Overall Unit Key Themes

1. Introduction to Political Geography

2. Political Processes

3. Political Power and Territoriality

4. Defining Political Boundaries

5. The Function of Political Boundaries

6. Internal Boundaries

7. Forms of Governance

8. Defining Devolutionary Factors

9. Challenges to Sovereignty

10. Consequences of Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

Topic 4.1: Introduction to Political Geography

main themes

• Independent states are the primary building blocks of the world political map.

• Types of political entities

  • Nations

  • Nation-states

  • Stateless nations

  • Multinational states

  • Multistate nations

  • Autonomous and semi autonomous regions

states, nations, and countries

• State- independent political unit with recognized boundaries

• Nation- group of people sharing certain elements of culture such as religion, language, history, political identity

  • Need not live in common geographic area

  • Jewish nation

• Nation-State- ideal form of homogeneous people governed by their own state

  • No pure nation-states

• Sovereign- state has power over territory and its people

• Stateless Nation: When a nation does not have a state or coincide with one

  • Ex: Kurds are an important example of a stateless nation

• Multinational State: State that contains two or more ethnic groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities

• Multistate Nations: nation that stretches across borders.

  • EX: North/South Korea

• Autonomous Region: Countries with degree of freedom; distinct with minority group

• Semi Autonomous Region: Limited self rule within a larger state

Topic 4.2: Political Processes

main themes

• Sovereignty, nation-states, self-determination: shape the world.

• Colonialism, imperialism, independence movements, and devolution influence political boundaries.

colonialism and imperialism

colonialism

• the formal establishment and maintenance of rule by a sovereign power over a foreign population through the establishment of settlements.

• Colony is considered an adjunct/ satellite of colonizing power

• Begins in  1500s, key players:

  • Britain

  • Portugal

  • Spain

  • Netherlands

  • France

imperialism

• Extension of state authority over the politics and economics of other territories

  • Last 500 years- core country domination of peripheral

  • Not always formal control, sometimes  pressure to behave/ trade certain ways

• Process of Imperialism

  • Perception of scarcity of natural resource

  • Exploration

  • Core exploits periphery for raw materials

  • Periphery becomes market for goods from the core and can develop large-scale capital investments for core

case study: Algeria

• French colonialism for 132 years

• Gave best agricultural land to Westerners

• Transformed capital Algiers, to Westernized city

• Imposed Western religion on predominantly Muslim culture

• Physical violence

• Cultural, social, political, economics dislocation

devolution: an alternative to fragmenting

• devolution: process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government

  • Basque and Catalonia in Spain

  • Chechnya in Russia

  • Native Americans in the U.S.

  • Scotland in U.K.

  • Nunavet in Canada

  • Quebecois in Canada

  • Flemings, Walloons in Belgium

Topic 4.3: Political Power and Territoriality

main themes

• Political power is expressed geographically as control over people, land, and resources, as illustrated by neocolonialism, shatterbelts, and choke points.

• Territoriality is the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land.

decolonization

• Decolonization- reacquisition by colonized people over their own territory (independence)

• Post-WWI- period of isolationism

  • Colonial mandate system- Recognizing that colonies are a source of friction and jealousy among wealthy nations, the victorious Allies decided not to appropriate for themselves the colonies of their defeated enemies

• Post WWII- independence granted to many colonies by key colonizing countries

  • Begins in 1945, 1960: “Year of Africa”

effects of decolonizaton

• Economic and social structures remain:

  • currency

  • language

  • religion

  • architecture

  • education systems

• Unstable new governments, political corruption, civil wars, social inequality

  • example:  Wabenzi in Kenya

• Neocolonization- domination of peripheral states by core states not by direct political intervention (colonization) but by economic and cultural influence and control.??? Debatable

• Shatterbelt: a region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals.

Topic 4.4: Defining Political Boundaries

main terms

• Types of political boundaries:

  • Relic

  • Superimposed

  • Subsequent

  • Antecedent

  • Geometric

  • Consequent

boundaries and territory

• Boundary: a vertical plane between states that cuts through the rocks below and the airspace above

  • constructed to regulate and control specific sets of people and resources within them

  • Can be inclusionary and exclusionary

  • Can be formal or informal

• **__Territory:  __**delimited area over which a state exercises control and which is recognized by other states

origin-based boundary classifications

• Antecedent: existed before an area is populated and develops cultural landscape  (U.S. and Canada)

• Subsequent: a boundary line established after an area has been populated that considered the social and cultural characteristics of the area   (e.g., US/Mexico; India/Pakistan)

• Superimposed: placed by powerful outsiders on a developed landscape, usually ignores pre-existing cultural-spatial patterns (typically colonial; AFRICA)

• Relic: has ceased to function, but its imprint can still be detected on the cultural landscape (East/West Berlin, Great Wall)

boundary conflicts

• Definitional: legal wording of boundary agreement

  • Chile and Argentina

    • supposed to be a line connecting highest points in Andes Mtns.

    • Argument started when oil was found near the border

    • Sued each other to “redefine” line

• Locational: interpretation is problematic

  • Israel and Palestine

• Operational- disagree about how it should function

  • U.S. and Mexico- migration, smuggling

• Allocational- dispute over right to resources

  • (Spratly Islands, Iraq and Kuwait oil field)

types of boundaries

Physical- boundaries coincide with natural landscape

• Mountains

  • France with Spain (Pyrenees)

  • Chile with Argentina (Andes)

  • India and Nepal with China (Himalayas)

• Deserts

  • N. Africa states and Sub-Saharan states

• Water- rivers, lakes, oceans

  • Kenya with Uganda (Lake Victoria)

  • U.S. with Canada (Great Lakes, boundary waters)

Cultural Boundaries

• Geometric- straight lines, latitudes, longitudes

• Religious-

  • India-Pakistan partition

  • Ireland-Northern Ireland

• Language- nations in Europe

  • Germany and Italy unification

  • Treaty of Versailles- most

important criterion when

redrawing map

• Ethnicity-

  • Cyprus (Greeks/Turks)

Topic 4.5: Function of Political Boundaries

main themes

• Political boundaries often coincide with cultural, national, or economic division.

  • Some boundaries are created by demilitarized zones or policy. (Berlin Conference)

• Land and maritime boundaries and international agreements can influence national or regional identity and encourage or discourage international or internal interactions and disputes over resources.

Evolution, or process of boundaries:

• Definition boundary: legal document or treaty drawn up to “define” boundary

• Delimitation boundary: cartographers put the boundary on the map

• Demarcation boundary: actually marked on the ground w/ wall, fence, posts

  • (too expensive or impractical for most borders to be demarcated)

conflict with physical boundaries

• In 1800s, ocean territorial limits extended 3 nautical miles

• Law of the Sea- (1983, United Nations)

  • standardized territorial limits to 12 nautical miles

  • Claim to fish, marine life within 200 miles (EEZ)

  • Countries with less than 400 miles of separation must negotiate

Topic 4.6: Internal Boundaries

main themes

• Voting districts, redistricting, and gerrymandering affect election results at various scales.

boundaries within states

• Voting districts redrawn periodically- Why? Whose job?

• Gerrymandering

  • Wasted Vote- (Cracking) spreads

opposition)

• Excess Vote- (Packing)opposition

in few districts

• 1985- Supreme Court?

• Few competitive seats in Congress

Ideal Apportionment

• Some countries  ask independent commissions to redraw their legislative districts

  • these are expected to be fair districts.

Topic 4.7: Forms of Governance

main themes

• Unitary States & Federal States

• Unitary states tend to have a more top-down centralized form of governance, while federal states have more locally based, dispersed power centers.

Boundaries inside States: Unitary and Federal

• Strong global trend toward which of these?

• States with a great deal of land usually have _________

• Why would multinational states use unitary?

Topic 4.8: Defining Devolutionary Factors

• Factors that can lead to devolution

  • Physical geography

  • Ethnic separatism

  • Ethnic cleansing

  • Terrorism

  • Economic and social problems

  • Irredentism

Devolutionary forces

• Ethnocultural?

• Economic?

• Spatial?

  • How might geography encourage devolution?

• Hawaii?

• Puerto Rico?

• Basque?

• Taiwan?

increase in terrorism

• Radical forms of warfare and political practices have replaced more conventional ones

• Terrorism: the threat or use of force to bring about political change

  • against civilians

  • By anti-government actors,

  • governments themselves,

  • angry mobs,

  • militants,

  • psychotic individuals

examples of international terrorism

• Assyrians

• Mongols

• French Revolution

• Hamas

• Hezbollah

• IRA

• Tamil Tigers

• Narco drug cartels

• Al-Qaeda

• Boko Haram

• Al Shabaab

• ISIS/ISIL

irredentism

• a policy of cultural extension and potential political expansion by a country aimed at a group of its nationals living in a neighboring country

  • (wanting to add territory from another state because people of your own nationality live there)

    • ex: Crimea and Russia

    • ex: India mistreated the Muslims living in state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Muslim government of neighboring Pakistan threatened, and ultimately went to war for those people

Topic 4.9: Challenges to Sovereignty

main themes

• Advances in communication technology have facilitated devolution, supranationalism, and democratization.

• Global efforts to address transnational and environmental challenges and to create economies of scale, trade agreements, and military alliances help to further supranationalism

supranationalism

• an alliance involving 3 or more countries for their mutual benefit such as economic, cultural or political/ military.

Goals:

• promote peace through interdependence

• to strengthen members’ economies by reducing tariffs

• “strength in numbers”

• to allow for movement of people within member states

examples of supranationalism

• best example: European Union!

• League of Nations- FAIL

• United Nations- established to prevent a third world war and protect countries from foreign attack... FAIL?

• NATO- military

• inactive today: Warsaw Pact, COMECON

• OAS- Organization of American States- political, economic

• AU- political, economic

• ASEAN- political, economic

• Commonwealth

• OPEC

Topic 4.10: Consequences of Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

main themes

• Centrifugal forces may lead to failed states, uneven development, stateless nations, and ethnic nationalist movements.

• Centripetal forces can lead to ethnonationalism, more equitable infrastructure development, and increased cultural cohesion.