Political Geography: Key Issue 1

HOW IS SPACE POLITICALLY ORGANIZED INTO STATES AND NATIONS?

Fouberg, pp. 211-222

Use the map on page 212 in your textbook which shows the dates of independence for countries/states
around the world.

1. Based on the information in the map, which areas of the world have countries that have recently
been created?

Africa is the source for countries that have recently been developed and formed.

2. What were some of the problems the continent of Africa faced with decolonization or the
formation of newly independent countries?
Entrenched internal inequalities and economic dependencies.

3. Define state:

A politically organized territory that is administered by a sovereign government and is recognized by a

significant portion of the international community. A state has a defined territory, a permanent
population, a gov- ernment, and is recognized by other states.

4. Define territoriality:

It is the process by which such units come into being.

5. Define sovereignty:
Sovereignty refers to a government’s right to control its own territory, both politically and militarily.

6. Define territorial integrity:

The right of a state to defend sovereign territory against incursion from other states.

● THE MODERN STATE IDEA

7. The Treaty of Westphalia – Using the chart below

DEFINITION Change In Relationship Between Long-Term Results or Effects

People & Territory
Europe was divided into a few
larger territories and dozens of
small principalities. With the
treaty, each territory and
principality became a sovereign
state, with the legal right to
have the last day.
The Westphalian system became
the territory that defined the
society
The revolution, con- ducted in
the name of the French people,
ushered in an era in which the
foundations for political
authority came to be seen as
resting with a state’s citizenry,
not with a hereditary monarch

● NATIONS

8. Using the chart below, how does your textbook define the difference between Nations & States?
Please provide a definition and examples for each.
DEFINITION EXAMPLES
A culturally defined term that few people For example, in the country of Belgium,
agree on its meaning. two nations, the Flemish and the
Walloons, exist within the state’s
NATION Ex. America borders

State is a legal term in international law, For example, the states within America
and the international political community are considered states.
has some agreement about what this term
STATES means

● NATION-STATE

9. Define nation-state:

nation-state is a politically organized area in which nation and state occupy the same space

10. How was the idea of the nation-state inspired or created?

It was inspired by the French Revolution

11. In what 2 ways is nationalism described?

a.When people have a strong sense of nationalism, they have a loyalty to and a belief in the
nation itself
 b.A state, in contrast, seeks to promote a sense of nationhood that coincides with its own
borders.

● Multistate Nations, Multinational States, & Stateless Nations

12. Using the chart below, how does your textbook define the difference between Nations & States?
Please provide a definition and examples for each.

DEFINITION EXAMPLES
A state with more than one nation inside Yugoslavia
its borders

Multinational State

Romania and Hungary

a nation that stretches across borders and
across states

Multistate Nation

The lack of fit between nations and states, Palestine

which leads to stateless nations
 Stateless Nation

● EUROPEAN COLONIALISM & DIFFUSION OF NATION-STATE MODEL

13. What was the purpose of the Berlin Conference? Who was it lead by?

Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Italy mr to lay out the colonial map of Africa,
effectively cutting up pieces of it with no regard to its population patterns to section it off to different
countries.

14. In the space below define Colonialism & List the effects of this system of control in the colonized.
Definition of Colonialism Effects of Colonialism
Effects :

Definition : ● Unequal economic and political power globally

● Institutionalized racism
The exertion of control over certain domains and the
organization of them for maximum economic
exploitation.

15. Using the chart on pg. 218 “Two Waves of Colonialism” please list which were the 2 peak years
of the numbers of colonies around the world.

● 1750
● 1900

16. Use the map on page 219, Dominant Colonial influences over Four Centuries 1550-1950, and
indicate the colonial possessions of each of following countries.

● England-
1. America
2. Canada
3. Australia
4. India
5. Pakistan
6. South Africa
7. Bangladesh
8. Burma
9. Egypt
10. Sudan
11. South Sudan
12. Ken
13. Tanz
14. Zambia
15. Botswana
16. Zimbabwe
17. Namibia
● Spain-
1. Mexico
2. Central America
3. West coast of South America
● Portugal-
1. Brazil
2. Angola
3. Mozambique

● France-
1. Northwest Africa
a. Tunisia
b. Alegeria
c. Maurit
d. Mali
e. Niger
f. Chad
g. Togo
h. Ghana
i. Sierra Leone
j. Liberia
k. Guinea
l. Senegal
m. Morocco
n. Western Sahara
● Netherlands-
1. Malaysia
2. Indonesia
● Italy-
1. Libya
2. Ethiopia
3. Eritrea
4. Somalia
WALLERSTEIN’s WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY
17. According to Wallerstein, what are the 3 basic tenets of world-systems theory?

1. The world-economy has one market and a global divi- sion of labor.

2. Although the world has multiple states, almost every- thing takes place within the context of the
world- economy.

3. The world-economy has a three-tier structure.

18. Define capitalism:

Capitalism means that in the world-economy, individuals, corporations, and states own land and produce
goods and services that are exchanged for profit.

19. Define commodification:

Commodification is the process of placing a price on a good, service, or idea and then buying, selling,
and trading that item.

20. Use the map on pg. 221 and identify two countries in each category.

1) core-
● Canada
● America

2) Semi-periphery-
● Russia
● India

3) periphery-
● Angola
● Chad

21. Use the following chart to define the following terms.

 Core
The core is the place where one is
most likely to find higher levels of
education, higher salaries, and
more technology—core processes
that generate more wealth in the
world-economy.
Semi-Periphery
places where core and periphery
processes are both
occurring—places that are
exploited by the core but in turn
exploit the periphery
Periphery
The periphery more commonly has
lower levels of education, lower
salaries, and less sophisticated
technology—peripheral processes
associated with a more marginal
position in the world-economy.

Political Geography: Key Issue 2

HOW DO STATES SPATIALLY ORGANIZE THEIR GOVERNMENTS?
Fouberg, pp. 222-230

22. Define centripetal forces:

Forces within a state that unify people

23. Define centrifugal forces:

Forces within a state that divide people

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

24. Define the following-

Unitary Governments Federal Governments

● A system that works by organizing state
territory into regions, substates (which we
● States that are highly centralized, with the refer to as States), provinces, or cantons
capital city serving as the focus of power
● The administrative framework of a unitary
government is designed to ensure the central
government’s authority over all parts of the
state
 25. How does federalism function differently in Nigeria. Please provide a description with examples.

Federalism functions differently in Nigeria, because who the law applies to may depend on religion. For
example, in the Muslim North, many states have legal systems based on traditional Islamic laws, but
these Shari’a laws only apply to Muslims living there not Christians and Animists.

DEVOLUTION

26. Use the chart below to organize your notes regarding DEVOLUTION
Types of Devolution Definition & Examples
● devolutionary movements that came from nations within a state that
define themselves as being ethnically, linguistically, or religiously
distinct
● Example
ETHNOCULTURAL ○ ethnocultural differences were at the heart of the civil war
MOVEMENTS that wracked Sri Lanka (South Asia) between the 1980s and
2009, with the Sinhalese (Buddhist) majority ultimately
suppressing the drive by the Tamil (Hindu) minority for an
independent state

● Where economics play a role in devolutionary forces

● Example
○ Despite covering only 8 percent of Spain’s territory, Catalonia
ECONOMIC FORCES produces 35 percent of its exports by value
○ Pro-independence groups in Catalonia held a referendum in
April 2011 seeking a vote for independence. The vote failed,
but devolutionary forces con- tinue to argue that Catalonia’s
economy pays more into the Spanish government than it
receives from the state of Spain

TERRITORIAL INFLUENCES
● Where distance, remoteness and marginal location affects
devolutionary forces
● Regions most likely to seek devolution are far from the Capital
● Example
○ Puerto Rico, being an island far from the U.S. is more likely to
seek devolutionary processes than, for example, NJ
○ A real life example is when Hawaii, which was annexed from
America, seeked independence from it. Of course there were
many reasons, but at the core of it was the fact that they
weren’t apart of the U.S., especially physically

27.
ELECTORAL GEOGRAPHY
TYPES EXAMPLES

When the special organization of a district determines The Senate and the
who is represented House
Territorial
Representation

Reapportionment is the process by which districts are The Census

ved according to population shifts, so that each district
Reapportionment
ompasses approximately the same number of people

The splitting of African

1) Separating population groups from each other
Americans and Hispanics
during districting
Splitting among multiple districts
occurs, so that the white
 population holds
majority in each district.
This happened after the
Civil Rights Act was
passed

In 1990, 52 districts had

Majority-Minority this trait.
Districts Majority–minority districts are packed districts in which a
ority of the population is from the minorit

This has occurred in

many states, but I think
Gerrymandering most notably Georgia in
Redistricting an electoral district to create an artificial
2018.
antage among the electorate.

Political Geography: Key Issue 3

HOW ARE BOUNDARIES ESTABLISHED AND WHY DO BOUNDARY DISPUTES
OCCUR?
Fouberg, pp. 230--234

ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES

28. What does it mean to:

a. Define the boundary – a line that marks the area ; a dividing line

b. Delimit the boundary – drawing of boundaries, particularly of electoral precincts, states,

counties or other municipalities
 c. Demarcate the boundary –creating a boundary around a place or thing or temporary border
between the countries

d. Administrate the boundary –boundary drawn across an aread before it is well populated and
before most of the cultural landscape features are developed

TYPES OF BOUNDARIES

29. Use the chart below in order to define the types of boundaries that exist, along with examples
for each.

DEFINITION
When boundaries are drawn using grid
systems such as latitude and longitude or
township and range, political geographers
refer to these boundaries as geometrica
boundaries
Geometric Boundary
EXAMPLES
US and Canada use a single latitude line
west of the Great LAkes to define their
boundary. DUring the Berlin Conference,
the colonial powers used arbitrary lines
of longitude and latitude to divide lines
throughout Africa.

The Rio Grande is an important

boundary between the US and Mexico.
Boundaries that follow an agreed upon Mountain Ranges like the Himalayas that
natural feature in the natural landscape. separate India and China.
Physical-Political The Great Lakes that separate Canada
Boundary and US.

BOUNDARY DISPUTES
30. Use the chart below to organize the various boundary disputes that exist.

Types of Boundary Dispute Definition & Examples

 These types of disputes focus on the legal language of the boundary agreement.
For example, a boundary definition may stipulate the median line of the river
DEFINITION BOUNDARY will mark the boundary. These arguments tend to be abou the wording, and
they tend to arise when there is a lack of understanding of the made agreement
.

This is about the delimitation and possibly the demarcation of the boundary.
LOCATIONAL BOUNDARY The interpretation of the boundary is in dispute. This happens when perhaps the
lines are not clearly made, and both nations still hold claims to a certain land.
Like perhaps the Kashmir region in South Asia, which is claimed by India,
Pakistan, and China.

Neighboring states that differ over the way their border should function. One
state may want to limit migration while the other does not. For example
OPERATIONAL BOUNDARY Germany has tried to be welcoming of the middle eastern refugees coming into
their country, but other nations in the EU have been less welcoming

This described the earlier, involving the Netherlands and Germany over natural
gas and Iraq and Kuwait over oil. For example rivers like Tigris, Colorado, and
ALLOCATIONAL BOUNDARY Euphrates are subject to dispute over who has claims to the river. Who is
allowed to build dams, who can create tributaries, and these questions fall
under allocational disputes

31. Use the Box. 8.1 on pg. 228 to identify the territorial configuration of states
 a. Identify the 5 shapes of states and an example of each
- Prorupt Protruded- thailand
- Compact - Hungary
- Elongated - Chile
- Fragmented - Philippines - Perforated - South Africa

32. Describe the significance of the shape of states.

The shape of states is very important because of the many ways that it can influence state stability. The
easy aspects of it that come to mind are transportation and communication. With a smaller state, and
one that has a smaller epicenter to the furthest point away from the political capitol, it will make it
easier to create legislative changes. The further away the land is from the center, it can increase political
stability, and the integration of the larger population.
33. Use the Box. 8.2 on pg. 233 to identify the genetic political boundary types

a. Define and Provide Example: Antecedent Boundary- the boundary between Malaysia and
Indonesia. This is one that predates the development of large scale politically organized communities

b. Define and Provide Example: Subsequent Boundary- the boundary between Vietnam and
China. This reflects a long term process of adjustment and modification.

c. Define and Provide Example: Superimposed Boundary- The boundary between Indonesia and
Guinea. These boundaries are often contested by groups that straddle the boundary

d. Define and Provide Example: Relict Boundary- This is the boundary between Vietnam, and the
one that used to split the country in two. It is a boundary that used to exist, but one that no longer does

Political Geography: Key Issue 4

HOW DOES THE STUDY OF GEOPOLITICS HELP US UNDERSTAND THE WORLD?
Fouberg, pp. 234-237

34. Describe the theories of Friedrich Ratzel.

● He theorized that a state resembles a biological organism whose life cycle extends from birth
through maturity and, ultimately, decline and death. To prolong its existence, the state requires
nourishment, (just as an organism needs food).
● nourishment is provided by the acquisition of territories that provide adequate space for the
members of the state’s dominant nation to thrive, which is what Ratzel called Lebensraum.

(Essentially territory is essential to a state’s life)

35. What is defined as the HEARTLAND THEORY? Who is the author?

Sir Halford J. Mackinder is the author of the heartland theory which concluded that a land- based power,
not a sea power, would ultimately rule the world.

36. What is critical geopolitics?

The basic concept behind critical geopolitics is that intellectuals of statecraft construct ideas about
geograph- ical circumstances and places, these ideas influence and rein- force their political behaviors
and policy choices, and those behaviors and choices then affect what happens and how most people
interpret what happens.

37. What is unilateralism? What are the challenges to American unilateralism?

Unilateralism is when one force assumes a position of hard-power dominance. A challenge to American
unilateralism is the fact that it’s influence has been undermined after its controversial invasion of Iraq.

Political Geography: Key Issue 5

WHAT ARE SUPRANATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND WHAT ARE THEIR
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STATE?
Fouberg, pp. 237-243

38. Define SUPRANATIONAL ORGANIZATION.

A supranational organization is an entity composed of three or more states that forges an association
and forms an administrative structure for mutual benefit and in pursuit of shared goals.

39. In the space below create a timeline of the creation of various supranational organizations.

1. 1919
a. League of Nations
b. Permanent Court of International Justice (not exactly 1919 but between the world wars)
2. 1947
a. United Nations
b. OEEC
c. ECSC
3. 1958
a. EEC
b. EC
 4. 1992
a. European Union

40. Discuss the rise of the European Union & its implications on the continent of Europe.

One implication is the euro, because it was created by the EU and is still a major form of currency today.
Another implication is the economic effect it has had on Europe. Wealthier Western and Eastern
countries in Europe have been put at a disadvantage due to having to pay for the poorer countries in the
continent.

HOW DOES SUPRANATIONALISM AFFECT THE STATE

41. In the space below, list the various ways that supranationalism affects the state.

It can affect foreign relations, domestic policies, military policies, etcetera.

42. Using the map on pg. 238, Identify 5 Supranational Organizations and the member countries.

1. North American Free Trade Agreement (U.S. and Canada)

2. Southern Common Market (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay)

3. Andean Community (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia)

4. Caribbean Community and Common Market (Guyana, Suriname)

5. Agadir Agreement (Morocco, Tunisia, Israel)

 43. What is deterritorialization?

The process of creating a geometry of political power less rooted in the power of the territorial state.

44. What is reterritorialization?

The process of fortifying territorial barriers as a means of political power