Political Geography

To review from yesterday…

State: An independent, bounded, and internationally recognized territory with full sovereignty over the land and people within it Nation: Cultural unit- group that shares ancestry, regardless of whether the group owns its own country – A group becomes a nation when they start to see themselves as separate and different from foreigners Ethnicities and Nationalities

Nationality: Identity with a group of people who share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a particular country Nation-state: A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality – Denmark, Japan, Sweden, Portugal, Costa Rica – Most countries are NOT nation-states Nationalism: Loyalty and devotion to a nationality – It is a centripetal force!

Multiethnic State: A state that contains more than one ethnicity – United States- multiple ethnicities that claim the U.S. as their nation – their nationality is American Multinational States: A state that has two ethnic groups with traditional self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully – Former Soviet Union (doesn’t exist. Former.) – Russia – UK – Canada – South Africa Stateless nation: A nation without a state Ethnicities and Nationalities

– Irredentism- when a nation’s homeland spills into another state, so then the people on the “wrong side” want to join the other state Multi-state nation Ethnicities and Nationalities

Disagreements over Sovereignty Korea – Divided after WWII – The UN recognizes them as separate China and Taiwan – Taiwan run by nationalists – Taiwan says they’re sovereign, China disagrees The U.S. only agreed with Taiwan until 1971 Western Sahara – Morocco claims it – Most African nations recognize its sovereignty Polar regions – Different states “control” different portions

Basic types of government Unitary – Central government has most of the power – France, Saudi Arabia, Japan Federal – Regional governments share power with the central government – Often has a constitution – United States of America, Mexico, Canada, India

Colonialism and Imperialism City-state: a sovereign state that comprises a town and the surrounding countryside Colony: A territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent Colonialism: The effort of one country to establish colonies and to impose their political, economic and cultural principles on that territory Imperialism: Control of a territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous society

State Shapes Compact Elongated Prorupted Perforated Fragmented Landlocked States

Centripetal and Centrifugal Bind states, unify them and help them succeed Nationalism – Iconography is using symbols Unifying institutions – Schools – Military – religion Destabilizing, challenging, creates discord Organized religion Nationalism in a state with many nationalities – Subnationalism Devolution Ethnic cleansing

Supranationalism An association of three or more states created for the mutual benefit and to achieve shared objectives –  loss of national independence – someone has your back! – easier to achieve goals UN EU NATO NAFTA Arab League OPEC British Commonwealth

Some words… Enclave- a district surrounded by a country but not ruled by it – Lesotho Exclave- part of a national territory separated from the main body of the country – Alaska Ethnic Enclave: examples include Chinatown, Little Italy

Devolution Regions in the state demand more autonomy and receive it By doing this, the central government loses authority Basque and Catalonia in Spain Chechnya in Russia

Balkanization The break up of a large country into smaller, independent regions or countries First used when Yugoslavia broke into six countries during the late 80s- early 90s

Electoral Geography Redrawing legislative boundaries with the purpose of benefitting the party in power – Wasted vote- spreads out the opposition – Excess vote- concentrates opposition into a few districts – Stacked vote- Links distant areas of like- minded voters into oddly shaped boundaries Often used to elect ethnic minorities

Boundaries Boundary: vertical plane between states that cuts through the rocks below, and the airspace above (even outer space). Evolution (of boundaries): -Definition: legal document or treaty drawn up to specify actual points in the landscape -Delimitation: cartographers put the boundary on the map -Demarcation: boundary is actually marked on the ground w/ wall, fence, posts,… (too expensive or impractical for most borders to be demarcated) Types (of boundaries): -Geometric: straight-line, unrelated to physical or cultural landscape, lat & long (US/Canada) -Physical-political: (natural-political) – conform to physiologic features (Rio Grande: US/Mexico; Pyrenees: Spain/France) -Cultural-political: mark breaks in the human landscape (Armenia/Azerbaijan) Genesis: origin-based classification of boundaries -Antecedent: existed before the cultural landscape emerged (e.g., Malaysia/Indonesia) -Subsequent: developed contemporaneously with the evolution of the cultural landscape (e.g., US/Mexico) -Superimposed: placed by powerful outsiders on a developed landscape, usually ignores pre- existing cultural-spatial patterns (e.g., Indonesia/Papua New Guinea; Haiti/Dominican Republic) -Relict: has ceased to function, but its imprint can still be detected on the cultural landscape (e.g., North/South Vietnam, East/West Berlin) Disputes (over boundaries): -Definitional: focus on legal language (e.g. median line of a river: water levels may vary) -Locational: definition is not in dispute, the interpretation is; allows mapmakers to delimit boundaries in various ways -Operational: neighbors differ over the way the boundary should function (migration, smuggling) (e.g., US/Mexico) -Allocational: disputes over rights to natural resources (gas, oil, water) (e.g., Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, in part, due to a dispute over oil rights regarding the Ramallah oil field (mostly in Iraq but straddling into Kuwait)