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AP Human Geography Chapter 8 Notes
AP Human Geography Chapter 8 Notes
c. The Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959, says that countries may use the land for
scientific research but no military.
- Ancient States
a. The Fertile Crescent stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
b. City-State – A sovereign state that comprises a town and surrounding
countryside
c. Egypt was a separate empire from 3000BC to the fourth century.
2. Colonies
a. Colony – A territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being
completely independent.
- Colonialism
a. Colonialism – Effort by one country to establish territories and impose its laws on
that other territory.
b. European states established colonies for three main reasons: God, gold, and glory
Seth Adler
To promote Christianity
To extract useful resources and to serve as captive markets for their
products
To establish power by the number of colonies
c. The colonial era began in the 1400s, when European explorers sailed to Asia, but
ended up in the Western Hemisphere. Eventually, Europe lost most of its
colonies when independence was declared in the United States and in most Latin
states.
d. Imperialism – Control of a territory already occupied by another society
(1) European colonization of Africa and Asia.
e. France had the second-largest territory.
(1) After independence, most leaders retained close ties with France.
f. Most African and Asian colonies became independent after WWII.
A. Shapes of States
India’s Tin Bigha corridor, a timy strip of land, separated Dahagram and
Angarpota from Bangladesh.
2. Landlocked States
B. Types of Boundaries
a. 2 types:
Physical boundaries coincide with significant features of the natural
landscape.
Cultural boundaries follow the distribution of cultural characteristics.
1. Physical Boundaries
a. Deserts, mountains, and water
- Desert Boundaries
a. Common in Africa and Asia
(1) Sahara
- Mountain Boundaries
a. The Andes mountains separating Chile and Argentina.
(1) Cannot decide on the exact crest of the mountain peak.
- Water Boundaries
a. Rivers, lakes, and oceans are examples.
b. Common in East Africa.
c. Precise position in water is hard to set.
(1) Rivers
(i) Rio Grande has moved.
(2) Oceans
(i) Some claim to have a border 3 nautical miles out at sea.
(ii) The Law of the Sea sets the limit to 12 nautical miles.
(iii) May fish within 200 miles.
Seth Adler
2. Cultural Boundaries
- Geometric Boundaries
a. Straight lines.
b. US/Canada border along the 49o North Latitude.
(1) Established in 1846 between the US and Great Britain.
c. Chad/Libyan border.
(1) Created in 1899 by the French and British.
- Religious Boundaries
a. In South Asia, when the British split India.
b. Ireland
- Language Boundaries
a. Europe
(1) England, France, Portugal, and Spain were separated
(2) Germany and Italy were created
b. After WWI, leaders of the victorious countries met at the Versailles Peace
Conference to redraw the map of Europe.
(1) Geographer Isaiah Bowman played an important role.
(2) Boundaries were then drawn around countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, and
Poland to keep speakers together.
4. Frontiers
a. Frontier – A zone where no state has complete political control.
(1) A frontier provides a tangible area, whereas a boundary is infinitely thin.
Seth Adler
3. Electoral Geography
a. Redrawn periodically to equalize the populations.
(1) Every 10 years they are redrawn.
b. Gerrymandering – The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the
purpose of benefiting the party in power
(1) Named after Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), governor of Massachusetts and
vice president of the United States.
(2) When an opponent observed the oddly shaped voting districts that looked
like a salamander, he called it “gerrymandering.”
c. Three forms:
(1) Wasted Vote spreads opposition supporters across many districts, but as a
minority.
(2) Excess Vote concentrates opposition supporters into few districts.
(3) Stacked Vote links distant areas of like-minded voters together with oddly
shaped boundaries.
(i) Used to elect ethnic minorities.
d. Illegal in 1985.
e. Does not really effect elections.
B. Economic Cooperation
a. The era of bipolar balance ended in 1992.
1. The most important element in state power in economic wealth rather than military.
2. The leading superpower is not a single state, but an economic union of European
states.
b. The European Union was established in 1958 and included Belgium, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. Its goal was to heal the scars
created by WWII. It now includes 27 countries.
c. Seven Eastern European countries that were in the Warsaw Pact formed the Council for
Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). It was designed to promote trade and
sharing of natural resources. It was disbanded in the early 1990s after the fall of
Communism.
d. Much of the EU’s budget serves the subsidies farmers and depressed regions. Now, it
has removed barriers and the introduction of the euro.
3. Al-Qaeda
a. Founded by Osama Bin Laden, a multi-millionaire by his father who was a billionaire
with a construction site and close connections to the royal family in 1990.
b. Jihad means holy war.
c. Bin Laden was kicked out of many countries including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and
Sudan.
d. Other bombings since 9/11:
May 12, 2003: (35d) Car bomb at apartments in Saudi Arabia
November 15, 2003: (29d) Truck bomb at synagogues in Turkey
November 20, 2003: (32d) The British-owned HSBC Bank in Istanbul
May 29, 2004: (22d) Oil company in Saudi Arabia
July 7, 2005: (56d) Bombed subways and busses in London, England
July 23, 2005: (88d) Bombing of resort hotels in Egypt
November 9, 2005: (60d) Bombing of American-owned hotels in Jordan
e. Jemaah Islamiyah is an al-Qaeda franchise in Indonesia:
October 12, 2002: (202d) Bombing of a nightclub in Bali
August 5, 2003: (12d) Car bombs at a Marriott hotel in Jakarta
September 9, 2004: (~10d) Car bombs at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta
October 1, 2005: (23d) Attacks on downtown and in a food court in Bali
f. Other groups loosely associated with al-Qaeda:
November 28, 2002 (13d) A Somali group killed Kenyan dancers and Israeli
tourists in Mombasa, as well as firing missiles at and Israeli airplane
March 11, 2004: (192d) A local group blew up trains in Madrid, Spain
1. Libya
a. Accused of sponsoring a 1986 bombing of a nightclub in Berlin and killing a US
soldier.
b. First started in 1981, when the US shot down a Libyan warplane. The plane was
conducting exercises in international waters, but Libya claimed it was in their area.
c. The US also attacked Tripoli and Benghazi to try to kill Colonel Muahmmer el-
Qaddafi.
d. Libya renounced terrorism in 2003 and provided compensation to the victims of the
Pan Am 103. They are no longer considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
2. Afghanistan
a. The US attacked Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) to get rid of the leaders who
were supporters of terrorism.
b. The US attacked Afghanistan when they were under the rule of the Taliban
(“Students”), who were thought to be sheltering Bin Laden.
c. The Taliban rule suppressed a civil war that began in 1973 when the king was
overthrown by Mohammed Daoud Khan who was murdered 5 years later by military
officers who were sympathetic to the Soviet Union, but when mijahedeen (holy
warriors) started a rebellion in 1979, the Soviet Union sent in 100,000 troops.
d. Although outnumbered, the mijahedeen used guerrilla warfare and after 10 years,
the Taliban gained control.
e. The Taliban rule ended in 2001 when the US invaded to capture Osama Bin Laden.
3. Iraq
a. The US attacked in 2003 because it was thought that Saddam Hussein had created
biological weapons of mass destruction that could fall into the hands of terrorists.
b. US confrontation with Iraq started in 1979, when Hussein came into power and
attacked Iran and Kuwait.
c. The 1991 Gulf War, known as Operation Desert Storm, drove Iraq out of Kuwait but
failed to remove Hussein from power. It was widely supported.
d. Inspectors from the UN in the 1980s found:
A nuclear radiation weapon program
A program making weapons from the VX nerve agent
A biological weapons program
e. Hussein’s Ba’ath Party had a belief that several hundred million Arabs living in North
Africa and Central Asia should be joined together, whereas al-Qaeda terrorists
justified their attacks on the basis of their interpretation of Islam.
f. The US was unable to link Hussein with the making of weapons or connections with
al-Qaeda.
Seth Adler
g. Iraq is divided into 150 tribes (‘ashira) divided into several clans (fukhdhs), which
include several houses (beit), which include several extended families (kham). Tribes
are grouped into a dozen federations (qabila). Most Iraqis have a stronger
connection to a tribe or clan than to a national government.
h. The ethnic groups are split into regions; Kurds in the North, Sunnis is the center,
and Shi’ites in the South. The Kurds welcomed the US but the others oppose the
US.
i. The US expected an enthusiastic welcome after removing Hussein from power, but
instead they became embroiled by violent struggles among the tribes.
4. Iran
a. Hostility began in 1979, when a revolution forced Iran’s pro-US Shah Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi to give up the throne. The majority of the population wanted a more
democratic society. The Shiite Muslim leader, Ayatollah Ruholiah Khomeini, then
rewrote the constitution to place final authority with the ayatollah and seized the
US Embassy.
b. When Iraq was forced to cede the Shatt al-Arab waterway to Iran in 1975, they
tried to take advantage of the Iranian Revolution to take back the waterway in 1980.
Instead, they caused an 8-year long war that ended with a peace treaty from the
UN.
c. After the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in 2005, relations
between Iran and the US deteriorated. The US accused Iran of harboring al-Qaeda
members and getting support from Iraq because they were also Shiite Muslims. Iran
also has developed nuclear weapons.
5. Pakistan
a. Created in 1947 when South Asia was split into Muslim and Hindu states.
b. Although the majority of Pakistan’s population is Muslim, Pakistan is a multiethnic
state with 60% other ethnicities.
c. Osama Bin Laden was thought to be hiding in Pakistan after escaping from Tora Bora.