Political Geography

How humans define and control land and its resources.

Political Geography Basics Political geography is study of human political

organization of the earth at various geographic levels Study spatial layout of political organizations at, above

and below country level Above country level study organizations like the United

Nations At country level, study organization of government and

boundaries Below country level can study voting districts of local

politics

Personal Space Territoriality applies on a personal level as well as a

country level Personal space defined: area we claim as our own territory

into which others may not enter without our permission When someone crosses into your personal space, how do

you respond? Can this be applied to countries?

How big your personal space is depends from person to person Example: people from a small town may have larger

areas of personal space than someone from a larger city like New York. Why is that?

Territorial Dimensions of Politics Territoriality: creating ownership over a defined

space Can be space as small as bedroom to as large as

a country Typically evokes and emotional response Some people think territoriality of humans is

similar to that of animal’s aggressive defense of territory but others argue humans can make allowances that animals can’t Examples: Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Germany’s invasion

of Poland in 1939 and passport control

Map of world’s countries

State vs. Nation State: (State with a capital “S”) political unit with a

permanent population, territorial boundaries that are recognized by other states, an effective government, a working economy and sovereignty. Sovereignty defined: internationally recognized

control a state has over the people and territory within its boundaries

State can be used interchangeably with country state (with a small “s”) is like Utah

Nation: a group of people who share a common culture and identify as a cohesive group People are often willing to fight on behalf of their

nationality

More on States and Nations Over 200 states in the world today Is the United States a nation or a state? If the U.S. is a nation, what makes it a nation? Nation-State: a state with only one nation within its borders

Example: Iceland and Japan Stateless-nation: when a nation does not have a territory to

call its own Example: Assyrian Christians or Kurds of Iraq or Ughirs of

western China Multinational states: a state the includes more than one

nation within its borders Example: United States or Russia

Political Systems Organization of government Many different types but main ones are

Theocracy: rule of religious elite Monarchy: rule by one person, usually king or queen Totalitarian: rule using fear, force and media Democratic Republics: rule of the people through

representatives Many types but most common are Presidential and

Parliamentary systems

Federal Governmental Structures Defined: government with a central government

and strong regional governments that share power with the central government

Examples: United States and Germany This type of government works well in

geographically large areas Can create problems if the autonomous region

wants to break away. Opposite of a Unitary system.

Confederate Governmental Structure Defined: where a weak central government

exists with regional governments holding most of the power

Examples: Articles of Confederation and the United States

Usually seen in countries that are afraid of a strong central government

Basic Political Beliefs The “left” vs. the “right” It is not just Republican vs. Democrat Left Ideas

Government is the answer Right Ideas

Less government is the answer

Ethnicity Defined: identity with a group of people who share

cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth

Race: identity with a group of people who share a biological ancestor

Ethnicities tend to cluster together sometimes leading to tension and violence between groups Example: African-Americans and Caucasion Americans

Oftimes, ethnic groups give rise to nations creating political systems

Ethno nationalism and Conflict Ethno nationalism: powerful emotional attachment

to one’s nation that is a minority within a state and feels different from the rest of the state’s people

Occurs when minority nations feel they do not have enough self-determination (power to control their own territory and destiny)

Ethno nationalism can lead to great amounts of conflict Examples: Chechnya and Russia

Ethnic Cleansing Defined: process in which a more powerful

ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region

Often a consequence of ethnonationalism Examples: the Former Yugoslavia,

Rwanda, Hitler

Buffer States Defined: independent country located between

two larger countries that are in conflict Created to try and calm two conflicting states or

prevent them from further violence Russia and China have historically fought,

Mongolia has helped reduce direct confrontation between the two countries

Brazil and Argentina historically have fought so country of Uruguay was created

Buffer Zone Defined: two or more countries sit between

two larger countries in conflict Historical example was eastern Europe

Eastern Europe separated Western Europe (NATO States) and Soviet Union (communist country)

Problem was Soviets tried to dominate buffer zone

Satellite States Defined: countries controlled by another, more

powerful state Can happen in buffer zones but it doesn’t have to

be that way Example: Poland was satellite state of the Soviet

Union where Moscow controlled it almost as tightly as a colony

Creation of satellite states in Eastern Europe created what Winston Churchill called the “iron curtain”

Map of USSR satellite states

Shatter Belt Defined: state or group of states that exists within

a sphere of competition between larger states Typically high levels of violence in these areas Often victims of innovations, boundary changes

and poor economic development Historical example: Poland between Germany and

Soviet Union in World War II Current example: Transcaucasia

Boundaries Important because boundaries are often at the root of many

conflicts of varying scales Our lives are shaped by boundaries

Neighbors or your yard City to city State to state

International boundaries: separate states’ territories, extends to define what the state owns above and below the ground

There are many types of political boundaries Geometric, physical, cultural, antecedent, subsequent,

superimposed and relict

Geometric Political Boundaries Defined: straight-line

boundaries that do not relate to the cultural or physical features of the territories involved

Example: North and South Korea, the United States and Canada

Physical (natural) Political Boundaries Defined: territory

separated according to natural features in the landscape like mountains, deserts or rivers

Example: France and Spain, United States and Mexico

Cultural Boundaries

Defined: changes in the cultural landscape-can include things like language or religion Can be more than one type of boundary at the same time

Examples: Pakistan and India, Spain and Portugal

Antecedent Boundaries Existed before human

cultures developed into their current forms-defined and evolved before present human day landscape

Usually the least likely to experience violence or conflict

Examples: Kentucky and Indiana separated by the Ohio River or Malaysia and Indonesia on the island of Borneo

Subsequent Boundaries Defined: divide space as a

result of human interaction and negotiation after significant settlement has occurred-it has changed over history with attempt to deal with cultural differences

Not as typically non-violent as subsequent but still fairly non-confrontational

Example: United States and Canada

Superimposed Boundaries Defined: forcibly put on a

landscape by outsiders, such as invaders or an organization like the United Nations

Most likely to be violent or have conflict

Example: the modern state of Israel

Relict Boundary Defined: no longer

functions as a boundary but only as a reminder of what once was

Examples: North and South United States, Berlin Wall in Germany

Creation of Boundaries Many steps should be followed in the creation of a

boundary into a final form Definition: phase in which the exact location of a

boundary is legally described and negotiated Delimitation: step when a boundary’s definition is

drawn onto a map Demarcation: visible marking of a boundary on the

landscape with a fence, line, sign, wall or other means

Administration: enforcement by a government or people of the boundary that has been created

Ocean Boundaries Oceans are very difficult to define and delineate borders on and in United Nations held the Convention on the Law of the Seas

(UNCLOS) where they paved out the following provisions Coastal states can stake a claim up to 12 nautical miles from

their shorelines but ships from other countries can pass through these waters

Coastal state can claim up to 200 nautical miles of territory beyond its shoreline as an exclusive economic zone where the country can explore and mine natural resources that may be in the waters

When there is not enough water for each country on opposite sides of the sea to have 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone, the two or more countries involved will divide up the water evenly in a rule called the median-line principle

Frontiers Defined: regions where boundaries are very thinly

or weakly developed, zones where territoriality is unclear and not well established

Can create problems because of questionable government control

In modern world, Antarctica is frontier region Local communities can have frontier regions

between neighborhood boundaries Be clear that boundaries clear lines but frontiers

are REGIONS!

Territorial Morphology Defined: the relationship between a state’s

geographic shape, size, relative location and political situation

In 9th grade English, it is how things like shape, size and location affect the political situations facing the people internally and internationally

5 classifications of geographic shapes of states: fragmented, elongated, compact, prorupted (also known as protruded) and perforated

Fragmented States Defined: when a state

geographically exists in several pieces

Can create problems in maintaining unity among constituent parts

Examples: Indonesia, Malaysia

Elongated States Defined: long and thin in

shape Creates problems when

state’s power base, or capital, loses influence over one end of the elongation

Can also pose transportation problems

Example: Chili, Vietnam

Compact State Defined: does not vary

greatly in distance from its center point to any point on its boundary

Can be nearly square or circular in shape

Often seen as the political ideal because no one part feels to far away from the center of control

Examples: Switzerland, Hungary

Prorupted or Protruded State Defined: when a piece

protrudes from the core area, like an arm of a leg jutting off from the main boundary

Often face problems similar to elongated because jutting piece may try to break away or may be invaded

Example: Thailand

Perforated State Defined: has a hole

punched in it by another state-completely surrounds another state

Relationship between perforated state and the perforating state can be difficult and tension filled

Example: Lesotho and South Africa

Microstates Defined: very small state like

Singapore or Monaco Usually more unified than large

states but not always, why? Typically have unitary government

structure where one main decision-making body governs the entire state

In unitary systems, local governments can exist but they will typically be weak and serve only as administrative organs of the unitary government

Unitary governments can be dictatorships

Landlocked countries Defined: without coastal

access to a body of water

Forces a country to depend on their neighbors to get to water sources for trade and navigation

This can be big national security issue

Political Enclave Defined: state or part of a state, completely

surrounded by another state The state surrounding an enclave is a

perforated state What could be the benefits of this? What could be the costs of this? Examples: Lesotho and South Africa or

Berlin during the Cold War

Exclave Defined: a territorial political extension of another

state Example: West Berlin in East Germany or

Kaliningrad and Russia Enclaves and exclaves can cause conflict over

boundaries Example: Azerbaijan has Muslim majority while its

neighbor Armenia has a Christian majority Within Azerbaijan, there is a minority nation of Christian

Armenians

Colonialism By 16th century, Europeans started competing for world

empires Colonialism is control by a state over another area or people

Often state colonizing has a more industrialized economy than the region it is taking over

First period of colonialism was following European exploration that set up mercantilistic system

Mercantilism: when a state acquires colonies that can provide it with raw materials to ship back home and use in making products for the population in the mother country Other motives was colonization, spreading Christianity

and glory of having more land than other states

2nd wave of colonization Happened in late 1800s when when western

European powers were competing to “carve up” Africa

Done to make European gain more land to make them appear more powerful and feed their industrializing economies

England and France occupied 70% of colonial territory in Africa but Portugal, Germany, Spain, Italy and Belgium also colonized Africa

Map of Colonized Africa

Imperialism Defined: process of establishing political, social

and economic dominance over a colonized area Fueled by colonization Europeans acculturated indigenous peoples to

European Christianity and culture, even destroying indigenous landscapes and imposing European architecture that signified dominance

Impact of colonialism and imperialism? There were 70 countries in the world in 1938 and more

than 200 in 2007

What side of the road people drive on

Dependency Theory Defined: the idea that many countries are poor today

because of their colonization by European powers Proponents say former colonies in South America, Africa and

Asia have not been able to heal from the imperial domination established by the European colonizers and are still dependent on them Also argue that Europeans drew political boundaries

according to resources available to the colonizers not according to the cultural groupings of native peoples

When the Europeans left, the populations weren’t unified causing violent ethno national conflicts

Examples: Sudan, Rwanda

Other support of dependency theory Political and economic structures established by the

Europeans benefited colonizers not local people Most colonized areas did not develop a workable

infrastructure that included health care, roads and communication lines

Many colonies were also deeply in debt to their mother countries-many took loans from colonizers to build economies that had arguable been destroyed by the colonizers

This created neocolonialism or postcolonial dependency

World Systems Analysis Developed by Immanuel Wallerstein as a capitalistic

system of interlocking states Theorizes the situation in one country is directly linked

to that country’s role in the greater capitalistic system Neocolonialism and its related dependency is not

necessarily just a result of internal struggles within a poor country but is a consequence of that country’s relationship to a larger system

Argues the world is divided into three categories and that countries shift among these categories over time

Three categories of countries Economic core: consists of industrialized,

developed countries that drive the global economy-developed countries

Economic periphery: consists of countries that are underdeveloped and were, usually once the core’s colonies-developing countries

Economic semi periphery: third region in world system where countries are between the economic core and the periphery-middle income countries

World systems map

Geopolitics Defined: branch of political geography that

analyzes how states behave as political and territorial systems-the study of how states interact and compete in the political landscape

Friedrich Ratzel developed organize theory that says states are living organisms that hunger for land and want to grow larger and larger by acquiring more nourishment in the form of land Hitler used this theory as justification for moving into other

countries

More on Geopolitics Halford J. Mackinder developed heartland theory

Defined: the era of sea power was ending and control over land would be the key power

Believed Eurasia was the “world island” and the key to dominating the world

Ruling the world island necessitated controlling eastern Europe Used in the Cold War with USSR’s expansion and U.S. theory of

capitalism Nicolas Spykman: developed rimland theory

Based on Mackinder’s theory defining the rimland to be all of Eurasia’ periphery, not its core of Russia and Central Asia

Felt it was important to balance power in the rimland to prevent a global power from emerging

This helped to justify Vietnam and Korean wars

Picture of Rimland Territory

Core Areas The State’s Core is where the political and economic

power is concentrated A well-integrated core that functions as a healthy part of

the state helps spread development throughout the country

Countries with more than one core are called multicore states

When a multicore situation exists, it can create competition for control and jeopardize unification Examples: Nigeria and Sudan

Infrastructure can help to unify the government and distribute growth

Capital Cities In most cases, the capital is the political nucleus of a country In some cases, the capital city is a primate city that is defined as

not only the political nucleus but also many times more economically powerful than any other city in the state

Primate cities often exist in less-developed countries and old nation-states Example: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Paris, France or London,

England Forward capital: capital city built by a state to achieve some

national goal Example: St. Petersburg Russia or moving capital back to Berlin

after unification

Gerrymandering Internal political boundaries are often subject of

debate and manipulation Electoral boundaries affect voting patterns and

outcomes Electoral College in the United States

Gerrymandering occurs when electoral boundaries are redrawing to give a political party an advantage

This can dramatically influence the power structure within a state

Map of Gerrymandered Boundaries

Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces Forces that unify a region and people or forces that divide a region

and its people Centrifugal forces: divide a state’s people and regions

Separatism in a region Internal boundary conflicts Deep religious divisions

Centripetal forces: united a state’s people and regions Unifying symbols like flags A national pledge of allegiance Strong identity based on language, religion or other cultural

traits

Devolution Defined: process of transferring some power from the

central government to regional governments-can reduce tensions by giving angry groups more regional power and autonomy

Usually happens when states have centrifugal forces Examples

1990’s England gave more power to Scotland by providing Scotland their own representative in Parliament

Montenegrins vying for increased autonomy, Serbia devolved but Montenegrins still declared independence in 2006

Supranational Defined: growing trend of three or more countries

forming an alliance for cultural, economic or military reasons

Space-time compression is increasing this movement Created so that states can collectively reach a common

goal they may not be able to reach independently Can be effective in cases where one country threatens

another by imposing international sanctions Example: UN and Iraq BEFORE current war

Terrorism Has been around for a really long time but since

9-11 has been “buzz word” in political arenas Defined as the use of violence or threats to

intimidate or coerce, especially for political aims Currently the U.S. is fighting the “war on

terrorism” and concern over “state sponsored terrorism” Iran Afghanistan: the Taliban vs. Al Qaeda Iraq

United Nations Excellent example of supranationalism History of United Nations

After WWI, Wilson asked for international organization to keep peace

Treaty of Versailles set up League of Nations but it was never really successful and U.S. never joined

After WWII, world powers realized they needed a functioning world organization so they created the United Nations

Goals were to create collective security and ensure no global war

The United Nations Formed in 1945 and serves as closest structure to world

government in history Headquarters are in New York except for the International Court of

Justice which is in the Hague Outlines duties and organization in the UN Charter that states the

following goals: Maintain international peace and security Develop friendly relations among nations Cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural and

humanitarian problems Promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms Be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining

these ends

Pictures of the United Nations

Structure of the United Nations General Assembly

All member-states send one representative to this parliament-like deliberative body

Each state has one vote, all are equal Palestine and Vatican are not voting members but have permanent

observer status Security Council

Has 15 member-states that make decisions related to war and peace and sending UN “peacekeepers”

Assigns sanctions to punish states of threatening collective security 10 members are rotating, 5 are permanent Permanent members have veto power and all decisions must be

carried out by general membership

U.N Organization, cont. Economic and Social Council

Coordinated antipoverty and prohumanitarian efforts around world as well as promoting cultural awareness and improved global health

International Court of Justice Principal judicial organ that settles all legal disputes submitted

to it by UN member-states in addition to given legal advice to the UN

Composed of 15 judges elected for a 9 year term by the Security Council and General Assembly

Secretariat Executive branch in charge of all administrative issues to keep

UN operating Head is UN secretary general who is appointed by General

Assembly on recommendation of Security Council

The European Union Perhaps the best example of economic supranational Represents growth of European economic community and has been developing

since the 1950s Historical development

Started in Benelux countries before end of WWII These countries benefited from reduced trade barriers to compete with larger

European countries 1958 European Economic Community (sometimes called the Common Market)

created among states wanting economic integration and cooperation 1992 EU born with economic, political, cultural and judicial integration goals Today has common currency, talks for military and political organization and is

growing with fall of communism Impact of supranational organizations

Challenges ideas of state sovereignty Many countries reluctant to give power up to larger organizations

Examples: U.S. not entering League of Nations or Britain not using Euro

Map of EU countries

Other Supranational Organizations ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States): founded in 1975

to create more cooperative economic union among 15 west African states LAIA (Latin American Integration Association): formed in 1980 to promote

free trade OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries): formed to

coordinate petroleum policies among members to secure fair and stable prices-its five founding members in 1960 were Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela

Arab League: founded in 1945 in Cairo, combines voluntary member to promote common interests

AU: African Union formed in 1999, similar to EU to create greater efficiency and reduce strains of their colonial roots

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement): created in 1994 between US, Canada and Mexico