Untitled Flashcards Set

Unit 4: Chapter 9: The Cultural Landscape

State: is an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over it's internal and foreign affairs.

• Occupies defined territory

• Permanent population

• Recognized by international community

• Has sovereignty: independence from control of it's internal affairs by other states

Nation: is a group of people with similar characteristics that may or may not occupy it's own state. 

Sovereign states with very small land areas 

Examples:

• Vatican City 0.17 square mile

• Monaco 0.78 square mile

• San Marino 24 square miles

• Liechtenstein 62 square miles

• Malta 316 square miles

• Andorra 181 square miles

For comparison, Zachary is 23.7 square miles. BR is 79.07 square miles

Taiwan 

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

• Chinas government considered Taiwan part of China

• Taiwan is not recognized by the UN

Western Sahara

• Most African countries consider Western Sahara a sovereign state

• Morocco claims the territory

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

Korea

• One nation (culture) divided into two countries 

Challenges in Defining States

• Polar regions: Many Claims

• Several states claim portions of Antarctica

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

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

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

• Overlapping claims are dictated by the UN’s “Law of the Sea”

National Claims of Antartica

Antarctica is the only large landmass in the world that is not part of a sovereign state. 

It comprises 5.4 million square miles, which makes it 50% larger than Canada. 

Portions are claimed by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom; claims by Argentina, Chile, and the United Kingdom are conflicting.

National Claims of the Artic

Under the Law of the Sea Treaty of 1982, countries had until 2009 to submit claims to territory inside the Arctic Circle. Some of these claims overlap.

Development of the State Concept

Evolution of States:

1. City-states

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

2.  Medieval States

Military dominance of  

Roman Empire’s collapse  

3. Nation States

A nation state is a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity

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

• By the early 1900s most of Western Europe was made of nation-states

•  A state that contains more than one ethnicity is a multiethnic state Ex. US

• A multinational state is a state that contains more than one ethnicity with traditions of self-determination. Ex. Russia, Canada, China

• A stateless nation is a group of people without a state, Ex. Kurds, Chechens, Sikhs

• An autonomous region has limited self-rule within a larger state. Ex. Scotland in the UK or Hong Kong in China.

Where are States Distributed?

• A state is an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs. 

• Occupies defined territory 

• Permanent population 

• Recognized by the international community  

• Has sovereignty - independence from control of its internal affairs by other states

      — O —

• A Nation is a group of please with similar characteristics that may or may not occupy its own state 

• Some sovereign states with very small land areas

• Examples 

• Vatican City 0.17 square mile

• Monaco 0.78 square mile

• San marino 24 square miles 

• Liechtenstein 62 square miles 

• Malta 316 square miles 

• Andorra 181 square miles

      — O —

• Taiwan 

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

• China's government considers Taiwan part of China.

• Taiwan is not recognized by the UN 

      — O —

• Western Sahara (Sahrawi Republic) 

• Most African countries consider Western Sahara a sovereign state.

• Morocco claims the territory.

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

      — O —

• Korea 

• One nation (culture) divided into two countries

      — O —

Challenges in Defining States

• POLAR REGIONS many claims 

• Several states claim portions of Antarctica 

• Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, new zealand, Norway and the UK 

•  City states

• First concept of a state (athens, sparta) 

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

• Today singapore manavo and Vatican City 

      — O —

Nation States

• A Nation state is a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity.

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

• By the early 1900s, most of western Europe was made of nation states.

• After WWI, leaders of the victorious countries met to redraw the map of europe.

• Language was the most important criterion the allied leader used to create new European states and to adjust existing borders.

• A nation-state is a states whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity EX  JAPAN

• A state that contains more than one ethnicity is a multiethnic state EX UNITED STATES 

• A multiethnic state is a state that contains more than one ethnicity with traditions of self-determination EX RUSSIA CANADA AND CHINA 

• A stateless nation is a group of people without a state EX KURDS CHECHENS AND SIKHS 

• An autonomous region has limited self-rule within a larger state. EX Scotland in the UK or HONG KONG in china 

      — O —

• What are nation-states difficult to create?

• 15 republics became 15 independent states consisting of given groups

• Many country's names end in stan, “meaning the land of”

• The largest multinational state is RUSSIA 

• Russia 39 ethnicities are clustered in two principles locations 

1. Along borders with neighboring states 

2. Clustered in the center of Russia, especially between the Volga River basin and the Ural Mountains. 

      — O —

Colonialism

• A colony is a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent. 

• A sovereign state may run only its military and foreign policy.

• The sovereign state may also control its internal affairs 

• European states came to control much of the world through colonialism- an effort by one country to establish a settlement in a territory and to impose its political, economic and cultural principles on the territory. 

      — O —

Reasons for colonialism

1. God - to promote christianity 

2. Gold- to extract useful resources 

3. Glory- to establish power 

• Colonial era began in 1400s

• The sun never sets on the BRITISH empire 

• France had the 2nd largest overseas empire after the United Kingdom 

• Most African and Asian colonies became independent in the decades of WWII

      — O —

The remaining colonies 

• U.S. Department of State lists 68 places in the world that it calls dependencies and areas of special sovereignty

• 43 indigenous populations 

• 25 with no permanent population 

• Most current colonies are islands in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea 

•  Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the U.S. is home to 4 million residents who are U.S citizens who do not participate in the U.S elections or have a voting member of Congress.    

      — O —

U.S. colonies today

• United States formally still had five colonies

• These nations are often referred to as US “territories” (there are 16 official US territories in total, but only five are inhabited.)

• American Samoa 

• Guam 

• Puerto rico

• U.S. virgin islands 

• Northern Mariana Islands 

• Under the treaty a coastal state has:

1. Exclusive fishing rights and sovereignty over a territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles from its coast.

2. Limited jurisdiction over a territorial sea up to 24 nautical miles from its coast (right to enforce laws of immigration sanitation etc.)

3. An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles for natural resource exploration and exploitation.

• Beyond the EEZ of coastal states the seas are open for free use by all states 

• EEZ’s overlap in many areas and cause conflict and tension.Unit 4: Chapter 10: Boundaries

  Why do Boundaries cause problems?

  
  

  A state is separated from its neighbors by a boundary. 

  • An invisible line that marks the extent if a state’s territory

  • An infinitely thin line

  
  

  Historically frontiers separated states 

  • A frontier is a zone where no state exercises complete political control 

  • A tangible geographic area 

  • Uninhabited or sparsely populated 

  • Frontiers have been replaced by boundaries 

  
  
  

        — O —

  
  
  
  

  Physical Boundaries

  1. Desert Boundary

  • Hard to cross and sparsely populated(can be diagonal)

  2. Mountain Boundary

  • Effectively divides two states, if the mountains are difficult to cross

  • Useful Boundaries because of their permanent quality and tendency to be sparsely populated

  3. Water boundary

  • Less permanent overall than mountain boundaries because of tendencies of water levels to change in bodies of water and rivers.

  
  

  Cultural Boundaries

  1. Geometric Boundaries

  • Straight lines drawn on a map

  2. Ethnic Boundaries

  • Boundary coincides with differences in ethnicity especially language and religion

  • Language differences influenced the demarcation of boundaries in england france portugal, and spain before the 19th century in europe

  • British India was partition into predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan and Bangladesh

  • Ireland is predominantly  Catholic and Northern Ireland is mostly Protestant.

  
  

  Types of Cultural Boundaries

  
  

  1. Antecedent - Created before an area is populated (U.S. and Canada)

  2. Subsequent - follows cultural landscape (Sudan and South Sudan)

  3. Superimposed - Drawn by outsides without regard for local ethnic groups (African countries; North and South Korea)

  4. Relict - No longer exists, but can still see effects of it (North and South Vietnam; Berlin wall, Great wall of China)

  
  
  
  

  Types of Boundaries Separating Countries

  
  

  • Left- the demilitarized zone between North Korea and south Korea is heavily defended by both sides

  • Bottom left- the ues Canadian border is the longest undefended border in the world 

  • Bottom right- the Rio Grande forms the border between Mexico and the United States which is porous enough to allow millions of illegal immigrants 

  
  

  Types of  Boundary Disputes

  
  

  1. Positional (definitional) - states argue about where the border actually is (Argentina and Chile -- Andes Mountains)

  2. Territorial (locational) - states argue our the ownership of a region, usually around mutual borders

  3. Resource (allocational) - involves natural resources that lie in border areas (Iraq and Kuwait; Saudi; Arabia and Yemen) 

  4. Functional (operational) - neighboring states cannot apply policies that apply to a border area (U.S. And Mexico)

  
  

  Centrifugal forces - destabilize the government and encourage the country to fall apart

  1. Political forces - majority/minority, relationships, armed conflicts

  2. Economic forces - uneven development

  3. Cultural forces - stateless nations, ethnic movements, conflicting religious or language groups

  
  

  One reaction to centrifugal forces is..

   Devolution - the transfer of power from national government to state or local governments

  • This isn’t necessarily a bad thing

  • Britain has devolved power to Scotland and Wales in an effort to keep peace with them

  • The natives in northern Canada formed the territory of Nunavut

  
  

  Forces that may lead to devolution of states include:

  1. Ethnic separatism - ethnic group feeling like it doesn’t fit with the rest of the state

  2. Terrorism - extremists groups taking control of a region

  3. Economic and Social problems

  4. Irredentism - the belief that a territory belonging to another country should be annexed for ethnic or historic reasons (example- Hitler trying to unite all Germans)

  
  

  Devolution can go as far as..

  Balkanization - the breakup of a country into smaller countries (South Sudan, Yugoslavia, the Caucasus countries)

  
  

  This shows the tendency for mountain ranges to form “shatter belts” - zones containing many small cultural groups who find refuge in the rugged terrain of mountains.

  
  

  https://istem.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=72197fdaceca4f38ac16d71737b7d516#

  
  

  Choke point - narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass

  
  

  • Sources of power, influence, and wealth for the country that controls it

  • Straits, canals, gulfs, mountains, etc

  • Strait of Malacca, Suez Canal, Strait of Hormuz

  
  

  Centripetal forces:  bind together people of a state and give it strength

  1. Political forces - national identity, federal holidays, patriotism

  2. Economic forces - infrastructure development development

  3. Cultural forces - linguistic, religious, ethnic, similarities, sports

  
  

  Shapes of States

  • Controls the length of its boundaries with otehr states

    • Affects the potential for communication an conflict with neighbors

  - Shape is part of a country’s unique identity

  - Shape also influences the ease or difficulty of internal administration and can affect social unity

  
  

  Countries have one of five basic shapes:

  
  

  1. Compact States

     1. Distance from center of state to any boundary does not vary significantly

        1. City statesExample: Portland

        2. Ideal theoretical example would be circle-shaped with the capital in the center

  
  

  2. Elongated State

  • Long and Narrow

  • May suffer from poor internal communication

  • example: Chile

  • 2,500 miles long north and south

  • Rarely exceeds 90 miles wide east and west

  3. Prorupted States

  • Otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension

  • Proruptions created for two principal reasons

  2. Provide a state access to a resource such as water

  Separate two states that other would share a boundary

  
  

  4. Perforated States

     1. A state that completely surrounds another one.

     2. Encompassed state is dependent on the surrounding state for interactions beyond its boundary.

  
  

  5. Fragmented States

  - A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory

  1. Two kinds of fragmented states

     1. Fragmented states separated by water

     2. Fragmented states separated by an intervening state.

  
  

  Exclave:  an outlier of a state that is physically detached from the state

  Ex: Alaska, Kaliningrad (Russia)

  Islands are NOT exclaves!

  Enclave:  lies within a country and is independent or ruled by another country.

  Ex: Vatican City and San Marino in Italy, Lesotho in South Africa

  
  

  Landlocked states have a serious disadvantage in trade and access to resources.

  
  

  • Africa has more landlocked states than any other country

  • Asia - Mongolia & Nepal ae landlocked with rough terrain, great distances, and limited communication, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia & Georgia

  • South America Bolivia and Paraguay

  • Europe - austria, Switzerland, Czech republic, Slovakia, Moldova, Belarus, and Bosniajnjnn

  
  
  
  

  Why do boundaries cause problems?

  Types of national governments:

  1. A democracy is a country in which citizens elect leaders and can run for office.

  2. An autocracy is a country that is run according to the interests of the ruler rather than the people.

  3. An anocracy is a country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic, but rather a mix of the two

  
  
  

  Anocracy is a term used to describe a regime type that is characterized by inherent qualities of political instablity and ineffectiveness, as well as an “incoherent mix of democratic and autocratic 

  
  

  These regime types are particularly susceptible to outbreaks of armed conflict and unexpected over adverse changes.

  
  

  6

  Unitary states- place most power in the hands of the federal government

  • Work best in states with few internal cultural divisions and a strong sense of national unity 

  • Requires strong communication 

  • Smaller states are more likely to be unitary 

  • Some multinational states have become unitary in order to impose values of one nationality on others 

  Examples- France, Kenya, Rwanda, china, and many European countries. 

  
  

  Federal state allocate strong political power to units of local government within the country 

  • Empowers many nationalities in a multinational state especially if they live in separate regions 

  • More suitable for large countries because the national capital may be too far away to be effective. 

  Examples- united states, canada, russia, brazil, india, tiny Belgium( to main cultural groups) 

  
  
  

  Electoral geography 

  • Boundaries separating legislative districts within the U.S. and other countries are redrawn periodically to ensure each has about the same population 

  • 435 districts of the U.S. House of Representatives are redrawn every 10 years following the Census Bureau’s release of the official population figures. 

  • The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefitting the pary in power is called gerrymandering.