AP Human Geography Unit 4 Study Guide

Political Geography

Study of the political organization of the planet, constantly changing collage of countries

Humans have divided their living space into:

political unites or territories

How many nation-states is the world divided into?

nearly 200

Landlocked

completely surrounded by land, with no coasts or seas around

The modern state systems originated from ______ roots

European

Government

Leadership and institutions that make policy decisions for a country

Politics

ALL ABOUT POWER
Who has the power?
How'd they get the power?
How do they keep the power?

Politics of Place

how land space is organized according to who assets power over what area

Territoriality

efforts to control pieces of the earth's surface for political and social ends, trying to to control a certain place

Political Culture

The collection of political beliefs, values, practices and institutions that the government is based on

boundaries

invisible lines that mark the extent of state's territory and the control that its leaders have

Examples of boundaries

-physical
-separate ethnic groups
-negotiation of war

Frontier

a zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control

Examples: of frontier control:
France and ______ fought over _______

France and England fought over frontier land in NA during the French and Indian War

Top two places left with neutral zone areas

Antarctica and the Arabian Peninsula

Physical Boundaries

-easy to see
-mountains, deserts, water

Median-line principle

Lines made to distribute water ways when states are within 200 miles of each other

Law of the Sea

(1983), standardized territorial limits at 14 land miles (12 nautical miles), gave rights to marine life within 200 miles

Cultural boundaries

borders based on culture traits, like language and religion

Cultural boundaries are also called

consequent boundaries

Example of Cultural Boundary

1947, border between India and Pakistan, to separate Muslims from Hindus

Example of Cultural Language Boundary

Europe after World War 1

Balkanization

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

Shatter belts

A zone of great cultural complexity containing many small cultural groups

Geometric boundaries

-boundaries that follow regular, geometric patterns --boundaries of convenience drawn along lines of latitude or longitude without consideration for cultural or ethnic differences in an area

Example of Geometric boundary

-North and South Korea were divided during the cold war, the 38th parallel
-Vietnam split at the 17th parallel to separate the north(hanoi) from the south(saigon)

Territorial morphology

A state's geographical shape, size, and relative location, which can determine opportunities available and challenges for the country and citizens

Shape of states control:

length of boundary with other states, communication and conflict with neighbors, cultural identity, social unity, and how easily the rulers and rule

5 shapes of states

compact, prorupted, elongated, fragmented, perforated

compact state

A state that posses a roughly circular shape from which the geometric center is relatively equal in all directions. Capitol in the middle= easy ability to rule, good communications with all regions
EX: Hungary

prorupted states

an otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension, used to death a natural resource
EX: Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand

elongated states

states with a long and narrow shape, can create communication problems since cities can be so far away
EX: Chile, Gambia

fragmented states

A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory,
EX: remote islands, Indonesia; Bangladesh separates the state of West Bengal from the rest of India

perforated states

a state that completely surrounds another
EX: South Africa, apartheid separated Lesotho from the rest of the country

Exclaves

a bounded territory that is part of a particular state but lies separated from it by the territory of another state.
EX: Cabinda separated from Africa by the Democratic Republic

Enclaves

landlocked within another country, completely surrounded
EX: Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia demands its part of their territory when its really Azerbaijan

Largest state size

Russia, over 6.5 million square miles, or over 11%

Examples of microstates

Liechtenstein, Andorra, and San Morino
-land space over just a few square miles

T or F
Large states are more likely to have homogeneous populations

False, small states are more likely to hold homogeneous populations, which decreases potential conflicts within the country

T or F
Size is critical to determining a country's power and stability

neither, its not critical, but it is definently a factor

Landlocked states are at a disadvantage for

trade, sea resources, transportation, and communication

how many landlocked states are there in the world

about 40

sovereignty

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

nationalism

love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it, sense of unity and loyalty, also known as patriotism

Internal boundaries

just like boundaries between countries, can be physical, cultural or geometric

Since _______ over half of the worlds states have been involved in _____

Since World War II over half of the worlds states have been involved in border disputes

Four different types of boundary disputes

Positional(definition) disputes, territorial disputes, resource(allocational) disputes, functional(operational) disputes

Positional Disputes

-also known as Definitional Disputes
-where they argue about where the border is
EX: united states and mexico, argentina and hile

Territorial Disputes

ownership of a region, a disagreement over the possession/control of land between two or more states, or over the possession or control of land by one state after it has conquered it from a former state no longer currently recognized by the occupying power.

irredentism

a form of nationalism whose goal is to regain territory lost to another state; it can lead directly to violent interstate conflicts

Resource Disputes

-also known as allocational
-disputes over natural resources, like mineral deposits, fertile farmland, rich fishing groups
EX: united states and canada over fishing ground in the Atlantic ocean, iraq and kuwait with oil

Functional Disputes

-also known as operational
-when people can agree on policies that apply in a border area
EX: US and mexico with the transport of people and goods across their border

Nation-states first started

Europe in the early 19th century

Egyptians ruled by:

Pharaohs, who were believed to be descendants from the gods

Early organizations:

Ancient greece= city-states
Empire: military ruler who conquered and ruled large amounts of territory=Persia, Alexander the great, Roman Empire, Han Dynasty of China
Muhammad= caliphate: religious state
Medieval Europe= kingdoms: relatively small areas dominated by kings
Largest: Mongol Empire of the 13th Centure, ruled by a "Khan"(universal ruler)
Central America=large Aztec group
South America=Inca formed a short lived but powerful leader

Power is organized into

states, or countries, that control what happens within their border

German scholar ___ _____ defined a state as:

Max Weber, state defines who can and cannot use weapons and force

Institutions

organizations where governmental power is exercised

Examples of institutions

bureaucracies, legislatures, judicial systems, political parties

Institutions help promote General Welfare including

health, safe transportation and effective communication systems

nation

a group of people with a common culture living in a territory and having a strong sense of unity

Binational State

-or multinational
-contains more than one nation
EX: Soviet Union

"breakaway movements"

effect of ethnic pressure that challenges the sovereignty of the government
EX: Chechnya

Stateless nations

Nations lacking a state. This complication arises from lack of fit between nations and states. (Kurds)

Two important clues to understand how a state is organized

-core areas
-the size/function of its capital city

Core areas

where the growing of a state begins. the growing stops after they bump up against another nation-state

periphery

outlying areas away from the core areas

multicore states

states with more than one core area, can be very problematic
EX: Nigeria, with half being Muslim and half being Christian, so they moved the capitol into the middle

Primate city

a city that ranks first in a nation in terms of population and economy, second is no where near as big

forward capital

Capital city positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border; it confirms the state's determination to maintain its presence in the region in contention
EX: Japan moving Tokya, Brazil moving Brasília

Electoral process

the process of holding an election, to select a leader
EX: United States voting for their president

Geographic scale info

national, regional, and local

Electoral geography

The study of the interactions among space, place, and region and the conduct and results of elections.

US has _____ legislative districts, with each electing one representative to the lower house of the legislature- the ______________

435, House of Representatives

T or F
Boundaries are redrawn every 5 years to make sure the representation is fair

False, every TEN years the boundaries are redrawn

Gerrymandering

Process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.

_______ first started gerrymandering in _______ and had a _______ shaped district to win the election of a _________ in the __ century

Eldrige Gerry first started gerrymandering in Massachusetts and had a salamander shaped district to win the elation of a Republican in the 19th century

Minority/Majority districting

Rearranging districts to allow a minority representative to be elected
-caused peoplle to think they were discriminating against the majority white in North Carolina

18th century European philosophers came up with the idea of a modern state, which says:

people awe allegiance to a state and the people it represents rather than its leader
-went to the French Revolution in 1789, then Western Europe during the 19th century

colonies

dependent areas, first to be created that were given boundaries where non head been before
-Mughal in India, Aztecs in Central America, Manchu in China

Imperialism

A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries poitically, socially, and economically.
-characterized the political landscape during the 19th and early 20th century

When colonies first gained their independence their biggest problem was...

their states' boundaries ignored cultural differences among populations, then the idea of nation-states came along during the middle of the 20th century

A well-integrated states consist of

-a stable, clearly bounded territory
-an effective administrative framework
-productive core area
-influential capitol city

Unitary System

where all the decisions are made by one central geographic place
EX: Europe

Confederal System

spreads the power among many sub-unites(like states), and has a weak central government
EX: Switzerland, US under the Confederate States of America and the Articles of Confederation

Federal System

divides the power between the central government and the sub-units(like states)
EX: United States, Canada, Australia

Devolution

-transfer of power from the central government to the sub-governments
-transferring responsibility for policies from the federal government to state and local governments

Supranational organizations

cooperating groups of nations that operate on either a regional or international level

Centripetal force

binds people of a nation together and gives it strength, unites them
-flags, rituals, holidays, schools, armed forces, religion

Centrifugal force

the forces that divide people and countries
-bad government, USSR, different languages or customs, devolution, ethnonationalism

Separatist movements

A movement advocating separation from government or another large organization.

Ethnic group

shares a well-developed sense of belonging, based on unique mixture of language, religion, and customs

Ethnonationalism

When ethnic groups see themselves as an individual nation and believe that they deserve their own state.
-Quebec

Devolution occurs from

Ethnic forces, Economic forces, and spatial forces

Economic forces

when there are economic differences in a country pulling it apart
-Italy, north and south so different

Spatial Forces

-mostly occurs on the margins of states
EX: US claims Puerto Rico , yet its separated by the water in between

Geopolitics

the study of the relationship between geography and politics

Friedrich Ratzel

German who originated geopolitical theory. Pioneered environmental determinism. Stated that there are 7 laws of state growth

heartland theory

'pivot area' holds the resources to dominate the globe (Eurasia)

Rimland Theory

challenged heartland theory, Spykman said Eurasian rim held the key to global power, not its heart