Download Political Geography

Geographical Characteristics
of the State
The Cultural Mosaic
Fellman, and Notes from
D.J. Zeigler of Old Dominion
Vocab Review
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State
Sovereignty
Nation
Nation-State
Part-nation State
Binational State
Multinational State
Multistate Nation
Stateless Nation
Nationalism
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Functional Region
MDC
LDC
Postindustrial
Sectors of the Economy
– Primary
– Secondary
– Tertiary
New Vocab
• Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory: proposes
that social change in the developing world is
inextricably linked to the economic activities of the
developed world
– Core – Processes that incorporate higher levels of
education, higher salaries and more technology;
generate more wealth than periphery countries in the
world economy
– Semi-Periphery – Places where core & periphery
processes are both occurring; places that are exploited
by the core but in turn exploit the periphery
– Periphery – Processes that incorporate lower levels of
education, lower salaries, and less technology; and
generate less wealth than core countries in the world
economy
New Vocab
• Brandt Line
Core Periphery Model
Territoriality
• The modern state is an example of a common
human tendency: the need to belong to a larger
group that controls its own piece of the earth, its
own territory.
• AP Central: How earth’s surface should be
organized
• This is called territoriality: a cultural strategy
that uses power to control area and
communicate that control, subjugating
inhabitants and acquiring resources.
Shapes of States
• Compact States
– Efficient
– Theoretically round
– Capital in center
– Shortest possible boundaries to defend
– Improved communications
– Ex. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda,
Poland, Uruguay
Shapes of States
• Elongated States
– States that are long and narrow
– Suffer from poor internal communication
– Capital may be isolated
– Ex. Chile, Norway, Vietnam, Italy, Gambia
Shapes of States
• Fragmented States
– Several discontinuous pieces of territory
– Technically, all states w/off shore islands
– Two kinds: separated by water & separated
by an intervening state
– Exclave –
– Ex. Indonesia, USA, Russia, Philippines,
Azerbaijan, Angola
Shapes of States
• Prorupted States
– w./large projecting extension
– Sometimes natural
– Sometimes to gain a resource or advantage,
such as to reach water, create a buffer zone
– Ex. Thailand, Myanmar, Namibia,
Mozambique, Cameroon, Dem. Rep. of
Congo
Proruption Examples
• Dem. Rep. of Congo – when Belgians
colonized included Zaire River to Atlantic
Ocean
• Afghanistan – when British ruled, created
a 200 mi. proruption to prevent Russia
from sharing border with Pakistan
• Namibia – Germans carved a proruption
known as Caprivi Strip to gain access to
the Zambezi River
Shapes of States
• Perforated States
– A country that completely surrounds another
state
– Enclave – the surrounded territory
– Ex. Lesotho/South Africa, San Marino &
Vatican City/Italy
Enclaves and exclaves
• An enclave is an area surrounded by a
country but not ruled by it.
– It can be self-governing (Lesotho) or an
exclave of another country.
– Can be problematic for the surrounding
country.
– Pene-enclave—an intrusive piece of territory
with a tiny outlet such as Gambia.
Exclave
• An exclave is part national territory
separated from the main body of the
country to which it belongs.
• Example: Kaliningrad, separated from
Russia, Cabinda from Angola, Alaska from
US
• Very undesirable if a hostile power holds
the intervening territory.
– Defense and supplies are problematic.
– Inhabitants may develop separatist ideas.
– Example: Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Distribution of territory—
geographic characteristics of states
• The more compact the territory, the easier
it is to govern.
• Ideal shape is round or hexagonal.
• Types of shapes: compact, prorupt,
elongated, fragmented and perforated
(which contains an enclave).
• The most damaging territorial distributions
affect a country’s cohesiveness and
stability: enclaves and exclaves.
Landlocked States
• No access to major sea or ocean
• Must negotiate rights to move resources
through other countries – problems exist
when countries do not agree on
fundamental policies
Location
• Relative location: Some states are landlocked.
Boundaries
• Natural or Physical Boundaries
– Mountains
– Deserts
– Water – rivers, seas, lakes, oceans
Boundaries
• Physical / Natural Boundaries
• Geometric Boundaries
Boundaries
• Physical / Natural Boundaries
• Geometric Boundaries
• Cultural Boundaries
– Antecedent Boundaries
• Malaysia/Indonesia
• Canada/US
– Consequent Boundaries
• Religious Boundaries
– between Ireland & N. Ireland
• Language Boundaries
– Subsequent Boundaries
• Yugoslavia
– Superimposed Boundaries
• Indonesia/Papua New Guinea
Boundaries
• Physical / Natural Boundaries
– Median-Line Principle - approach to dividing and creating
boundaries at the mid-point between two places.
• Geometric Boundaries
• Cultural Boundaries
• Relict Boundaries –
– North & South Vietnam
Fortified Boundaries
• Great Wall of China
• Berlin Wall
• Morocco/Western Sahara – earth berms
Cultural Regions
• Boundary definition – determining the
boundary by a treaty-like agreement
through actual points, latitude/longitude, or
landscape
• Boundary delimitation – the boundary is
drawn on the map
• Boundary demarcation – the boundary is
established by steel posts, concrete
pillars, fences, etc. to mark the boundary
on the ground
Boundary Disputes
• 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)
Ethnicities
of Africa
Politics of Geography
Effect of place on politics
Example:
Political Borders
Iguazu Falls,
Argentina /
Paraguay
MexicoGuatemala
Border Region
Deforestation in Bolivia
• http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/content/e
ss05.sci.ess.earthsys.bolivia/
Spatial Organization of
Territory--
How states organize their territory for
administrative purposes.
Governments decide where power is
localized so there is a locus of power
within the state.
Power can be highly concentrated or widely
diffused.
The two basic ways governments are
administered are unitary and federal.
Unitary
Countries where the capital is associated
with the core, and all power is
concentrated in a single place, the capital.
Centralized governments, relatively few
internal contrasts and a strong sense of
national identity, little provincial power.
Examples: France, China and newly
independent states developed out of former
colonies.
Federal
 Power is shared between a central
government and the governments of
provinces.
 Acknowledges and gives some powers to its
constituent parts; have strong regional
government responsibilities.
 Examples: the US, Canada, Germany,
Australia.
 --One result of federalism is to lessen
public support for something so radical as
secession (as in Canada).
Confederate
Devolution
• The process whereby regions within a
state demand and gain political strength
and growing autonomy at the expense of
the central government.
– Example: the Soviet Union
Regional or asymmetric federalism
• Gives some authority to subdivisions while
keeping central authority in monetary
policy, defense, foreign policy, etc. within
the capital.
– Canada: establishment of the self-governing
Nunavut territory
– United Kingdom: separate status for Scotland,
Wales and Ireland.
– Spain: Catalonia, Basque country.
Capital moves
The capital may be newly created or
moved from another city: Karachi to
Islamabad, Istanbul to Ankara.
• Forward-thrust capital city: One that is
purposely placed in the interior of a
country to show government’s desire to
encourage more uniform development:
– Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to
Brasilia in the 1950’s.
Nigeria
100 million
people speak
more than 400
different
languages:
•Hausa – 35 mil
Abuja: New Capital
•Yoruba – 25 mil
•Ibo – 20 mil
•Rest spoken by
less than 1 mil
School instruction
in English
Lagos: Old Capital
Capital of Turkey
Brazil
Size: a classification system
Very large
Over 1 million square miles
Large
135,000 to 1 million square miles
Medium
60,000 to 135,000 square miles
Small
10,000 to 60,000 square miles
Very small
Under 10, 000 square miles
Ministates
500 to 5,000 square miles
Microstates
Under 500 square miles
Ministates
Core-Periphery
• Many states have grown to their present shape
over a long time, from an original core area,
which had good resources and was easily
defensible.
• This area usually contains the most
economically developed base, densest
population and largest cities, and most
developed transportation and the resources that
originally supported the economy.
• Core area often is where the capital is located. It
becomes the node of a functional culture region.
• The outlying area or periphery is directed
toward the core, but friction can exist
between the two.
• Countries which have developed from core
areas are usually fairly stable countries.
• But the absence of a core can weaken a
country’s national identity.
• Countries with competing core areas, such
as Spain, can have problems too.