AP Human Geography Political Vocabulary
Irredentism: A political movement that seeks to reclaim and reoccupy a “lost” or “unredeemed” area; often based on historical or ethnic affiliations.
Devolution: The transfer of power from a central government to subnational (e.g., regional or local) authorities.
Sovereignty: The authority of a state to govern itself or another state; supreme power or authority.
Autonomy: The right or condition of self-government, especially in a particular sphere.
Secession: The action of withdrawing formally from membership of a federation or body, especially a political state.
Thomas Hobbes: An English philosopher best known for his work on political philosophy, especially his book “Leviathan”.
“Leviathan”: A book by Thomas Hobbes that argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign.
Social contract: An implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.
Head of state: The chief public representative of a country, such as a president or monarch, who may also have ceremonial duties.
Head of Government: The chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet; in many countries, this is the prime minister.
Finlandization: The process by which one powerful country strongly influences the policies of a smaller neighboring country, while allowing it to remain independent and sovereign.
Balkanization: The division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with one another.
Appeasement: The policy of making concessions to an aggressor in order to avoid conflict.
Supranationalism: A large amount of power given to an authority which in theory is placed higher than the state.
Federalism: A system of government in which entities such as states or provinces share power with a national government.
Neo-Colonialism: The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.
Parliamentary system: A system of government in which the executive branch derives its democratic legitimacy from, and is directly accountable to, the legislature (parliament); the executive and legislative branches are thus interconnected.
Presidential system: A system of government where a head of government leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch.
Core-Periphery World Systems Theory: A theory that suggests that the world is divided into core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries, with core countries being dominant capitalist countries that exploit peripheral countries for labor and raw materials.
Heartland Theory: A geopolitical hypothesis proposed by Halford Mackinder that any political power based in the heart of Eurasia could gain enough strength to eventually dominate the world.
Rimland Theory: A geopolitical theory proposed by Nicholas Spykman that the coastal fringes of Eurasia, the Rimland, are the key to controlling the World Island.
Containment: A geopolitical strategy to stop the expansion of an enemy, often associated with the Cold War policy of preventing the spread of communism.
Sanctions: Penalties or other means of enforcement used to provide incentives for obedience with the law, or with rules and regulations.
Domino theory: The theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominos to fall.
Hegemony: Leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.
Schengen Area: An area comprising 26 European countries that have abolished passport and other types of border control at their mutual borders.
De facto vs. de jure: “De facto” refers to practices that exist in reality, even if not legally recognized by official laws. “De jure” refers to practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality.
Berlin Conference: A meeting from 1884-1885 at which representatives of European nations agreed on rules for the colonization of Africa.
Guano Islands Act: A United States federal law passed in 1856 that enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits.
Exclave: A portion of a state or territory geographically separated from the main part by surrounding alien territory.
Enclave: A territory, or a part of a territory, that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state.
State: A nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government.
Nation: A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.
Stateless nation: An ethnic group or nation that does not possess its own state and is not the majority population in any nation state.
Multinational state: A sovereign state that comprises two or more nations or states.
Diaspora: The dispersion of any people from their original homeland.
Itinerant groups (e.g., Romani): Groups of people who travel from place to place rather than settling permanently in one location.
Successor state: A sovereign state that has succeeded another state.
Precursor state: A state that existed before another state.
Terms Affecting Boundaries:
“The Scramble for Africa”: The invasion, occupation, division, and colonization of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914.
“The Great Game”: The strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia.
Partition of India: The division of British India in 1947 into two independent dominion states, India and Pakistan.
Treaty of Lausanne: A peace treaty signed in 1923 that settled the boundaries of modern Turkey.
Sykes-Picot agreement: A secret 1916 agreement between the United Kingdom and France, with the assent of Russia, defining their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East.
India-China border conflicts: Ongoing territorial disputes between India and China over the sovereignty of various border regions.
India-Pakistan conflicts: A series of military conflicts and ongoing tension between India and Pakistan, primarily over the Kashmir region.
Israel-Palestinian conflict: The ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the mid-20th century, primarily over land and sovereignty.
Russian-Ukrainian conflict: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the ongoing war in Eastern Ukraine.
North and South Korea: The division of Korea into two distinct sovereign states, North Korea and South Korea, and the ongoing tension and conflict between them.