APHGEO Unit 4

• Political Geography - A branch of human geography concerned with the spatial analysis of political systems

• Political Map - A map that shows the spatial organization of the countries and territories on the entire globe at a given point in time

• State/country - An independent political unit with a centralized authority that makes a claim to sole legal, political, and economic jurisdiction over a region with defined boundaries

• Independent State - A state that rules itself and is not subject to the authority of another state

• Sovereign state - A state that possesses the sole authority over the land and people within its boundaries

Ex: Mexico, Czechia, Zambia, Laos, and New Zealand

• Nation - A community of people bound to a homeland and possessing a common identity based on shared cultural traits such as language, ethnicity, and religion

• Nation-state - The ideal political geographical unit; one in which the nation’s geographic boundaries (a people and its culture) exactly match the state’s territorial boundaries (governance and authority)

• Nation-state Ideal - The idea that political authorities govern in the name of all a country’s citizens, modern mass communications link all residents, and state-based citizenship rights reinforce the idea of a national identity

• Nationalism - Sense of belonging to and self-identifying with a national culture; people with a strong sense of nationalism derive a significant part of their social identity from a sense of belonging to a nation

• Stateless-Nation - An ethnic group or nation that does not possess its own state and is not the majority population in any nation-state

Ex; The Kurds

• Multinational States - A country containing multiple national, ethnic, and religious groups within its boundaries

• Multi State Nations - Ethnic groups territorially divided by one or more international boundaries

• Autonomous Region - A subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has a degree of self-government, or autonomy, in its decision making

  • EX: hong kong

• Semi Autonomous Region - A subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has some degree of, but not complete, self-government

  • Ex greenland

    Self Determination - A nation’s ability to determine its own statehood and form its own allegiances and government; the freedom of culturally distinct groups to govern themselves in their own territories and form their own states

  • Core Area - A small territorial nucleus from which a country grows in area and over time

  • Escarpments - Abrupt slopes that break up the general continuity of the terrain

  • Effective sovereignty - The idea that a state’s power to enforce its sovereignty may extend beyond its territory and varies over time and from country to country

  • Devolution - The movement of power from the central government to regional governments within the state

  • Ethnonationalism - A form of nationalism in which the nation is defined in terms of ethnic identity

    Neocolonialism - The set of economic and political strategies by which wealthy and powerful countries indirectly maintain or extend their influence over less wealthy areas

  • Peripheral States - States that have relatively little industrial development, simple production systems focused mostly on agriculture and raw materials, and low levels of consumption of manufactured goods

  • Core States - States that have the most advanced industrial and military technologies, complex manufacturing systems, external political power, and the highest levels of wealth and mass consumption

  • Shatterbelts - Region of continuing and persistent fragmentation due to devolution and centrifugal forces

  • Choke Point - A narrow passage that restricts traffic to another region

  • Straits - A narrow body of water connecting two larger bodies of water

  • Boundary - A clearly demarcated line that marks both the limits of a territory and divisions between territories; often called a border at the global scale

    Median Line principle - An approach to dividing and creating boundaries at the midpoint between two places

  • Borderland - A region straddling both sides of an international boundary where national cultures overlap and blend to varying degrees

  • Frontier - A region at the margins of state control and settlement

  • Enclave - A territory surrounded by a country but not ruled by it

  • Exclave - Part of a national territory separated from the main body of the country to which it belongs

    Delimited - Describing how boundaries are fixed or defined to identify their limits

  • Demarcated - Describing how boundaries are set apart to distinguish their limits

  • Relic Boundary - A boundary that no longer functions as an international border

  • Superimposed Boundary - A boundary that is placed on an area without regard to existing boundaries

  • Subsequent boundary - A political boundary that developed with the cultural landscape

  • Antecedent Boundary - A boundary that was identified before an area was settled

  • Geometric boundary - A boundary that has regular, often perfectly straight, lines drawn without regard for an area’s physical or cultural features

  • Consequent Boundary - A boundary that is drawn to accommodate existing cultural differences

  • Demilitarized Zone - An area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers, or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel; usually lies along an established frontier or boundary between two or more military powers or alliances

  • Buffer States - A politically and economically weak independent country that lies between the borders of two powers

  • Satellite State - A nominally independent country that is politically, militarily, and economically controlled by a more powerful state

  • United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) - Conference organized to define territorial boundaries and rights to the sea

  • Exclusive Economic Zone - Zone that extends 200 nautical miles from shoreline in which coastal states have the sole right to exploit, develop, manage, and conserve all water resources lying beyond the land

  • Arctic Circle - Area defined by the 66 degrees, 34 minutes north latitude line

    Electoral Geography - A subfield of political geography that analyzes the geography of political preferences and how geography can shape voting outcomes

  • Voting Districts - A territorial division for casting votes in public elections; generally, only those who live in the voting district are permitted to cast their votes there

  • Electoral College - A body of 538 electors in the United States; a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president; a state’s number of electors equals the number of members in its congressional delegation (one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for its senators)

  • Reapportionment - The process by which the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are divided proportionately by population among the 50 states following every U.S. census

  • Redistricting - The process of drawing new boundaries for U.S. congressional districts to reflect the population changes since the previous U.S. census

  • Gerrymandering - The manipulation of voting district boundaries to favor a particular political party, group, or election outcome

  • Packing - Gerrymandering a voting district by concentrating all of the opposition party into one district, thereby creating a large majority of that party in the district while ensuring that it cannot win any election

  • Cracking - Gerrymandering a voting district by dividing opposition votes into many districts, thus diluting the opposition’s vote to ensure it does not form a majority in any district

    Subnational Units - The smaller areas into which a larger state is divided (e.g., states in the United States, provinces in Canada)

  • Unitary State - An independent state that concentrates power in the central government and grants little or no authority to its subnational units

  • Federal State - An independent country that disperses significant authority among subnational units

    Irredentism - The political claim to territory in another country based on ethnic affiliations and historic borders

  • Terrorism - the calculated use of violent acts against civilians and symbolic targets to publicize a cause, intimidate or coerce a civilian population, or affect the conduct of the government

  • International Terrorism - Terrorism that transcends national boundaries and is intended to intimidate people in other countries

  • Domestic Terrorism - Acts by individuals or groups against the citizens or government of their own country

  • State Terrorism - Terrorism committed by government agents whose leaders have ordered them to murder, imprison, or force into exile perceived enemies of the state

  • Subnational Terrorism - Terrorism committed by nongovernment groups that feel wronged by their government

  • ETA - Basque separatist organization in Spain that used terrorism in its campaign for an independent Basque state

  • Democratization - Occurs when a sovereign state moves from a non-democracy to a democracy

  • Supranationalism - Occurs when a collection of nation-states and their citizens relinquish some sovereign rights to a larger-scale body that exercises authority over its member states

  • Supranational Organizations - International political body that nation-states establish in cooperation with their neighbors for mutual political, military, economic, or cultural gain

  • United Nations - International organization that is responsible for maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation, and harmonizing the actions of nations

  • European Union - A political, economic, and social union of 28 independent European countries that promotes the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital among its members

  • African Union - A continental organization of African states that seeks to drive Africa’s growth and economic development through cooperation and integration of member states

  • Arctic Council - An international governmental forum that promotes interaction among the Arctic states and indigenous communities on common Arctic issues, particularly sustainable development and environmental protection

  • Regional Trading Bloc - A multi-country agreement that reduces or eliminates taxes to promote the free flow of goods and services across international borders

  • Economies of Scale - Cost advantages that can come with a larger scale of operations

  • North American Free Trade Agreement - A 1994 trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico; revised as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020

  • Association of SouthEast Asian Nations - A regional intergovernmental organization comprising 10 countries in Southeast Asia to promote intergovernmental cooperation and facilitate economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region

  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization - An intergovernmental military alliance among 29 North American and European countries with the purpose of guaranteeing the freedom and security of its members

    Failed states - a state where the economic or political system has become so weak its government has no power

    Example of failed state - libya, syria, iraq, pakistan, afghanistan, yemen, drc, colombia, and vietnam

    Uneven Development - Core states have high technological and economic development, while peripheral states have little technological development and simple economic development based on raw materials

    Example of stateless nation - Kurdistan

    Ethnic nationalist movements - when a majority ethnic group controls the state, minority ethnic groups can be economically, politically, and culturally marginalized, producing strong centrifugal forces.

  • Allegiance - loyalty or commitment to a country

    Equitable infrastructure - the construction and improvement of foundational services such as access to energy resources throughout the country.

  • Cultural cohesion - occurs when the members of a society are culturally united

  • Iconography - A set of traditional symbols or symbolic forms associated with a country and its citizens