU?

Free-trade union, open-border policy, monetary union, judicial union, and legislative & regulatory bodies.

What is Territoriality?

The expression of political control over space.

What is citizenship?

The legal identity of a person based on their state of birth or naturalization.

What are political boundaries?

Expressions of political control that must be definable and clear.

What are expatriate populations?

Citizens living outside of their borders.

What is an enclave?

A minority culture group concentrated inside a country dominated by a different, larger culture group.

What is an exclave?

A fragmented piece of sovereign territory separated by land from the main part of the state's territory.

What is UNCLOS?

United Nations Conference on the Law of the Seas, which provides standard oceanic boundaries.

What is a territorial sea?

Sovereign territory that includes the sea from shore out to the 12-nautical-mile limit.

What is an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)?

Exclusive economic rights from shore out to the 200-nautical-mile limit.

What is Admiralty law?

A part of international law that dictates legal procedures on the high seas.

What is an antecedent boundary?

Boundary lines that exist from prehistoric times.

What is a relic boundary?

Former state boundaries that still have political or cultural meaning.

What is a subsequent boundary?

Lines resulting from conflict or cultural changes, such as war and migration.

What is a superimposed boundary?

Lines laid down for political reasons over existing cultural boundaries.

What is the delimitation process?

When borders are put on the map.

What is the demarcation process?

When markers are placed on the ground to show where borders lie.

What is a physical border?

Natural boundaries such as rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains, or deserts.

What is a cultural border?

Estimated boundaries between nations, ethnic groups, or tribes.

What is a geometric border?

Boundaries surveyed mostly along lines of latitude and longitude.

What is a definitional dispute?

When border treaties are interpreted two different ways by states.

What is a locational dispute?

When the border moves, like a river changing course or a lake drying up.

What is an operational dispute?

When borders are agreed on, but passage across the border is a problem.

What is an allocational dispute?

When a resource lies on two sides of a border.

What is a frontier?

Open and undefined territory.

What is the Tyranny of the Map?

The superimposed boundary situation in Africa that does not match the cultural boundaries due to European-set boundaries from the Conference of Berlin (1884).

What is state morphology?

The shape of a country that impacts its society and external relations.

What does 'Compact' mean in State morphology?

A shape without irregularity

What does 'Fragmented' mean in State morphology?

Broken into pieces; archipelagos

What does 'Elongated' mean in State morphology?

Appears stretched-out, long

What does 'Prorupt' mean in State morphology?

Has a panhandle or peninsula

What does 'Perforated' mean in State morphology?

Has a hole(s) (country, large lake)

What does 'Landlocked' mean in State morphology?

Has no sea or ocean borders

What is annexation?

The addition of territory as a result of a land purchase or when a territorial claim is extended through incorporation.

What are planned capital cities?

Cities located in places where cities did not previously exist.

What is gerrymandering?

Irregularly shaped districts that are highly elongated and prorupt.

What is aristocracy?

A peerage of lords, earls, marquis, barons, dukes, princes, kings, and queens.

What is debt peonage?

Peasants paid rent and had their harvests taxed for the right to live on and work the land, keeping them in a cycle of debt.

What is absolute monarchy?

Where the supreme aristocrat, a king, prince, or duke, was both Head of state and head of government, and therefore did not share power with anyone.

What is Constitutional monarchy?

Where the supreme aristocrat remains head of state, but the leader of the elected parliament is the head of government, with integrated legislative and executive powers.

What is prime minister (premier)?

One who appoints senior members of parliament to be ministers or secretaries of executive-branch departments.

What is Commonwealth of Nations?

Independent former parts of the British Empire that retain the British monarch as their head of state.

What are free-market democracies?

Countries with elected-representative parliamentary systems commonwealth countries, and other constitutional monarchies or republics

What are Republics?

Governments free of aristocracy or monarchical control and are fully under the control of the 'common' people, as opposed to hereditary monarchy

What is the separation of powers?

Where the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government are held by separate groups of people that keep each other in check.

What is Communism?

Karl Marx's political-economic theories attempted to right the wrongs of feudalism and inequalities of capitalism in free-market democracies

What is Marxism?

The goal to create a class-free society where there were no inequalities in terms of wealth or power

What is planned economy?

An economy that does not rely on supply and demand like capitalism

What are Five-Year Plans?

Comprehensive long-term economic plans that dictated all production in minute detail that were developed by the USSR

What is geopolitics?

The global-scale relationships between sovereign states.

What are centripetal forces?

Factors that hold together the social and political fabric of the state.

What are centrifugal forces?

Factors that tear apart the social and political fabric of the state.

What is Balkanization?

A situation in which the political landscape goes from a larger state to several smaller states.

What is Irredentism?

When a minority ethnic group desires to break away from a multiethnic state and form its own nation-state or align itself with a culturally similar state.

What is Neocolonialism?

A contemporary form of colonialism based not on political control, but on economic pressure.

What is the Heartland-Rimland model?

Designed to define the global geopolitical landscape and determine areas of potential future conflict.

What is the Primary commodity of conflict?

The thing that countries are willing to fight over

What are buffer states?

Lands that would protect hostile countries by creating a surrounding buffer of sympathetic countries.

What is Terrorism?

Planned violent attacks on people and places to provoke fear and cause a change in government policy

What is State terrorism?

When governments use violence and intimidation to control their own people