Unit 4: Political Geography Vocabulary List
Antecedent boundary – a boundary that existed before the cultural landscape emerged and stayed in place while people moved in to occupy the surrounding area
Autocracy – a country that is run according to the interests of the ruler rather than the people
Boundary – an invisible line that marks the extent of a state’s territory
Defined Boundary - legally recognized boundary
Delimited Boundary - noted on a map by cartographers
Demarcated Boundary - physical markers or barriers that identify boundary
Buffer State – a relatively small/weak country sandwiched between two larger powers. They can help to prevent dangerous conflicts or be exploited by either/both neighboring powers
Centrifugal Force – factors that disrupt internal order and destabilize a state
Centripetal Force – factors that promote national unity and stability in a state
Choke point – a strategic narrow route on land or sea providing passage through or to another region; significant for military and/or economic activity
City-State – a sovereign state comprising a city and its immediately surrounding countryside
Colonialism – an attempt by one country to establish permanent settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory
Colony – a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than completely independent
Compact State – a state that possesses a roughly circular shape from which the geometric center is relatively equal in all directions
Consequent boundary – a boundary that coincides with a cultural divide such as religion or language
Democracy – a country in which citizens elect leaders and can run for office
Devolution – the movement of power from the national government to regional governments within a country
Elongated State – a state with a long, narrow shape
Enclave – a territory surrounded by, but not part of, a country; e.g. Lesotho, San Marino
Exclave – a piece of national territory separated from the main body of a country by the territory of another country; e.g. Alaska
Federal State – an internal organization of a state that allocates most powers to units of local government
Federalism – a political system in which powers are separated between various states and these states are unified under an overarching political system that has some, but not all, sovereign power within the boundary of the overarching state
Fragmented State – a state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory
Frontier – a zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control
Geometric Boundary – a political boundary that is formed by arcs or straight lines irrespective of the physical and cultural features of the land it passes through
Geopolitics – the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations
Gerrymandering – the process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power
Irredentism – a national group controls one country while also seeking control of an adjacent area of a second country
Microstate – a state that encompasses a very small land area
Multiethnic State – a state that contains more than one ethnicity
Multinational State – a state that contains two or more ethnic groups that each have distinct
traditions of self-determination yet often agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities
Nation-State – a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality
Neocolonialism – the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies
Perforated State – a state that completely surrounds another state, e.g. South Africa
Physical Boundary – a boundary that coincides with deserts, mountains, or bodies of water
Prorupted State – an otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension like a panhandle or peninsula, e.g. Thailand, Namibia
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
Self-determination – the concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves
Shatterbelt – a region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals
Sovereignty – the ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states
State – an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs
Stateless Nation – a group of people with a common culture occupying a particular territory that does not operate as an independent political unit with a defined, permanently populated territory and has no sovereign control over its internal and foreign affairs. Essentially, a people without a state
Subsequent boundary – a boundary that is established after the settlement in that area occurred. It developed with the evolution of the culture of the cultural landscape and is adjusted as the cultural landscape changes.
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
Supranationalism – an alliance involving 3 or more countries for their mutual benefit such as economic, cultural or political/ military; a large amount of power given to an authority which in theory is placed higher than the individual states that make up the alliance
Territoriality – the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land
Terrorism – the systematic use of violence by a group in order to intimidate a population or coerce a government into granting its demands
Unitary State – a governmental system in which nearly all of the sovereignty and power reside with the central government of the state