4.0: unit four review - political patterns and processes
Overall Unit Key Themes
- Introduction to Political Geography
- Political Processes
- Political Power and Territoriality
- Defining Political Boundaries
- The Function of Political Boundaries
- Internal Boundaries
- Forms of Governance
- Defining Devolutionary Factors
- Challenges to Sovereignty
- 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.