Unit 4 Notes
Devolution - Movement of power from the central government to the regional government
within a state. It is caused by ethnocultural, economic, and spatial forces. For example...
- Scotland wants independence from the EU and ownership of oil resources.
- Spain (the Basque and Catalonia each want their own economic autonomy)
- Belgium - Flemish (Dutch) in the north and Walloons (French) in the south
- Czechoslovakia - Velvet Divorce 1993
- Sudan - Muslim north and Christian south.
- Nigeria has 250 different ethnicities.
- Sri Lanka - Tamils, Hindu minority fight for independence from the Sinhalese Buddhist
majority.
- Croat vs Serb conflict after the leader Tito’s death and the communism collapse, many
small countries became independent.
- Bosnia - Civil war between Muslims, Serbs, and Croatians
- France - Corsica, small minority of islands that want autonomy
- Brazil - Rio Grande Do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana demand independence to make a
Republic of Pampas.
Shapes of States:
- Compact: Efficient, equal distance from center to edge, ideal state shape with capital at
center, Ex: poland, hungary, austria, germany, bhutan
- Elongated: Potential isolation, long, poor internal communication, more access to
natural resources, Ex: chile, malawi, gambia, panama, italy, normway, vietnam
- Prorupted: Success of disruption, compact with large projecting section, either to
separate two states or provide access to resources. Ex: thailand, namibia and caprivi strip,
dem, republic of congo.
- Perforated: State completely surrounds another, Ex: lesotho in south africa, vatican
city and italy.
- Fragmented: Problematic, several discontinuous pieces, seperated by water or other
state, Ex: fiji, indonesia, russia, UK, US, france, australia (has tazmania exclave)
- Landlocked states - Lacks direct outlet to sea, surrounded by other countries, Ex:
common in africa, belarus, mongolia, chad, paraguay
Gerrymandering - Redrawing legislative boundaries to favor the party in power, illegal in
1985
- Wasted vote: Spreads opposition voters across districts so they are the minority.
- Excess vote: Concentrates the opposing voters into a few different districts.
- Stacked vote: Link areas of like minded voters into oddly shaped boundaries.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) - treaty 1982
- Nautical mile - 1.15 land miles
- Dispute about who owns islands between Philippines, Indonesia, China, and Malaysia
- 4 Zones
- Territorial sea - 12 nautical miles for fishing, innocent passage
- Contiguous zone - 24 nautical miles,
- Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) - 200 nautical miles, state can explore and
manage natural resources
- High seas - beyond EEZ, open to all states
Political Organizations
- UN (United nations) - US didn't originally join, Taiwan is most populous state not in
the UN, replaced league of nations, purpose is to keep and promote world peace
Military Organizations
- NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) - 16 democratic states, US, Canada, 14
Europeans, meant to prevent spread of communism of soviets, conflict w/ Muslims
- Warsaw Pact - Military agreement among communist east Europe to defend each other,
provide soviets with allied states.
- United Nations (+political) - Created at the end of WW2, facilitates discussion of
international problems.
Economic Organizations
- EU (European Union) - 27 countries, promote development of members after WW2,
made Euro, used to have barriers on trade but those were removed.
- COMECON - Promoted trade and sharing of natural resources, included 7 eastern
Europe communist states from the Warsaw Pact plus Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam.
- ASEAN(association of southeast asian nation) - indonesia, malaysia, philippines,
singapore, thailand, made during vietnam war against communism
- OPEC(organization of petroleum exporting countries) - middle east countries, control oil
production
- NAFTA(North American Freetrade agreement) - increased avocado consumption,
Mexico, US, canada
Unit 4 Vocabulary
State - Area organized into a political unit and ruled by a government, has a permanent
population, occupies a defined territory, Ex: largest - russia, smallest - monaco.
Sovereignty - Inner affairs of a region are independent from control by other states.
Nation - A group with common culture.
Nation-state - Population of a country is homogeneous, Ex: Denmark, Slovenia, Japan, Iceland.
Stateless nation - Ethnic group without a state, Ex: Kurds in middle east.
Microstate - Sovereign state with small population and land, Ex: Monaco.
- China - Conflict between whether Taiwan is independent from China or not.
- Western Sahara - Morocco claims Sahrawi Republic while most surrounding states
consider it independent.
- Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, UK all claim the south pole.
City-state - First states, made of towns and surrounding countryside, walls made to show
boundaries, some with military power take over such as the Roman empire, first one arose in
Mesopotamia.
Self-determination - Concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves.
Satellite states - Dominated by another state politically and economically.
Multi-state nation - Nation stretches across borders of states, Ex: north and south Korea.
Multi-ethnic state - State with more than one ethnicity, Ex: US.
Multinational state - Country with more than one ethnicity with self determination, Ex:
Russia’s caucasus region between black and caspian seas with the azeris, armenians, and
georgians.
Decolonization - Colonial settlements become independent nations, Ex: 13 colonies.
Colony - Territory legally tied to state rather than being independent, Ex: puerto rico, not a part
of congress but is home to US citizens.
Colonialism - Country establishes settlement to impose its politics, economy, and culture on
that territory.
Imperialism - Control of territory already occupied by another society.
Ethnonationalism - Ethnicity wants its own sovereignty.
Morphology - States geographical shape affects spatial cohesion and political viability,
Ex:chile skinny.
Berlin conference - 1884-85, european nations claim Africa and created superimposed
borders.
Versailles peace conference - Leaders after WW1 redraw the map of Europe.
Apartheid - Domination over a certian race, black in south and Southwest Africa, now Nambia,
1948-90.
Cold war - Diplomatic, political, military rivalry between US and soviets, 1945-1991.
Organic theory - Theory that states are born and they need nourishment and living space to
survive.
Heartland theory - Mackinder, early 1900s, best base for world domination is the eurasian
heartland.
Rimland theory - Spykman, 1944, best base for global domination is eurasian rimland.
Choke point - A geographical land feature such as a valley or water way narrowing causing a
decrease in forces making their way through.
Centripetal forces - Bind or hold together, ex: strong leadership, external threat, education,
democracy, russian language for soviet union.
Centrifugal forces - Divide or tear state, devolutionary forces, ex: culture/religious/linguistic
differences.
State - Formal name for country, defined bordes, sovereign gov, recognized, permanent
population.
Democracy - Citizens elect leaders and can run for office.
Autocracy - Country run by ruler’s interests.
Anocracy - Not fully democratic, mix of two.
Unitary system - Centralized control, no local power, works best in nation states with less
cultural differences, smaller states, ex: france, european countries, north korea, kenya, rwanda,
china.
Confederal systems - Less central power, lots of power to states, confederate states
Federal systems - Between unitary and confederal, ex: United states, canada, brazil, india,
belgium.
Reapportionment - Assigning representation based on population every census.
Redistricting - Redrawing district boundaries so each district contains the same amount of
people.
Frontier - Zone no state exercises complete political control, rather than boundaries separating.
Border conflicts - Positional, territorial, resource, functional.
Shatterbelt - Distress bc of cultural/ethnic conflict, ex: israel, kashmir, east europe during cold
war.
Physical Boundaries - Desert (Sahara desert), mountain (himalayas india), water ( rio grande
R.).
Cultural boundaries - Geometric (straight line drawn on map, canada and US border),
religious, language, ethnic (england,france,portugal,spain boundaries, bc of language or
religion), Ex: pakistan and india.
Delimited boundary - States disagree about interpretation of documents that define a
boundary, Ex: Argentina and Chile's borders on the Andes mountains, drawn on map to show
limits of space.
Antecedent boundary - Result of area becoming population and gaining value, existed before
present settlement occurred and the culture arrived, Ex: US and canada, Ohio R.
Subsequent boundary - Developed with the evolution of cultural change, Ex: irsh catholic and
pretestant northern ireland, velvet divorce in Czechoslovakia.
Open boundary - Boundary people can cross w/o obstacles, Ex: EU allows people to travel
between member states.
Natural boundary - Based on physical geography, Ex: rivers like Rio Grande.
Militarized boundary - Heavily fortified boundaries, discouraged crossing of people, good,
info.
Superimposed boundary - Political, dividing ethnically similar population by a more powerful
country, cause loss of culture, creation of new culture, migration, government change, ineffective
governance, multi state nation, multinational state Ex: Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Africa in
the Berlin Conference.
Relic boundary - Historic boundary, no longer used/nonfunctional, Ex:berlin wall germany,
great wall China.
Defined boundary - Established by legal document, divides two entities, invisible line.
Demarcated boundary - Identified on physical landscape, sign or complex system, ex: DMZ,
berlin wall.
Geometric boundary - Straight line, doesn’t follow physical features, large-egypt and libya,
small-suburbs.
Irredentism - Country wants to annex similarly ethnic portion of another country, Ex: Hitler
invading czechoslovakia, Somalia - ethiopia conflict over somalis, serbians in bosnia, kashmir
region in india, reich trying to connect all german speaking people in europe.
Allocational dispute - Disagree over resources at borders, Ex: iraq and Kuwait over rumaila
oil field.
Functional disputes - Disagree over policies applied along boundary,immigration, Ex: mexico
border.
Definitional boundary dispute - Two or more parties disagree on interpretation of legal doc or
map, Ex: chile and argentina.
Locational boundary dispute - Conflict over location or place of boundary, Ex: egypt and
sudan
Operational boundary dispute - Conflict over operation, Ex: is migration allowed?, US and
mexico.
Enclaves - Country or part of a country surrounded by territory of another, Ex: lesotho.
Exclaces - Part of the country is separated from the rest.
Forward capital - Capital city positioned near the international border, confirms the state’s
determination to maintain presence.
- Capitals that moved somewhere after 1950: Brazil, Nigeria, Pakistan.
Geopolitics - Study of interplay between international political relations and environmental
context.
Supranationalism - 3 or more countries form unions for economic, political or cultural
reasons.
Terrorism - Systematic use of violence to indimidate populations, Ex: 9-11, afrghanistan and
pakistan harbor al-qaeda terrorists.
UNITS OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
There are a number of polirical geography terms such as nation and stdte that we use in everyday
speech as synonyms. However, the technical definitions of these terms have specific and impor-
tant meaning in the geography of politics. Heret how to keep them straight:
Countr;,: an identifiable land area
Nation: a population with a single culture
State: a population under a single government
Nation-state: a single culture under a single government
A nation is the same as a cukure group. "State" implies that there is a sovereign ter-
ritory. Sovereignty generally means that a state is fully independent from outside con-
trol, holds territory, and that it has internationd recognition from other states or the United
Nations. Use these examples to keep the differences in your mind:
ff*Sw ,,,, , .,'.l l ":''" '::i:'t :
England, Scotland,'Wales, Northern
Ireland, Isle of Man, and the Channel
Islands
United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern
Ireland
Great Britain or the
British Isles
Han, Manchu, Zhuang, Miao, Uygur,
Tibetan, and others
People's Republic of China China
Anglo-Canadian, Qu€b6cois, and
First Nations
Canada (former name
Dominion of Canada)
Canada
French, German, Italian, and
Romansch
C o nfo e derati o He laet i ca
(in Latin)
Switzerland
(French: Suisse)
(German: Schweiz)
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These examples, the United States, and most other sovereign states are multi-national states
made up of a number of different nations represented by the multitude of culture groups
who have migrated and intermixed around the world. Multinational srates, sometimeslalled
multiethnic statesr are most common in the Americas, where there are no nation-states.
Nation-States
There are a number of
a singular government.
nation-states in which one culture group is represented by
Many are smaller stares or island countries. Although no
nation-state is truly made up ofonly one cultural group, places such as Japan, Iceland, Tonga,
Ireland, Portugal, and Lesotho (pronounced Lesu-too) are places that have nor seen Permanent
invasion or mass immigradon from other culture groups in their histories.
The term nation-state is also applied, theoretically, to multinational states where the state has
come to rePresent a singular and contemporary culture, as opposed to the ancient cultures
from which the population originates. One could argue that there is an identifiable American
culture in the United States, or a unique Brazilian culture in Brazil. In both of these cases, rhe
new political nation is the result of the blending of several culture groups together along with
the idea of political nationalism.
Nationalism
Nationalism can derive from an existing culture group that desires political represenration or
independence, or from a political state that bonds and unifies culture groups. Politicians use
nationalism as motivation to support the state and oppose foreign or other political infuences.
Individuals tend to take pride in their nationalist identities, even though they or their neighbors
may be from a mix of different ethnic backgrounds.
Stateless Nations
Although many culture groups are politically represented or are part of larger political entities,
there are some stateless nations, where a culture group is not included or allowed a share in
the state political process. Here are a few examples.
Kurds are an ethnic group spread across northern Iraq, western Iran, eastern Syria, and south-
eastern Turkey. A semi-autonomous Kurdistan has existed in Iraq since the U.S.Jed invasion
in 2003. However, full independence is limited geopolitically due to Turkish governmenr resis-
tance to their sovereignty, based upon Kurdish Marxist rebels, the PKK, who have been fight-
ing in Turkey for several decades. Since the start of the Syrian Civil Var, Kurds have taken
territory and started a semi-autonomous government.
Basques are an ethnic group in northern Spain and sourhwestern France who do not have
Celtic or Latin cultural or language roots. In fact, their people's origin is poorly understood by
historians. Spain has granted limited autonomy to the Basque region around the city of Bilbao,
but many Basque nationalists seek full independence and statehood. A militant group; ETA,
has used terror ractics to fight against Spanish rule.
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cED 4.2
Political Processes
6. Political Patterns and Processes 247
cED 4.7
Forms of Governance
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Hmong are mounrain peoples who have existed in rural highlands isolated from others in
Laos, Viet.ram, Thailand, and southern China. However, their alliance with the United States
against the Communists during the Vietnam 'War caused many families to leave their tra-
ditional homeland. Today many Hmong (pronounced "mung") have resettled in the upper
Midwestern states of 'S7'isconsin and Minnesota. Hmong immigrants are featured in the 2008
film Gran Torino.
Other stateless nations include the Karen (primarily of Myanmar), Roma (or Romani),
Karelians, Tartars, Tuvans, Chechens, Sami, Uygurs, Tibetans, and Tamils. Some groups have
been granted limited auronomy, while others have active nationalist and independence move-
-.n,r. See the section on irredentism in this chapter for more on independence and sover-
eignty in the post-Soviet era.
ORGANIZATIONS OF STATES
The Big Fellas
Federal states and confederations are a common approach to government. The United States,
Australia, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Russia, and Mexico are all confederations of several
smaller states or provinces under a federal government. Like an umbrella, the federal state
provides military protecrion, administers foreign diplomacy, and regulates trade as well as a
,r.rmbet of internal administrative (executive branch), legislative, and judicial services across
the country. The states each have their own governments, legislatures, regulations, and services.
The overlapping roles in the administration may seem redundant, but each has its own divi-
sion of responsibilities. For instance, the federal government regulates interstate trade, whereas
states can make rules about the sale of goods within each state.
Many other states adhere to a unitary system with a single centralized government' '\tr7hile
some power may be delegated to regional or local governments, the ultimate authority lies
with the central government. The United Kingdom is one example: although Scotland,'Wales,
and Northern Ireland all have some degree of autonomy, that power is granted-and may be
altered or overturned-by the British Parliament. Other states, such as Ireland, grant no sub-
national power at all. Many smaller states are able to adhere to the unitary system due to their
size, but the largest unitary state by far is the vast Peoplet Republic of China.
The Wee Fellas
At the other end of the international scale, microstates are sovereign states that despite their
very small size still hold the same position as much larger states like the United States or
Canada. Many are island states, ports, or city-states, or they sit landlocked with no access to
the sea. The following table provides a list of microstates that are full members of the United
Nations (UN):
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Andorra Landlocked
Antigua and Barbuda Islands
Bahrain Islands
Barbados Island
Comoros Islands
Djibouti Port
Dominica Island
Grenada Islands
Liechtenstein Landlocked
Luxembourg Landlocked
Malta Islands
Monaco Port and City-state
Nauru Island
Palau Islands
St. Kitts and Nevis Islands
St. Lucia Island
Samoa (Western Samoa) Islands
San Marino Landlocked
Singapore Port, Islands, and Ciry-srate
The Vatican City is also a sovereign microstate but is not a member of the UN. It is not a
nation-state despite the common religion of its residents, who are mostly clergy drawn from
around the wodd.
Autonomous Regions
Certain parts of certain nations have been granted freedom from central authority, usually
for historical, geographical, religious, or linguistic reasons. These are known as autonomous
regions, and they occupy a special place in human geography. For example, the Basque region
of northeastern Spain boasts its own language, Euskara, which is thousands of years old and is
unrelated to any of the Romance languages rhat surround it. The Basques are technically part
of Spain but govern themselves, with little obligation to Madrid. Semi-autonomous regions
have the same freedom as autonomous regions, but to a lesser degree.
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Multi-State 0rganizations
Supranationalism is the concept of two or more sovereign states aligned together for a common
p.ripor.. A number of supranational organizations have been formed for the purposes of
irade alliances, military cooperation, and diplomacy. The largest of these is the United Nations
(193 member states) whose purpose is primarily diplomatic. The UN also provides a number of
services internationally through its'World Health Organization (\fHO), Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), Development Program (UNDP), International Children's Education
pu"a QNICEF), peacekeeping forces, and other smaller directorates such as the UN High
Commissariat for Refugees (UNHCR). Each of these units is an important supranational
organization in its own right.
Detailed Example: The EU
Another important supranational organization with several purPoses is the European Union
(EU). In 2013, theEU grew to 28 member states with a small number of applicant states awaiting
membership. The EU was named in 1991 under the Treaty of Maastricht, which expanded the
organizationt role beyond trade relations. Prior to that, the European Coal and Steel Community
(created in 1957) helped strengthen steel production between Italy, France, Luxembourg, Belgium,
and the Netherlands. The success of this limited free-trade network encouraged the development
of the European Economic Community, "the Common Market" or EEC. By 1973, the EEC
eliminated all tariffs on trade goods between its 12.W'estern European member states.
Today, the EU acts like a federal government for Europe but lacks some of the administra-
tive aspects of other confederations like the United States. The modern EU serves five main
PurPoses:
Free-trade union: No taxes or tariffs are charged on goods and services that cross
the internal borders of the EU. By eliminating these fees, European businesses can
save money and be more economically competitive with the United States and
Japan.
Open-border policy: Between EU member states, there are no longer any border-
control stations for immigration or customs inspections. People and commercial
vehicles cross internal EU borders without stopping. This began with the Schengen
plan in 1985 when West Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the
Netherlands opened their borders to one another. Workers can now take jobs in
other EU states without applying for work permits (some professions may be pro-
tected from this).
Monetary union: In 2000, the first EU members began converting to the Euro
and phasing out their old forms of money. This eliminated the costs of currency
exchange fees. Only 12 members retained their own currencies. The United
Kingdom kept the British pound due to its high yxlus-csnysrting to the less-
valuable Euro would have caused significant financial problems in the United
Kingdom. New member srares have to meet strict EU economic regulations before
they can join the monetary union. However, the world financial crisis of 2008
revealed some weaknesses of the Euro as indebted countries were unable to devalue
the Euro as they had been able to with national currencies. Countries like Greece,
Ireland, and Portugal received bailouts as part ofthe Eurozone crisis. These events
have forced counrries to question the desirability of using the Euro currency.
a
a
a
' Judicial union: The European Court ofJustice in Luxembourg provides a legal
venue for cases between litigants in separate EU member states. '\tr7ith the increase
in cross-border trade and labor, there were bound to be lawsuits and conrract
issues that would require the EUt decisions. In addition, a European Court of
Human Rights has been established to preserve civil rights regardless of their
member states' local laws.
' Legislative and regulatory bodies: The 751-seat EU Parliament was established
to ProPose and approve laws within the union. The European Commission is
a seParate council with one seat for each member state. Each year the presi-
dency shifts to one member state, allowing it to set the year's policy agenda. The
European Commission also acts as the executive branch of the union to enact
Programs and enforce regulations set by the EU Parliament and Council. The EU
Commission president is appointed by the European Council.
In sum, EU governance has been successful in creating a singular economy through free trade,
open borders, free movement of labor, free exchange of currency, and a level playing field for
business and labor in terms of laws and regulations. Instead of many small economies, the EU
acts as one state economy that is highly competitive with China, the United States, India, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Japan. In terms of gross domestic product (GDP),
theEUhadaneconomyof$17.1 trillionandChinahadaneconomy of $17.7 triilion asof 2021.
Something Botten in Denmark?
Despite the economic success of the EU, a number of problems have emerged from the per-
spective of its citizens and member states. Even rhough free trade, open borders, and the Euro
reduced the cost ofdoing business and reduced the cost ofgoods and services, the EU govern-
ment's main source of revenue is a standard 20 percent sales tax, known as the value-added
tax (VAT). Many complain that the cost of EU governance has significantly increased the cost
of many items in Europe. Member-state governments have also complained that the European
courts have threatened the sovereignty ofnational and local courts and laws.
Likewise, open borders have made it difficult to control crime and terrorism. Once someone gers
inside the EU's borders, he or she can move around freely regardless of citizenship, making it
difficult to stoP and apprehend criminals. Externally, the EU has had to strengrhen its borders
against undocumented immigration and the fow of contraband. The term Fortress Europe has
been used to describe the concept of sealing EU borders. This is a rather difficult problem, since
many of the eastern borders of the EU are undefended and only road and rail border crossings
are inspected by immigration or cusroms officers.
In June 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU in a referendum commonly called "Brexit." Despite
the EU's economic success, the issues of immigration, open borders, and British sovereignty in
the face of an increasingly centralized European government led many voters to favoi a split
with the EU.
No Gonstitution for You! Yet...
In terms of further expansion of the EU system of governance, a European Union
Constitution was proposed for ratification in 2004. The complex 65,000 word documenr was
6, Political Patterns and Processes 251
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You ileed to
Knowthe EU
The EU is a common topic
in both the multiple-
choice and f ree-response
question sections. Make
sure you are familiar with
allthings EU.
cED 4.3
Political Power and
Territoriality
AP Human Geography Prep
poorly understood by the citizens and members of parliament who had to vote on
the constitution. Concepts like a common EU foreign policy among all states were
unclear. Many voters and politicians were concerned about the continued loss of
sovereignty for member-state governments. Political leftists saw the constitution es
being too pro-business. And right-wing sentiment against Turkey in the EU also
resulted in "No" votes against ratification. The constitution was voted down in the
Netherlands and France in 2005, thus forcing the European Commission to gq
back to the drawing board.
SPATIAL CONCEPTS OF POLITICAT GEOGRAPHY
Territoriality is the expression of political control over space. The concept of the state implies
rhat the government controls land and the people who live there. Citizenship is the legal iden-
tity of a p.rron based on the state where he or she was born or where he or she was naturalized
as an immigrant. Keep in mind that when citizens go outside their state's political
borders, they retain their citizen status and thus become an extension of their state
(unless they apply for new citizenship as immigrants). This is why we strictly define
the state as a population represented by a single government, without mentioning
territory. However, dont forget that space mafters; it's not much of a state if it has
no land, which can happen in the case of a government in exile, such as the Dutch
or Polish governments during'World \07ar II.
Political Borders
The borders between political srates and political sub-unit areas (counties, parishes, parliamen-
tary districts, and city limits) are strictly finite lines. Political boundaries, as expressions of
political control, must be definable and clear. Sometimes the physicd geography, such as riv-
i6 or oth.r water bodies, defines boundaries, and sometimes borderlines are measured surveys
based on trearies or other agreements between states. Non-physical boundaries often refect
cultural divisions, but these are not always accurate. Such borders can be the result of aris-
tocraric land holdings from Feudalistic eras, or they can be the front lines at the cessation of
armed confict between 51xgss-[rs\Msver, treaties can change these lines.
Outside the Lines
Countries with large expatriate populations (citizens living outside of their borders) have to
provide consular services in large foreign cities. Citizens living in foreign countries often have
North Atlantic Tieaty Organization (NATO) Military
of Petroleum Countries (OPEC) Oil Pricing Cartel
Organization of African Union (OAU) Regional Diplomary
Government Loans \7orld Bank and Internationd Monetary Fund (IMF)
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to visit their countryt embassies or consulates to process legal documents, passports, and visa
applications. \flhen citizens get trapped in war zones or disasters in foreign countries, itt up to
their governmentt diplomats and military to get them out.
Enclave and Exclave
Borderlines may be finite, but they can becorne quite irregular in pattern especially where the
cultural borderlines become fuzry. An enclave is a minoriry culture g.orrp .Lrr..nirated inside
a country that is dominated by a different, larger culure group. This could be as simple as an
ethnic neighborhood or a large area such as Qu6bec. As pan of rhe 1994 Dayton Peace Accords,
several enclaves were formally established within Bosnia to separate warring Serb, Croat, and
Muslim communiries.
A1 gxclave is a fragmented piece of sovereign territory separated by land from the main part
of the statet territory. Occasionally, neighboring srares arrempt to claim exclaves in the name
of cultural nationalism. Often, armed conficts result, but sometimes diplomatic negotiations
re-sult in official Permanent exclaves. Other times, states purchase territory or receive ir"g*.r,,
of territory under peace treaties. Islands are not considered exclaves. Examples of exclaves follow.
Water Borders at Sea
Historically, borders at sea were poorly defined, and each country had its own laws regarding
where territorial claims began and ended. Often, more than one sovereign state claimed the
same piece of water. This all changed in 1982 with rhe United Nations Conference on the
Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), which proposed standard oceanic boundaries for all UN mem-
ber states, and was fully ratified in 1g94. The border system under UNCLOS is in the follow-
ing two parts:
Territorial sea: Sovereign territory includes the area ofsea from shore out to the l2-nautical-
mile limit. 'STithin 12 nautical miles, all the laws of a country apply.
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ): Exclusive economic rights from shore out to the 200-
nautical-mile limit. \Tithin 200 nautical miles of its shores, a state controls all aspects of natu-
ral resource exploration and extraction. This includes fisheries, oil and gas produition, salvage
operations, and permits for such activity. Two hundred nautical miles is beyond the shallow
water continental shelf in almost all cases.
Alaska United States Canada
Point Roberts United States Canada
Kaliningrad (Koenigsberg) Russia Lithuania, Belarus
Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia Azerbaijan
Nakhchivan Azerbaijan Armenia
Cabinda Angola Dem. Rep. of Congo
Musandam Oman United fuab Emirates
Llivia Spain France
Ceuta and Melilla Spain Morocco
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I nrz 2oonm Boundaries
[ lnternationd Vaters or .Hig[ S€as',
n Iand
EEZ Boundaries and High Seas offthe Eastern United States
The high sezus are technically outside of the l2-mile limit. Past that line, cruise ships can open
their cisinos and ship captains gain the authority to marry couples or arrest thieves onboard
their ships. These are provisions made under admiralty law, a part of international law that
dictates iegal procedures on the high seas. Beyond the 200-mile limit, international fishing
fleets can hook or net wharever ocean life they choose and in unregulated amounts.
The only exceptions are when international treaties limit the capture of certain species. The
1986 Internatiooal Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whale hunts banned
whaling after centuries of hunting dangerously depleted populations. Norway and Japan still
hunt whales, claiming their hunts are for scientific research. This claim is heavily criticized by
environmental organizations who state that whale meat still makes its way to market in these
countries.
RUSSIA
Chukotka
I.]NITED
STATES
Alaska
International Political Borders Compared to EEZs and Territorial Seas
Political Borders on the Map, t\lot EEZs
'S7hen
you look at the map above, you can see that normal polirical boundaries and the real
EEZ boundaries are very different. The cartographic borders are often rectangular around
islands. In reality, territorial seas and EEZs create circular boundaries, especially around islands
-each of which extends a countryt EEZ out another 200 naurical miles.
0verlapping Borders at Sea and Disputes
The UNCLOS makes provisions for a UN arbitration board ro settle disputes regarding
boundaries at sea. Often, countries with overlapping sea claims generally agree ro split the
Iines halfivay. W.here it becomes difficult is when uninhabited small islers, exposed reefs, and
sandbars above water are claimed by more than one counrry. It can take years of negotia-
tion to settle such disputes, and occasionally troops are deployed to precariously small pieces
of land, just to claim rights to the surrounding EEZ. For example, two areas of the South
China Sea, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, are claimed concurrently by China,
Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. Oil is believed to be under both
island groups, and these are areas of potential future armed confict if arbitration fails.
6. Political Patternsand Processes | 255
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Boundary 0rigins and Border TyPes
This topic can be confusing due to the varied terminology used to describe pro-
cesses behind boundary creation and the types of borders that exist. Lett see if we
can simplify this:
Boundary Origins
Antecedent: Boundary lines that exist from prehistoric times
Relic Former state boundaries that still have political or cultural meaning
Subsequent: Lines resulting from confict or cultural changes, such as war and migration
Superimposed: Lines laid down for political reasons over existing cultural boundaries
Boundary Process
Definition:'W'hen borders are claimed, negotiated, or captured
Delimitation:'When borders are put on the map
Demarcation:'\U7hen markers are placed on the ground to show where borders lie
Border Type
Physicah Natural boundaries-rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains, or deserts
Cultural Estimated boundaries between nations, ethnic grouPs, or tribes
Geometric Boundaries surveyed mostly along lines of latitude and longitude
Border Disputes
Definitional: 'When border treaties are interpreted two different ways by states
Locationat \7hen the border moves, like a river changing course or a lake drying up
Operational: \7'hen borders are agreed on, but passage across the border is a problem
Allocational:'When a resource lies on two sides of a border.'Who gets what?
lmportant Historical Examples
Antecedent French-spanish border along the Pyrenees
Reliq Scotland-England border after The Act of Union in 1652
Subsequent: German-Polish border after 1945; Kdiningrad to the USSR in 1946
Superimposed: Sub-Saharan Africa after the Berlin Conference of 1884; Yugoslavia
and Iraq after the 1919 Theaty of Versailles (Each of these resulted in recent
conficts.)
cED 4.4
Defining Political
Boundaries
It's Not (JustlWhat
You Know...
Hemember, it's not
enough to simply
memorize definitions.
You must be able to
relate concepts to
historical and current
events on the AP Human
Geography Exam.
256 | For more free content, visit PrincetonReview.com
lmportant Historica! Examples:
Definitiond: Russian-Japanese Kuril Islands under Soviet control in 1945
Locationaft India-Bangladesh territory along the Ganges-Brahmapurra fuver Delta
operationall New passport requirements for entry into the Unired States after
September 11, 2001
Allocational: Mexico-United States river allocations for irrigation and drinking water
on the Colorado River and Rio Grande (Rio Bravo)
cED 4.8
Defining Devolutionary
Factors
Border Gonflicts: Frontier War or Peace?
Historically, when land was either unexplored or unsurveyed, the term frontier
was used to describe the open and undefined territory. There are a few disputed
small frontier regions in the world today. The only remaining large land frontier is
Antarctica, where the Antarctic Treaty (1959) has set aside the conrinent (actually
several large islands covered by an ice cap) for scientific research and prohibits any
military action and commercial mineral or energy extraction.
Peaceful Resolution to Border Gonflicts
Prior to the 1846 Oregon Treaty that set the border at 49" North latitude, rhe wesrern border
between Canada and the United States was undefined. Much of the frontier region of what
is today Montana, Idaho, Oregon, W'ashington, Alberta, and British Columbia was claimed
concurrently by Great Britain and the United States. Diplomacy was the key to a peaceful
settlement of the border dispute, but it nearly led to war as many in the United States were
heard to say, "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!"-the claim that the U.S. border should be 54"40'
North. Not all parts of the world have been so lucky to resolve their frontier claims peacefully.
In fact, many border treaties have led to violence later on.
Postcolonial Boundary Gonfl icts
An international example of a former frontier dispute that has led to confict today is in Central
Africa. The Conference of Berlin (1884) was a diplomatic meeting between the European
colonial powers to set the internal political boundaries in Africa, which was one of the last areas
of European colonial expansion. Most colonies were in coastal areas, but the interior of the
continent had only recently been explored by Europeans. Diplomats at the conference went about
carving up the continent's interior and settling disputed claims. The final agreed-upon map is
very similar to the political boundaries in Africa today. However,.rhere are many problems with
the 1884 border design that did not emerge until after decolonization in the late 20th century.
Most African colonial states achieved self-determination as fully independent sovereign states
between 1960 and the early 1990s.
AP Human Geography Prep
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cED 4.9
Challenges to
Sovereignty
AP Human Geography Prep
The main problem with the European-set boundaries in Africa is that they do not match the cul-
tural boundaries. This superimposed boundar,, situation is what Africans refer to as the Tyranny
ofthe Map. Instead of the large artificial nation-states that the Europeans envisioned, the reality is
that political allegiance in sub-saharan Africa is based upon tribal identiry and at a much smaller
relative scale. The result within postcolonial African states has been that a number of tribes-some
with long precolonial histories of confict-have been grouped together into confined areas.
zone is Rwanda, where in 1994 ethnic Hutus and
and mountainous country. Tutsis had migrated to
the region some 400 years earlier, but upon independence from Belgium in 1962,
Hutus went about ethnic cleansing, forcing many Tirtsi refugees into the former
Zaire and, to Uganda. In 1994, after a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and
neighboring Burundi was shot down, large-scale reactionary violence erupted by
Hutus against local Tutsis, who were blamed for the crash. In resPonse, Tutsi refu-
gees fooded back into the country to fight back. In the end, each ethnic group lost
around 500,000 people to the violent genocide.
In the years following, Hutu versus Tutsi violence has spilled over to Burundi and eastern parts of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where ethnic-based violence and fighting continue today.
The Easrern Congo is seen by many researchers to be the next area of widespread armed confict
in Africa. Due to ethnic fighting in and along the Democratic Republic of the Congo and inva-
sion by the armies of Uganda andZambia, the region's 1884 borders are all but meaningless lines
on rhe map. Other postcolonial frontier border disputes are highlighted in the following table.
Kashmir India, Pakistan, China
Mountainous region and British Partition
in 1948 (Remains in confic$
E-pty Quarter
Saudi Arabia, United
Arab Emirates, Oman
Open sand dune desert (Rub al-Khali)
(Saudis and Yemen settled in 2000)
Neutrd Tnnes
Saudi fuabia, Iraq,
Kuwait
Uqair Protocol of 1922 and open desert
(Saudis and Kuwait settled in 1970) (Sau-
dis and Iraq settled in 1991)
Tyranny of the Map Example: Bwanda
An example of one such postcolonial confict
Tirtsis fought to control the small landlocked
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Compact Shape without irregularity Nigeria, Colorado
Fragmented Broken into pieces; archipelagos Philippines, Newfoundland
Elongated Appears stretched-out, long Chile, Tennessee
Prorupt Has a panhandle or peninsula Italy, Michigan
Perforated Has a hole(s) (country large lake) South Africa, Urah
Landlocked Has no sea or ocean borders Switzerland, 'Wyoming
Territorial Morphology
The shape of a country is often what helps you identifr it on a map. To some degree, the shape
of a country also impacts its society and external relations with other counrries. Here is a list of
the major types of state morphology (shape):
Territorial Change
In addition to wars and other subsequent border changes, there are a few other ways in which
state territory can change shape. Decolonization after \forld'War II significantly reduced the
area and number of territorial and colonial holdings of the European powers and the United
States. Although most areas were granted independence, some colonial holdings were incorpo-
rated and residents integrated with full citizen starus. Examples include Hawaii, Alaska, and
the French departrnents of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Rdunion, and French Guyana. Residents
ofthese places have full voting rights, pay taxes, and receive benefits just like the other citizens
of the United States and France.
Annexation is another term used to describe the addition of territory as a result of a land pur-
chase or when a territorial claim is extended through incorporation. The United States origi-
nally purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $2000,000 in gold-a bargain
of Manhattan-esque proportion-and it became a full stare in 1948. The U.S. Virgin Islands
resulted from a cash sale of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix by a financially strapped Danish
government in l9l7 (during'World'War I).
The Swiss N.ry?
Although Switzerland can register and fag merchant ships, due to its landlocked mor-
phology, it has never had a navy. Humorously, the term "Swiss Navy" is either an oxymo-
ron or pure absurdity. The latter appears to be the historical case. In the early 1990s, pilots
from the Swiss Air Force were the first outside of the U.S. Navy and Marines to f,y the
F-18 Hornet aircraft. The United States gave permission for the Swiss Air Force to use all
existing American F-18 training programs and facilities. For some this went as far as the
ultimate in military fight training, carrier landing school. Upon completion of carrier
training, some pilots were awarded certificates that had "Swiss Navy" printed on them.
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Gapitals
'We cant forget that each state has to have a capital city. \fhy? There will always need to be a
seat of government where political power is centered. In a way, political power is a form of
currency just like money. And just as market areas need financial centers of exchange, politi-
cians need a place to have organized exchanges of power. Occasionally they make laws and
have elections, as well. Federal states can have several scales ofcapitals, just as they have several
scales of sub-state units.
Most countries have one national capital, but some have more than one. Often this is done to
share power across different regions of the country. Here are a few examples of countries with
more than one capital:
Occasionally countries change the location of their capital. Sometimes this is due to a shift in
political power, or it can be due to congestion in the old capital. Some new capitals are often
planned capital cities, which are located in places where cities did not previously exist:
A.[ron, county seat of Summit County, Ohio Local, County, or Parish
Columbus, state capital of Ohio State, Provincial, or Regional Scale
National (nation-state), Federal 'Washington, D.C., capital of the United States
South Africa Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Cape Town
Bolivia La Paz, Sucre
Netherlands Amsterdam, The Hague
Ivory Coast Abidjan, Yamoussoukro
New York City United States 'W'ashington, D.C.
Rio de Brazil Brasilia Janeiro
Canberra Sydney Australia
Abuja Lagos Nigeria
Berlin Bonn, East Berlin Germany Reunification
New Delhi Kolkata (Calcutta) India Center of colony
Ankara Istanbul Tirrkey Congestion, cenffaliry
Moscow St. Petersburg Russia Russian Revolution
Jerusalem* Tel Aviv Israel Israeli annexation of\7est Bank
Other capitals were moved to existing cities for political reasons.
*Many countries do not officially recognize this and locate their embassies in Tel Aviv instead.
Electoral Politics and lnternal Boundaries
Who Can Vote?
Suffrage in terms of age, race, and gender has varied historically from state ro srate.
The Nineteenth Amendmenr to the U.S. Consrirurion granred American women
the right to vote in 1920. 'women in other parts of the world gained the right to
vote in these selected examples:
In addition to gender, race has historically been a barrier to voting rights. Apartheid in white,
minority-ruled South Africa, which racially segregated almost all aspects of life and residential
geography, also denied the voting rights of non-white citizens. In 1994, the first full and free
elections in South Africa resulted in the presidency of former political prisoner and civil rights
activist Nelson Mandela, who was from the African Xhosa tribe (pronounced Ho-sah). This
was the world's last case of official government restriction, or de jure (by lr*) restriction on
voting due to race. However, in many countries there is still de facto (a matter of fact) racial
and ethnic discrimination that restricts voting by minority citizens, via fear and intimidation
tactics.
AP Human Geography Prep
CED 4,6
lnternal Boundaries
Fun Fact
Did you know that
the Twenty-Sixth
Amendment lowered the
voting age in the United
States from 21 to 18 in
1971?
New Zealand 1893
Canada 19L7
United Kingdom l9l8 (but only after age 30 until 1928)
United States t920
Mexico 1947
Honduras 1955
Paraguay t96t
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Voting for Local and Regional Representation
All democracies have some form of parliamentary system in which at least one lawmaking
body or house has popular representation. Each country has its own system regarding the
number of seats and the size of voting districts. In the United States, division of the 435 seats
of rhe House of Representatives is apportioned relative to each statet population. Every state is
divided into a number of congressional districts, each district having one seat in the Congress;
California has the mosr, ar 53, and the least-populated state,'Wyoming, has 1. In the United
Kingdom and Canada, members of parliament (MPs) are selected from local constituencies
based upon population, but unlike in the United States, these are averaged from across the
counrry. Due to its relatively dense population, Ontario holds 106 of the House of Commons'
308 MPs. Senators in Canada are appointed.
The Electoral Gollege
In the United Stares, presidential elections are decided through voting by the Electoral
College. After the November presidential election, electoral votes are assigned state by state
in Deiember, based on the popular vote in each state. Most states are "winner takes all," but
a few, like Maine and Nebraska, split electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote' The
number of electoral votes is based on the total number of representative seats, plus the two
senarors' seats from each state-the District of Columbia also has 3 electoral votes. It follows
that California has the most electoral votes, with 55, and'Wyoming the least, at 3. It takes at
least 270 (> 50 percent) electoral votes to win the presidential election. If the candidates tie or
have fewer than 270 due to a rhird party, then Congress chooses the new president.
Every ten years following the census, the United States reapportions the 435 seats of the
House of Representatives. In many states, this generally causes some changes to the number of
congressional seats and, as a result, the number of electoral votes a state has. If the number goes
up or do*n (and sometimes even when the number doesn't change), state governments draw
new congressional district borderlines to reapportion districts into equal-sized populations.
Map of the North Carolina 12th Congressional District
Greensboro
Vinston-Salem
Charlotte
Di$ria width only as wide
as Intercatc 85
Gerrymandering
Sometimes reapportionment mapping is done in a straightforward manner with
regional or compact districts. other times the shapes of new or redrawn dis-
tricts are very irregular. The irregularly shaped districts that are highly elongated
and prorupt are often referred to as gerrymandering, named for Massachusetts
Governor Elbridge Gerry who first attempted irregularly shaped districts in 1812.
In 1990 and 2000, a number of gerrymanders were attempted that tried ro stack
votes guaranteeing congressional support for one particular party within each
district, making the outcomes of elections predictable and in the favor of the political majority
in state government. Others were attempted that created "minority-m ajority districts," where
lines were drawn ro encompass only minority population centers.
In the 1992 case of North Carolina, Republican state leaders drew the new l2th district along
Interstate Highway 85, connecting a number of African American communities along a nar-
row corridor over 200 miles long. The reapportionment was challenged in court and, in 1993,
the U.S. Supreme Court found the redistricting unconstitutional, resulting in a redrawn dis-
trict for the 1998 election cycle.
Redrawn Map Approved by the Supreme Court in 1997
POIITICAI EGONOMY
In terms of current and historical context, it is important to keep in mind the concept of politi-
cal economy when you are discussing a country (especially on the FRQs). 'Why political econ-
omy? For one, it's often difficult to discuss the political situation in a state without explaining
the economic aspects. In addition, these political-economic sysrems have important links to
other parts of the AP Human Geography material. Here are the major categories to consider,
with examples:
AP Human Geography Prep
Greensboro
Winston-Salem
Charlotte
Did You Know?
A prorupted state is
a compacted state
with a large projecting
extension, like Florida.
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Feudalism and lts Decline
Feudal political economies operated with the vast majority of land and wealth being con-
trolled by an aristocrtq-apeerage of lords, earls, marquis, barons, dukes, princes, kings,
and queens. Conversely, the vast majority of the population, as peasants' commoners' serfs, or
slaves, were poor farmers and laborers who worked the land controlled by aristocrats. Peasants
paid rent and had their harvests taxed for the right to live on and work the land. This system
t p. p.rt"rr,s in a cycle of debt, known as debt peonage, as they were never able to fully pay
offrents and taxes.
Feudal states tended to have absolute monarchy, in which the supreme aristocrat, a king,
prince, or duke, was both head of state and head of government, and therefore did not share
power with anyone. Like medieval-style feudalism, the concept of absolute monarchy has
diminished over time and mostly exists in the Islamic world. Only a few absolute monarchies
exist today: Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Morocco (limited power-sharing), and emirates within the
United Arab Emirates.
The Decline of Feudalism and Empires
Revolutions and wars from the late 1700s to the 1900s forced many feudal states to accePt
some form of democracy. Events such as the French Revolution of 1789 inspired many mon-
archs to accepr power-sharing with commoners to avoid losing control of their states. Under
constitutional monarchy, the supreme aristocrat remains head of state, but the leader of the
elected parliament is the head of government, with integrated legislative and executive Powers.
In most cases, this is a prime minister or premier, who appoints senior members of parliament
to be ministers or secretaries of executive-branch departments.
In most constitutional monarchies, rhe monarch retains the power to dismiss parliament;
appoints judges, ambassadors, and other officials; is commander and chief of the military; and
rerains significant land holdings and estates. However, the monarcht political Power is mostly
diminished to a symbolic role, and he or she holds a small but important position in dictating
policy and proposing laws.
Here are some examples of constitutional monarchies:
. Great Britain
. Belgium
. The Netherlands
. Japan
o NorwaI
. Denmark
. Sweden
. Spain
. Thailand
. Luxembourg
. Kuwait
. Jordan
. Bahrain
. Monaco
. Cambodia
Example: The British Aristocracy and Government
The current form of consdtutional monarchy in Great Brirain has been in place since the
Magna Carta was signed in 1215. Feudalism has reigned throughout but, in the Magna Carta,
there was some degree of power-sharing with the aristocracy and later with commonirs voting
in elections (1689).
Today, feudal rents to local aristocrats are still technically paid in a number of rural areas of
the United Kingdom, although many are symbolic and small fees. A majority of Britons live
in urban areas and are not subject to these fees. Many rural farms are now owned privately,
though some may still be required ro pay feudal renrs.
The British aristocracy's structure and role has also been modified in recenr years. Traditionally,
aristocratic peers sat in the House of Lords, rhe upper house of parliament, which also serves
as the supreme court. The House of Lords numbers more than 760 members. \7hen the king
or queen elevated someone to the peerage, a new seat was added. Eventually, they had too
many members. Beginningin 1999, Queen Elizabeth II reformed the house with two types of
members. Hereditary peers, who at death pass their dtle and sear to their firstbor., ,or, *.r.
reduced in number and life peers, mainly senior public servants who were rewarded with a title,
kept their title and seat for their lifetime only.
Since the late 1600s, the power of the House of Commons, the lower house of parliament, has
steadily increased. The Commons has 650 seats apportioned to local districts across the United
Kingdom; Scotland, W'ales, and Nonhern Ireland also have regional padiaments of their own.
The Prime Minister (PM) is head of government, but is also a member of parliament (MP).
Generally the PM is the political leader of the party with the most MPs. Other senior MPs
from this ruling Party serve as ministers of the executive branch of government. This is another
example of how parliamentary democracy integrates the three branches of government.
Commonwealth Countries
Most, but not all, member states of the Commonwealth of Nations (independent former parrs
of the British Empire) retain the British monarch as their head of state. These commonwialth
countries have their own parliaments and prime ministers as head of government. Each also has
a toyally appointed governor-general as the crown representative in the country. The governor-
generalt role, like the monarcht, is mostly a symbolic and ceremonial position. These countries
are nonetheless considered independent sovereign states. Yer they do retain some minor political
link to the United Kingdom-most provide military support to the United Kingdom in times
of war. The following countries claim the British monarch as head of state:
. Canada
. Jamaica
. Dominica
. St. Vincent and the Grenadines
r New Zealand
. Australia
. Fiii
. Papua New Guinea
. Belize
. Guyana
. Bahamas
. Antigua and Barbuda
. Grenada
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India, Pakisran, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and Kenya are a few of the commonwealth members
that do not claim the British monarch as head of smte. However, all commonwealth nations
have parliamentary governments, which integrate executive, legislative, and judicial powers,
Iike that of Great Britain. In addirion, the Commonwealth of Nations is an important
supranetional organization that provides special trade, education services, government
funding, and preferred immigration status between member governments and citizens.
Some former colonies are now dependent territories (not sovereign states) of the United Kingdom.
They are nor Commonwealrh members but are still controlled from London with limited local
governance. These colonies include Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Tlrrks and Caicos, British Virgin
lslands, Bermuda, Montserrat, the Falkland Islands, St. Helena, and Ascension Island.
Political Economy: Free-Market Democracy
Generally, countries with elected-representative parliamentary systems such as the United
Stares, the United Kingdom, commonwealth countries, and other constitutional monarchies
or republics are classified as free-market democracies. Internal to a state, this system Bener-
ally relies upon balancing the relationship between the elected-representative government, its
citizens, and business interests. In most cases, there is a variable system ofregulation and taxa-
tion by the stare. As a result, the marketplace is not totally free, as it would be in a completely
unregulated laissez-faire economic system, but it's close enough.
Government regularory influence of the private lives of its citizens and practices of businesses
is usually limited to areas concerning public safety and economic protections. The point of
democracy is that people have a say in who makes the rules and thus have some infuence over
the rule-making process.
What's a Bepublic?
'Without going too deeply inro your AP Government material, keep in mind that France,
Germany, Italy, and many former colonial states are technically republics, under the broader
caregory of free-market democracy. Some republics, like France, are centrally governed from
a single capital. Others, like Germany or the United States, are confederations that aPPor-
tion some government power of legislation and administration to their comPonent states or
provinces (Lander in Germany). The main thing to keep in mind is that republics are free of
aristocracy or monarchal control. The governments are fully under the control of the "common"
people, as opposed to hereditary monarchy. By this definition, neither Canada nor Australia
are iepublics, since both still recognize the Queen of England as the unelected, hereditary head
of their states. On the other hand, another former British colony, Barbados, became the world's
newesr republic in November 2021when it officially removed Queen Elizabeth as its official
head ofstate and elected its first president, despite having been independent since 1966'
Unlike parliamentary systems that assign legislative, executive, and judicial Power to the same
people, republics generally have a separation of powers. Here, the executive' legislative, and
judicial branches ofgovernment are held by separate groups ofpeople that keep each other in
check. This may seem less efficient, but it reduces the potential for corruPtion of the whole
government. If one branch's leadership fails or its practices are called into question, the other
branches can act to correct problems or replace leadership ifnecessary.
Problems Within Republics
This is not to say that republics are perfect systems, as you might feel if you read too much
Plato. The written constitutions of these governments need to be fexible enough to allow
governments to deal with political and other crises when they occur. The United States has
had two constitutions, the former being the Articles of Confederation, which did not work
out. The French have had five different types of government since the revolution, and the cur-
rent government system in France is known as the "Fifth Republic." There is no perfect con-
stitution, but a constitution can be refined over time by the addition of amendments. Another
problem is that wealthy businesspeople and corporations have replaced the aristocracy in rerms
of the control of money,land, and resources. Their personal and corporare political infuence
overshadows that of many thousands of private citizens. The purchase of political favoritism to
infuence the setting of regulations is a constant problem in republics, as it is in other democra-
cies, especially within the legislative branch. This has created uneven power relations in free-
market democracies.
Another type of separation that is sometimes employed to blunt the power of the executive
branch is to have separate presidents and prime ministers (or chancellors in Germany). In
the United States, Mexico, and Argendna, the president is both head of state and head of
government. In most other republics, there is executive separation. Depending on the counrry,
this can be done in a couple of ways. In France, the president is head of government and the
prime minister is head of state, but itt the opposite in Italy. Ay! There are roo many variables to
keep straight, bur make sure to know a couple of examples.
Political Economy: Marxist-socialism
Under Communism, Karl Marx's political-economic theories attempted to right the wrongs
of feudalism and inequalities of capitalism in free-market democracies. One of the main goals
of Marxism was to create a class-free society where there were no inequalities in terms of
wealth or Power. To do this, the state would own all land and industry, the government would
direct economic productivity, and everyone would earn the same amount of money regardless
of labor position.
The key to this working was the planned economy, which did not rely on supply and demand
like capitalism. The central government would calculate the economic needs of the state, its
industries, and people. Then the government would ser quotas for each individual operational
unit of agricultural or manufacturing production to meet these needs. Theoretically, the pro-
ductivity of the economy would result in a collective wealth that would be shared equally across
the population. ICs a utopian ideal that the system should create a harmonious peaceful social
existence, but Communism in practice failed to reproduce Marx's utopia.
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What Happened with Communism?
You may have heard rhe statement, "A good idea in theory but not in practice." This is true
for Communism. Marx died in 1883 and the first Communist country the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union), was establishe d in l9l7 with the fall of the czar's
absolute monarchy in Russia. This time gap is significant. Had Marx seen how his ideas were
put into practice, he'd have "blown a fuse," "had a cow," "had kittens"-pick your own anal-
ogy. On a free-response question, you could describe him as upset or disapproving.
There were a number of unintended consequences to the Russian revolution, including a Pro-
tracted and bloody civil war, human rights violations, murders on the part of the Communist
government, and forced resettlement of over a million citizens. Despite all this, Soviet
Communism emerged functioning under Marxt basic principles. Under Stalin, the USSR
developed Five-Year Plans, which were comprehensive long-term economic plans that dictated
all production in minute detail. In the 1930s, when the rest of the world was suffering through
the poverty of rhe Great Depression, the Soviets were doing comparatively well.
However, 50 years later the USSR was falling apart. The devolution of the Soviet system
was due in part ro several political-economic problems in the USSR. One thing that would
have caught Marxt eye was that, in reality, three classes of Soviet citizens emerged early in
the Soviet Union. Most were workers, as Marx had envisioned his proletariat. However, to
achieve an important posirion in Soviet society, such as that of a government official, professor,
or factory manager, you had to join the Communist Party. Party members made up about 6
percenr of the USSR population and enjoyed many perks such as special stores, nicer homes,
and personal cars. Likewise, a military officer class emerged that had a similarly high quality
of life in comparison to the regular working class.
'Working-class people were resentful. But what could they do? Heavy-handed secret police and
laws that made public protest punishable by hard labor in prison camps (known es guhgs) kept
open criricism ro a minimum. Creative, inventive, and industrious people stagnated. Another
reason for this was that there was a lack of incentive in the system that would motivate people to
have better lives. It didnt matter if you were a brain surgeon or a garbage man; you got the same
monthly pay. Sure, there are some perks to being a doctor, but were these enough to struggle
through examinations and years of training with no financial reward? This was a problem.
The lack of incentive also affected economic productivity. Neither farms nor factories had any
reason to produce more food or products than what was stipulated in government quotas. This
resulted in a lack of surplus, leaving many stores with few items on the shelves and lines of
people waiting to receive rations for food and clothing. More details about the effects of the
Cold'War on the devolution of the USSR are ahead in this chapter'
These problems have also plagued other communist countries, and now only two cases of Soviet-
style Communism remain: Cuba and North Korea. Despite the historic restoration of diplomatic
relations between Cuba and the United States in 2014, Cuban president Raul Castro continues to
declare Cuba a communisr state. To see what has happened with economic reforms in Communist
China and Vietnam, see Chapter 9.
What About the Socialism Part?
The positive things that came out of Communism were mainly in the realm of infrastructure
and social welfare. Health care is a good example. Prior to Communism in the Soviet Union,
China, and Cuba, there had been almost no health care available to the common people.
Socialism meant that everyone had a right to health care, and hospitals, clinics, and rural
traveling doctor programs were established early on. Similarly infrastructure programs for
public schools, free universities, drinking water, care for the elderly, and public transir were
established to improve the efficiency and quality of life in communist sociery. It may not look
glamorous today, but it successfully replaced the utter poverry that existed under the former
feudal and corrupt capitalist societies in these counrries.
These socialist successes impacted the non-communist world as well during the latrer 20th cen-
tury. Government leadership and control of health care, education, and pensions are Marxist-
socialist ideals which have since been incorporared in W'estern free-market democracies like
Canada and Great Britain.
GEOPOLlTICS
The term geopolitics refers to the global-scale relationships between sovereign srates. Here are
a number of other important geopolitical issues that you need to be prepared for on the exam.
Centrifugal and Gentripetal Forces
These are two terms that students mix up all the time. Here are the definitions and
a way to remember which one is which:
Centripetal forces are factors that hold togerher the social and political
fabric of the state. Think pedak make a bike go.
Centrifugal forces are factors that tear apart the social and political fabric
of the state. Think a centrifuge separates blood into its diferent ?arts.
In every country there are a number of forces at work that both reinforce and
destabilize the state. \7'hen the balance shifts too far in the category of centrifu-
gal forces, the survival of the state is at risk and indicates the likelihood of armed
confict-in the form of an internal civil war, or the possibility of confict spilling
over into external cross-border war. Centripetal forces come with their own set of
consequences-while we're quick to think of the positive outcomes such as a sense
of unity and a well-run economy, an overabundance of centripetal force may lead to
nationalistic movements and xenophobia.
a
a
AP Human Geography Prep
cED 4.10
Consequences of
Centrifugal and
Centripetal Forces
Centripetal and
centrifugal forces are a
favorite topic for both
multiple-choice and
f ree-response questions.
Make sure you know the
difference!
. Political beliefs of nationalism
o A strong and well-liked national leader
. An effective and productive economy
. Effective governmenr social welfare
Programs
. Ethnic, racial, or religious differences
or conficts
. Political corruption
. Failing economic conditions
. Natural disasters or a wartime defeat
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Example: Yugoslavia
As we mentioned in the Cultural Conficts section of Chapter 5, Yugoslavia was an artificial
state created after 'World'War I that had several different ethnic and religious groups living
within its borders. The post-World 'War II communist leader of the country was the Croatian
Josip Tito. As a Croat who fought alongside Serbians against the Nazis, Tito was a good choice
as president. He became a centripetal force representing the two largesr ethnic grouPs in the
country. A strong nationalist belief in Communism among Yugoslavians helped Tito build an
economically strong and socially harmonious multiethnic society. These were additional cen-
tripetal forces that held the state together.
\fhen Tiro died in 1980, the lack of an effective multiethnic leader to replace him created a
political power vecuum that opened the way for different nationalist leaders representing diE
ferent ethnicities to atrempt to seize power for themselves and their constituents. These dispa-
rate groups not only differed in ethnicity and religion, but also shared a history of conficts and
warfare.
These differences became powerful centrifugal forces that ripped apart the Yugoslav social and
political fabric and, in combination with the fall of Communism in Europe, doomed the coun-
iry to ethnic violence and dissolution. In aw^y,you can think of Titot death as a centrifugal
force in itself.
Balkanization and Irredentism
The case of the former Yugoslavia is also an important example of balkanization.
This is due to the fact that Yugoslavia sits in the Balkan Peninsula, which has
historically been divided among a large number of ethnic and religious groups. The
rcrm balkanization refers to a situation in which the political landscape goes from a
larger state to several smaller states. In the last 100 years of European history the
continent has geopolitically gone from being dominated by large empire states to
being dominated by several small nation-states. In 1909, there were 27 sovereign
states in Europe; today, there are 50.
After 'World 'War I, many of the early cases of balkanization were due to a realign-
ment of German borders and rhe dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire into
six sovereign states. After Vorld'War II, some borders changed but the number of
states changed only slightly. It was after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
and in the Soviet Union in l99l that the political landscape began to break apart.
The Cold War's a Hot
Exam Topic
The theme of political-
economic conflict
between democracies
and communist countries
during the Cold War
(1945-19S1)is a common
topic of geopolitical
questions on the AP
Human Geography Exam.
This will be covered in
more detail in the Know
the lUodels section at
the end of this chapter.
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Old State (end date) New States
Yugoslavia ( I 99 l-200S) Slovenia
Croatia
Serbia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Montenegro
Macedonia
Kosovo
(disputed)
Czechoslovaki a, (l 993) Czech Republic Slovakia
Austro-Hungarian Empire
(1918)
Poland (part)
Czechoslovakia
Hungary
Austria
Yugoslavia (par$
Liechtenstein
ussR (1991) Russia
Belarus
Ulaaine
Estonia
Lawia
Lithuania
Moldova
Armenia
Azsrbaijan
Kazakhsmn
Uzbekistan
Thjikistan
Kyrgy-zstan
Tirrkmenistan
lrredentism as the Cause of Balkanization
Irredentism tends to follow one of two definitions: when a minority ethnic group desires to
break away from a multiethnic state and form its own nation-state, or break away and align
itself with a culturally similar state. Almost all of the cases of balkanization discussed in the
previous section fall into these two categories. Cases of irredentism continue, and Russia is
one of the most significant situations where a number of groups are seeking independence or
annexation by a neighboring sovereign srate that is culturally similar.
Chechnya is one such place. Chechens, like more than 25 other autonomous republics
in Russia, were granted limited local selFgovernance by the Russian Federation. However,
Chechens are ethnically Turkic peoples who are predominantly Muslim-very different from
Slavic, Eastern Orthodox Christian Russians. It stands ro reason that both religion and ethnic-
ity are the centrifugal forces in this case.
Soon after the fall of Communism, Chechens began to declare independence from Russia. As
a result, the Russian government moved in troops and a regional armed confict has ensued.
Russia fears the loss of oil resources and pipelines in the region, but a larger geopolitical issue
looms. If Russia were to allow Chechnya to become independent or be annexed by Azerbaijan,
then many of the other autonomous republics would push for secession, leaving the Russian
Federation without much of its current land and resources.
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Location Island of Timor Ossetia
East Timorese (Catholic) South Ossetia (Muslims) Irredentists
Rep. of Georgia (Christian) Resistant State Indonesian (Muslim)
Russian military as of 2008
protects the Ossetian
autonomous region
in Georgia
Independence in 2OO2
after UN intervention
with Australian peace-
keeping uoops
Status
Reunification
In a few irredentism cases, nations or culture groups were torn aPart into seParate states as
a result of war or other historical events. In the post-Cold 'S7'ar
era, there have been a few
cases of reunification of note: (East and 'West) Germany, Yemen (North Yemen and Yemen
Democratic Republic), and the return of the Canal Zone to Panama. Some places, such as
China/Taiwan and North/South Korea, occasionally talk of reunification, despite the potential
for armed confict.
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Neocolonialism, meanwhile, describes a contemporary form of colonialism-one based not
on political conrrol, but on ecunomic ?ressure, ExhibitA: The United States of America. \flhile
it possesses very few political territories, it has long waged economic control over nearly every
nation in the 'W'estern Hemisphere, often by granting favored-nation trade status to those
neighbors who play by its rules. This type of power is often used by developed countries to
control developing countries and their precious resources.
The best current example is China. That rising superpower has been busy building neocolonial
control over many African narions. It does so via Chinese state-controlled corporations that
dole out valuable construction contracts-new ports, new roads, etc.-to those African leaders
willing enough (or desperate enough) to do Chinas bidding'
Siberian Taiga
Heartland
Forest
1,1
,
Steppe
KNOW THE MODELS
HEARTTAND-RIMLAND MODET
The Agricultural and Resource Heardand Is Surrounded by Rimland
The main geoPolitical model in the AP Human Geography course encompasses both world
wars and the Cold W'ar. In 1904, British geographer Halford Mackinder proposed what would
become known as the Heartland-Rimlandmodel. Mackinder's model was an efforr ro define
the global geopolitical landscape and determine areas of potential future conflict. He identified
agricultural land as the primary commodity that states were interesred in. Several states with
limited land area wanted to expand their territory-as they had done by expanding their colo-
nial empires. However, they also eyed one anorher's European farming areas.
The largest of these was the Eastern European steppe, a very productive area of grain culti-
vation mostly controlled by the Russian Empire at the time. This, combined with the min-
eral and timber-rich region across the Urals into Siberia, was identified by Mackinder as the
Heartland. It was this portion of the Earth's surface that states bordering Rimland, such as
the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Romania, might potentially invade.
The Rimland also contained other landwolves eager to grab at neighboring territory, such as
France and Italy. Likewise, there were seawolves, such as Great Britain and Japan, who would
use their navies ro leverage geopolitical power.
Predictive Power of the Model
In effect, Mackinder accurately predicted the battle lines of the Eastern Front during 'W'orld
'War I. In 1921, he revised the model, expanding the Heartland further into Central Europe. In
essence, Mackinder stated that the same geopolitical situation remained, with land still being
the primary commodity of confict: the thing that countries were willing to fight over.
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From 1904 onward, Mackinder points out that the areas of future confict are the borderlines
between the Heartland and Rimland. This prediction comes true again with the 1931 inva-
sion of Manchuria by the Japanese, which some Asian scholars identifr as the acrual start of
'W'orld'War II. The European border confict areas in the model are also realized with the 1939
German invasion of Poland, a country within the redrawn Heartland.
Shatterbelt Theory
ImcrCsccnt
a
a
Outer Crcscent
I coH wa-En shaacrbels
Conficrc Are Likeh to Occur in the rnnsl Q1es6sn1
The Cold War: Shatterbelts and Containment Theory
Mackinder died in lgfi,buthis legacy lived on in Cold'War-era geopolitical models and theory.
In 1950, American geographer Saul Cohen proposed the Shatterbelt theory. He modified
Mackinder's Heartland into the Pivot Area and Rimland into the Inner Crescent. The rest of
the world became the Outer Crescent, including the United States. His land-based concept was
that Cold'War conflicts would likely occur within the Inner Crescent. He pointed out several
Inner Crescenr areas of geopolitical weakness that he called Shatrcrbelts. Like Mackinder's earlier
predictions, Cohenb Shatterbelts accurately identified numerous areas where wars emerged
between 1950 and the end of the Cold \Var in 1991.
Gontainment Theory
Some of these confict areas were ones that the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of
China would attempr to capmre to create bufier states, lands that would Protect them by
creating a surrounding buffer of sympathetic countries. Infuenced by Mackinder and Nicholas
Spykmant theoretical work, U.S. diplomat George Kennan first proposed the strategic policy of
containment to the Arnerican government in l947.In this proposal, the United States and its
allies would atrempt to build a containment wall around the core communist states. Anytime the
USSR or China attempted to expand the realm of infuence politically or militarily, the forces of
NATO and other democratic state allies should be deployed to stop them.
This was a successful strategy at first, and communist movements were thwarted in Greece, Iran,
and Malaysia. At the same time, W'est Germany, Italy, and Japan were rebuilt as industrialized
free-market democracies as part of the containment wall, under the Marshall and MacArthur
Plans. However, communists reached a military stalemate in Korea in 1953, and won military
victories against the French (1958) and Americans (1975) in Vietnam. These combined with
quick communist takeovers of Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1969), as well as Angola (1975),
Cuba (1959), and Nicaragua (1979) were evidence of containmenr theoryt limitations put into
practice, as communism spread even to parts of the Outer Crescent.
The United States and allied states had to contain these Soviet-supported satellite states to
prevent Communism from spreading further. They feared a domino efiect, where one stare
would fall to Communism and then inspire and support communist uprisings in neighboring
states.
Gontainment's long-Term Success
Despite the failings of the containmenr approach, Communism was limited to
a large degree to the Pivot Area and a number of buffer states. The containment
effort had a devastating effect on rhe economy of the Soviet Union and its
allies. At certain points during the Cold 'War, it is estimated that upwards of 50
Percent of the USSRT gross national product was focused on military production and
other activities to support the expansion of Communism. This stressed the Soviet
economy to the breaking point and created further shortages of food and consumer
goods for its citizens, which in turn created further problems within Soviet society
and the communist Bovernment.
By the 1980s cracks began to appear in the social fabric of the USSR. Numerous
dissidents publicly criticized the governmentt expansion efforts and costly nuclear
arms arsenal. Similarly, the mothers of the Red Army soldiers killed in the War in
Afghanistan (1979-1989) publicly protested in the streets of Moscow, despite the
potential of arrest and deportation to Siberia. They learned that not even the most coldhearted
communist leaders could jail the mother of a soldier killed in action. Continuing the contain-
ment tradition, monies spent by the United States in the 1980s to arm Afghan Mujahideen
rebels with arms, including Stinger shoulderJaunched anti-aircraft missiles, paid offin the end
with Soviet ffoops returning in defeat. This was a centrifugal force that reverberated through-
out the USSR, and its government fell rwo years later in 1991.
Terrorism
\7hich is harder to do, define "terrorism" or prevent it? Both are proving to be very challenging.
The use ef 1s1ss1l5rn-planned violent attacks on people and places to provoke fear and cause
a change in government policy-is as old as dme. State terrorism occurs when governments
use violence and intimidation to control their own people. Roman armies attacked Carthage in
146 s.c.n. and totally destroyed the ciry and its inhabitants. They even threw salt on the fields
so no food could be grown. Nazi Germany, the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Pol Pot's regime in
Cambodia are all sad examples of state terrorism during the 20th cenrury.