Ap Human Unit 4

Nation

a term encompassing all the citizens of a state; a tightly knit group of people having bonds of language, ethnicity, religion, and other shared cultural attributes.  (This is very few states)

States

A politically organized territory that is administered by a sovereign government and is recognized by a significant portion of the international community.  A state has a defined territory, a permanent population, a government, and is recognized by other states.

Nation-states

A recognized member of the modern state system possessing formal sovereignty and occupied by people who see themselves as a single, united nation.  Most nations and states aspire to this form, though it is realized almost nowhere. 

Stateless nations

Nation that does not have a state.

Multinational states

A multinational state is a sovereign state, which is viewed as comprising two or more nations.

Multistate nations

 A nation that stretches across borders and across states.  

Autonomous region

 sections of a nation that have a degree of independence in several issues.

Sovereignty

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

Semiautonomous region

largely self-governing within a larger political or organizational entity

Colonialism

 Rule by autonomous power over a subordinate people and place.

Imperialism

the extension or imposition of power, authority, or influence

Devolution

The process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government.

Neocolonialism

The entrenchment of the colonial order, such as trade and investment under a new guise.

Shatterbelt

a region "whose internal, geographical, cultural, religious, and political fragmentation is compounded by pressures from external major powers attracted by the region's strategic location and economic resources

Choke point

a strategic narrow route providing passage through or to another region.

Territoriality

The connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land.

Relic boundary

A boundary that has ceased to function but can still be detected on the cultural landscape. It no longer exists as an international boundary

Superimposed boundary

a boundary that has been imposed on an area by an outside or conquering power. This boundary ignores the cultural organizations on this landscape.

Subsequent boundary

A boundary that is established during the process of intensive settlement.

Geometric boundary

A boundary that is formed by one or more straight lines and/or arcs

Consequent boundary

A subsequent boundary that is created to accommodate a region’s cultural diversity. 

Demilitarized zones

an area from which weapons and military forces have been removed.

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

Rights and responsibilities of nations in the use of international waters, established territorial seas, and exclusive economic zones 

District

a territorial division (as for administrative or electoral purposes)

Reapportionment

the reassignment of representatives proportionally among the states in accordance with changes in population distribution

Redistricting

to revise legislative districts

to revise legislative districts

Determining representatives’ districts, the process by which a majority of the population is from the minority.

Gerrymandering

The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for benefitting the party in power.

Federal state

 Tend to have more locally based, dispersed power centers.

Unitary state

 Tend to have more top-down, centralized form of governance.

Ethnic separatism

the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. 

Ethnic cleansing

A purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religion group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.

Irredentism

any political or popular movement that seeks to claim or reclaim and occupy a land that the movement's members consider a “lost” or “unredeemed” territory from their nation's past.

Subnational political-territorial units

made up of a small area such as a city, town, or village that has its own local government.

Supranational organizations

A venture involving three or more nation-states involving formal political, economic, and or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives

Democracy

Government based on the principle that the people are the ultimate sovereign and have the final say over what happens with the state.

Ethno nationalism

support for the political interests of a particular ethnic group, especially its national independence or self-determination.