Modern Political Map

What is a State?

State: An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs.

• Occupies defined territory

• Permanent Population

• Recognized by the International Community

• Has sovereignty

Nation: A group of people with similar characteristics that may or may not occupy its own state.

Where are states distributed?

• Taiwan

  • Most other countries consider China and Taiwan as separate and sovereign states.

  • China’s government considers Taiwan part of China.

  • Taiwan is not recognized by the UN.

• Wester Sahara (Sahrawi Republic)

  • Most african countries consider Western Sahara a sovereign state.

  • Morocco claims the territory.

    • Built a 1,700 mile wall around it to keep rebels out.

• Korea

  • One nation (culture) divided into two countries.

Challenges of Defining States

• Polar Regions: Many claims

  • Several states claim portions of Antartica

    • Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the U.K.

  • The North pole’s waters are claimed by several countries with borders on the Artic Ocean

    • Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Russia, U.S.

  • Overlapping claims are dictated by the U.N.’s law of the sea.

Evolution of States:

1. City States:

   • First concept of a “state” (Athens, Sparta)

   • Sovereign states that are comprised of towns and their surrounding countryside

   • Today: Singapore, Monaco, Vatican City.

2. Medieval States:

   • Military dominance of individual city-states led to the formation of empires.

   • Roman Empire’s collapse in 5th century let to its land being parceled up and controlled by various monarchies.

Nation States:

Nation State: A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity.

• The concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves is known as self-determination.

• By early 1900s, most of Western Europe was made up of Nation-States.

After World war one, leaders of the victorious countries met to redraw the map of Europe.

• Language was most important criterion the allied leaders used to create new European States and to adjust existing boundaries.

Definitions

Multiethnic State: A state with multiple ethnicities.

Multinational State: A state that contains more than one ethnicity with traditions of self-determination.

• Russia: The Largest Multinational State

  • Russia’s 39 ethnicities are clustered in two principal locations

    • Along borders with neighboring state

Stateless Nation: A group of people without a state.

Autonomous Region: Limited self-rule within a larger state.

Boundary: A line that divides a state from its neighbor

1. Desert Boundary: Hard to cross and sparsely inhabited

2. Mountain Boundary: Effectively divides two states if it’s difficult to cross, useful because of their permanent quality and tendency to be sparsely populated

3. Water Boundary: Tendency to move over time and for water levels to change

4. Ethnic Boundary: Boundary coincides with differences in ethnicity especially language and religion.

Frontiers: Historically frontiers separated states

• No state exercises complete political control

• Inhabited or sparsely populated

• Tangible geographic area

• Frontiers have been replaced by boundaries