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APHG Final Review

Vocab

  • State: A politically organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

  • Colonialism: The practice of acquiring and maintaining colonies, where one nation exerts control over dependent territories and their peoples.

  • Imperialism: The policy or ideology of extending a nation's rule over foreign countries and creating an empire.

  • Core countries: The most developed and economically powerful regions, often characterized by advanced technologies, strong infrastructure, and wealth.

  • Periphery countries: Regions that are less developed, typically characterized by a reliance on primary sector activities (activities involving extracting natural resources from the earth, like fishing, mining, farming) and lack of technological advancement.

  • Semiperiphery countries: Regions that fall between the core and periphery, often exhibiting some level of industrialization and economic development, but not to the extent of core regions.

  • Neocolonialism: A form of indirect control or influence over countries, especially former colonies, mainly through economic and cultural pressures rather than direct political control.

  • Centripetal forces: Forces that unite a state or country, creating a stable political environment and cohesion.

  • Centrifugal forces: Forces that divide or destabilize a state, leading to fragmentation, conflict, or separation.

  • Unitary government: A system of government where a single central authority holds significant power, with little or no decentralization.

  • Federal system: A system of government where power is divided between a central authority and smaller political units, such as states or provinces.

  • Geometric boundary: A boundary defined by straight lines, often following lines of latitude and longitude.

  • Physical-political boundary: A boundary defined by a physical geographic feature, such as a river, mountain, or ocean.

  • Relic boundary: A boundary that no longer functions but still holds historical significance.

  • Subsequent boundary: A boundary created and adjusted after the cultural landscape has developed, often as a result of the negotiation of cultural and ethnic differences.

  • Antecedent boundary: A boundary that was established before the present cultural landscape developed, often relating to physical features.

  • Superimposed boundary: A boundary imposed on a territory without regard to existing cultural or ethnic divisions, often a result of colonialism.

  • Consequent boundary: A boundary that coincides with a cultural or ethnic division, reflecting the differences among groups.

  • Geopolitics: The study of the effects of geography on international politics and relations.

  • Supranational organization: An organization or alliance formed between multiple countries to achieve collective goals beyond the scope of individual nations, such as the European Union.

  • Deterritorialization: The process of removing or diminishing the significance of territorial boundaries or limits, often seen in globalization.

  • UNCLOS: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an international treaty defining the rights and responsibilities of nations regarding the use of the world's oceans.

  • Shatterbelt: A region caught between stronger, competing external cultural-political forces, often characterized by conflict and instability.

  • Choke point: A strategic location where transportation or trade is narrowed, creating a potential for controlling movement.

  • Ethnic separatism: The advocacy for the separation of a specific ethnic group from a larger political entity to achieve autonomy or independence.

  • Irredentism: A political or popular movement advocating for the restoration of a place or territory that was formerly part of a larger nation.

  • Ethnonationalism: A form of nationalism where a specific ethnic group seeks to assert its rights and identity, often leading to demands for greater autonomy or independence.

  • Decolonization: The process of undoing colonial influences and gaining sovereignty over a territory previously controlled by a colonizing power.

Key Concepts

Characteristics of a State and the Diffusion of the Modern State System

  • Characteristics of a State: A state possesses a defined territory, a permanent population, a sovereign government, and it has to be acknowledged by other states. It exerts sovereignty over its area, controls its laws, and has the ability to enter into agreements with other states.

  • Diffusion of the Modern State System: The modern state sytem gradually spread throughout the world, particularly through colonialism and imperialism, because Europeans would colonize lands and take this system with them

Comparison of Nation States, Multinational States, Multistate Nations, and Stateless Nations

  • Nation State: A state whose territory corresponds to a specific ethnic group; characterized by a shared culture, language, and identity.

  • Multinational State: A state that contains multiple nations or ethnic groups within its borders, often leading to complex governance and cultural dynamics (ex. Canada).

  • Multistate Nation: An ethnic group that exists across multiple states, maintaining its cultural identity but being divided politically (e.g., the Kurds).

  • Stateless Nation: An ethnic group that does not associate with any state (e.g., the Palestinians).

Effects of Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces on States

  • Centripetal Forces: Elements that unify a state, promoting stability and cohesion (e.g., national identity, shared beliefs, and economic integration).

  • Centrifugal Forces: Factors that divide or destabilize a state, potentially causing conflict (e.g., ethnic tensions, regional disparities, and separatism).

Types of States, Political Entities, and Autonomous Zones

  • Unitary States: Centralized governance where the central authority holds most power; regions have limited autonomy.

  • Federal States: Power is shared between the central government and regional authorities, allowing for greater decentralization (e.g., the USA).

  • Autonomous Zones: Regions within a state granted varying degrees of self-governance; these may have particular legislative or administrative powers (e.g., Hong Kong).

Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory

  • Core Countries: Economically developed, industrialized nations that dominate global trade and finance (e.g., the USA, Germany).

  • Periphery Countries: Less developed, often reliant on agriculture and raw material exports; they experience exploitation by core nations (e.g., much of Sub-Saharan Africa).

    • They rely on primary sector activities (activities that extract things from the earth) and support core countries

  • Semiperiphery Countries: These nations exhibit characteristics of both core and peripheral countries and may be in transition (e.g., Brazil, India).

    • These countries have are more economically developed than periphery countries but they aren’t yet as developed as core countries

Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces at Different Scales

  • Global Scale: Globalization acts as a centripetal force, promoting interconnectedness; however, nationalistic movements can act as centrifugal forces, creating disparities and tensions.

  • National Scale: National identity serves as a centripetal force; however, ethnic divides or economic disparities can act as centrifugal forces.

  • Local Scale: Community initiatives might unify local populations; however, local grievances can lead to fragmentation.

Comparison of Federal and Unitary States

  • Federal States: Authority is divided between levels of government (federal and regional), providing autonomy to smaller regions; allows for greater representation of diverse regional interests.

    • Pros: Less conflict between regions where they might differ on civil and political issues. Decisions made reflect what a regional unit needs and it doesn’t apply to the rest of the country and this also allows for more diversity of opinions

    • Cons: If the federal government focuses more on local issues then some people believe they are preventing issues that affect the whole country to progress. There can be conflict between regional and local governments. Aid and the cost and benefits of federal policy aren’t evenly distributed among local and regional governments. Change is slow and not efficient

  • Unitary States: A single central government holds significant power, with little to no autonomous governance for regions; often leads to more uniform policies but lacks local representation.

    • Pros: Less government agencies, tend to be less corrupt at a local level, and super efficient (laws are implemented very quickly, evenly, and fairly. Efficient, change comes quickly

    • Cons: The government is more detached from local areas and they lose touch with issues that concern people living there and sometimes they fail to equally distribute goods and services to peripheral areas or even having difficultly providing services to localities at all. Some political minorities can feel that the primary government is being corrupt

Effects of Supranational Organizations on State Relations

  • Supranational Organizations: Form alliances to address collective issues (e.g., EU and UN); they can lead to enhanced cooperation among states in trade, defense, and environmental policies, but may also limit individual state sovereignty.

Types of Borders

  • Geometric Borders: Defined by straight lines, often based on latitude or longitude.

  • Physical-Political Borders: Established along geological features (e.g., rivers or mountains).

  • Relic Borders: Historical boundary lines that may not function today but still hold historical significance.

  • Subsequent: a border drawn in an area that has been settled and where cultural landscapes exist or are in the process of being established

    • These borders often reflect the communities that have settled

  • Antecedent: a border established before an area becomes heavily settled

  • Superimposed: a border drawn over existing accepted borders by an outside or conquering force

  • Consequent: a type of subsequent boundary that takes into account the differences that exist within a cultural landscape, separating groups that have distinct languages, religions, ethnicity, or other traits

    • Think of it like consequently or because of something

Issues with Coinciding Ethnic and State Boundaries

  • When ethnic and state boundaries do not align, it can lead to ethnic tensions and conflicts over governance, autonomy, and resources; it often results in struggles for independence or civil unrest (e.g., in former Yugoslavia).

Devolutionary Pressures in Europe

  • Various regions in Europe (e.g., Scotland, Catalonia) press for greater autonomy or independence due to cultural identity, economic self-interest, or historical grievances against centralized governance.

Gerrymandering Process

  • Gerrymandering involves manipulating electoral district boundaries to favor a particular political party or group, which can significantly affect electoral outcomes and representation.

  • Methods of Gerrymandering:

    • Packing: when one party packs votes of the opposite party into one district

    • Cracking: when one party divides the opposite party’s voters into different districts

  • Types of gerrymandering:

    • Reapportionment: Process of allocating legislative seats among voting districts so that each legislator represents approximately the same amount of people (population)

    • Redistricting: Redrawing the boundaries of voting districts

Causes and Effects of the Cold War

  • Causes: the Soviet Union wanted to expand their land, while the US was trying to limit the amount of land they could gain

  • Effects: new countries were made and ADD MORE HERE

Cooperation Among States

  • States may cooperate for various reasons, including economic benefits, security alliances, environmental issues, and response to global challenges (e.g., climate change, terrorism).

    • Supranational Organizations

Economic Power Relationships in Core-Periphery Model

  • Core countries primarily control global wealth and production, while periphery nations often provide raw materials; this relationship can lead to dependency and exploitation, with semi-periphery countries being in transitional economic status.

What are devolutionary factors?

1. Division of groups by physical geography – islands, mountains, large territory

2. Ethnic separatism – desire of one nation in a multination state to break away from the state or gain more autonomy

3. Ethnic cleansing – the deliberate removal or killing of a particular ethnic group

4. Terrorism – the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims

5. Irredentism - a movement to reunite a nation’s homeland when part of it is contained in another state. The piece of homeland that is ruled by another state is known as an irredenta.

6. Economic problems