AP Human Geography: Unit 4 Chapter 9 - Notes (The Contemporary Political Map)

Organizing Space: Key Political Entities

Understanding the core political entities is essential. Remember the distinction: a State is a political/legal entity (land + government), while a Nation is a cultural entity (people + shared culture).

Sovereignty, Recognition, and Self-Rule 📜

Sovereignty is the ultimate authority a government has to control its territory and determine what happens within its borders, free from external influence.

• Recognition: A state must be recognized by other states to be fully sovereign. Kosovo and Palestine are examples of territories with partial recognition, preventing them from gaining full sovereign status on the global stage.

• Self-determination: The right of all people to choose their own political status. This often drives independence movements.

Autonomous & Semi-Autonomous Regions 🏰

These are regions within a state granted a degree of self-governance (devolution).

Irredentism: A political movement where a state aims to acquire territories in neighboring states that are inhabited by people of the same nation.

• Example: Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine was justified by claiming the region has a significant ethnic Russian population.

💥 Chapter 9, Section 2: Political Power and Geography

Territoriality: Claiming Your Space 📍

Territoriality is the connection people have to a place and their drive to control it. It is the attempt by a group to control a geographic area.

• Expression: Through borders, fences, national flags, anthems, and citizenship requirements.

• Purpose: It is the fundamental basis for political power and sovereignty.

Controlling People, Land, and Resources

Neocolonialism 💰: The indirect use of economic, political, or cultural pressure to control or influence other countries, especially former colonies.

• Mechanism: More developed countries (MDCs) or multinational corporations exploit weaker countries for resources, cheap labor, or political influence, often through massive loans that create debt and political leverage.

• Example: China's heavy investment in African infrastructure often comes with large loans that place African nations in debt to China.

Choke Points 🚢: A narrow, strategic passageway (on land or water) that is difficult to pass through. Control over a choke point provides significant political and economic power.

• Significance: A high volume of global trade, especially for commodities like oil and food, passes through them. A blockage disrupts supply chains and raises prices globally.

• Key Examples: Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Malacca, Suez Canal, Panama Canal.

Shatterbelts 💔: A region caught between larger, conflicting external powers. These areas are politically unstable, and states within them often form, join, and break up due to ongoing conflicts and pressures.

• Classic Example: The Balkan Peninsula (caught between various empires/powers, leading to the breakup of Yugoslavia).

• Other Example: Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

⏳ Chapter 9, Section 3: Political Processes Over Time

Legacies of Colonialism and Imperialism 📜

• Imperialism: The push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other nations or peoples (the idea).

• Colonialism: The practice of settling and dominating overseas territories (the action).

The Berlin Conference (1884): European powers met to divide Africa, drawing arbitrary boundaries (superimposed boundaries) that ignored existing ethnic and cultural groups.

• Consequences: This is a major root cause of modern political instability, ethnic conflict, and civil war in Africa, such as the Rwandan genocide.

Decolonization and Independence Movements: Following WWII, colonies gained independence, often leading to new boundaries.

• Example: The Partition of India (1947) into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan along religious lines.

Devolution: The process where a central government transfers power to regional authorities within its borders.

• Example: The collapse of the Soviet Union is a case of devolution that led to the creation of 15 new independent states.

Case Study: The Kurds

• Stateless Nation: They are a distinct ethnic group with a strong national identity but lack their own sovereign state.

• Multi-state Nation: Their region (Kurdistan) spans across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

• Challenge: The four existing countries are unwilling to give up territory, and they lack unified leadership and external political support.

🚧 Chapter 9, Section 4: The Nature and Function of Boundaries

Boundaries define states and are the ultimate expression of territoriality.

The Four Steps of Boundary Creation

Mnemonic: DDDA ("Don't Dare Disrupt the Area!" or "Do Dogs Do Algebra?")

1. Define: The boundary is legally described in a treaty or document (e.g., coordinates, physical features).

2. Delimit: The boundary is drawn on a map according to the legal definition.

3. Demarcate: The boundary is marked on the ground with physical objects (walls, fences, pillars). Example: The DMZ between North and South Korea.

4. Administer: The boundary is managed (e.g., customs, immigration checkpoints, enforcing laws).

Types of Political Boundaries

Boundaries are classified based on when and how they were created relative to the cultural landscape.

Maritime Boundaries: The Law of the Sea 🌊

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) establishes the legal framework for maritime boundaries and resource access.

• Dispute Example: The South China Sea. China claims historical rights to about 90% of the sea, conflicting with the EEZ claims of neighboring countries (Vietnam, Philippines).

📝 Practice Questions

1. A newly independent state draws its boundary along the major river that separates its two dominant, distinct ethnic groups (Nation A and Nation B). This is the best example of a Subsequent Boundary and, more specifically, a ________________ boundary.

2. Explain how Neocolonialism is different from Colonialism, using China's actions in Africa as a modern example of the former.

3. The Kurds are correctly classified as both a ________________ and a ________________. What political concept drives their long-term goal?

🧠 Chapter 9 Comprehensive Glossary

• Administer: To manage the way borders are maintained and how goods and people cross them (customs, immigration).

• Antecedent Boundary: A border established before an area becomes heavily settled or the cultural landscape develops.

• Autonomous Region: An area within a state that is given a high degree of authority to govern its territories independently from the national government (e.g., Nunavut).

• Berlin Conference: A meeting in 1884 where European powers divided Africa into colonies, creating superimposed boundaries.

• Boundary: Invisible lines that mark the extent of a territory's political control.

• Choke Point: A narrow, strategic passageway to another place (on land or sea) that is difficult to pass, giving control over it political and economic power (e.g., Strait of Hormuz).

• Colonialism: The practice of acquiring and dominating overseas territories, often through settlement, to exert political, economic, and social control.

• Consequent Boundary: A type of subsequent boundary that is drawn to accommodate existing cultural differences (language, religion, ethnicity).

• Define (Boundary): The process of legally establishing the location of a boundary through a treaty or other legal document.

• Delimit (Boundary): The process of drawing a boundary on a map in accordance with a legal agreement.

• Demarcate (Boundary): The process of visibly marking a boundary on the landscape with physical objects like walls, fences, or pillars (e.g., DMZ).

• Demilitarized Zone (DMZ): An area, usually between two hostile countries, where military forces and equipment are prohibited by agreement.

• Devolution: The process where the central power in a state is broken up and transferred among regional authorities within its borders.

• Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ): A sea zone extending 200 nautical miles from a country's coast over which it has sole rights to natural resources.

• Geometric Boundary: A boundary created by using straight lines of latitude and longitude or other mathematical lines.

• Imperialism: The push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other nations or peoples (the idea of expansion).

• Independence Movement: A struggle by a people seeking self-determination to gain sovereignty from a dominant state.

• Irredentism: A policy of attempting to acquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation.

• Maritime Boundary: A boundary that exists in the sea to divide the jurisdictional waters of adjacent states.

• Multi-State Nation: A nation of people that lives in more than one state (e.g., The Kurds).

• Multinational State: A state that contains various ethnicities and cultures living within its borders (e.g., Canada).

• Nation: A cultural entity made up of people who have forged a common identity through shared language, religion, heritage, or ethnicity.

• Nation-State: A sovereign state whose people are united by homogenous factors and whose territory corresponds to that of the nation.

• Neocolonialism: The use of economic, political, or cultural pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies (indirect control).

• Political Geography: The study of the ways in which the world is organized as a reflection of the power that different groups hold over territory.

• Relic Boundary: A former boundary that no longer has an official function but whose impact is still visible on the cultural landscape (e.g., Berlin Wall).

• Self-Determination: The right of all people to choose their own political status and form of government.

• Semi-Autonomous Region: A region that is given partial authority to govern its territories independently from the national government (e.g., Hong Kong).

• Shatterbelt: A region caught between stronger, conflicting external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals (e.g., Balkans).

• Sovereignty: The right of a government to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders without external interference.

• State (Country): A politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population.

• Stateless Nation: A people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state of their own (e.g., The Palestinians).

• Subsequent Boundary: A boundary drawn in an area that has already been settled and where cultural landscapes exist.

• Superimposed Boundary: A boundary drawn over existing accepted borders by an outside or conquering force, ignoring the cultural landscape.

• Territorial Sea: A maritime zone extending up to 12 nautical miles from a coastal state's baseline, where the state has full sovereignty.

• Territoriality: The connection of people to the land, expressed as an attempt to control a geographic area and its contents.

• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS): The international agreement that established the legal structure of maritime boundaries.