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APHG Unit 4: Political Organization of Space

PART 1: Territorial Dimensions of Politics

Political Geography: def: the study of the organization and distribution of political phenomena, including their impact on other spatial components of society and culture. (FGG)

Political Map: def: is one that shows the boundaries of governmental control. The “shapes” of countries are nothing more than the boundaries (agreed upon or otherwise) of a state’s authority.

I. Territoriality and the Geographic Characteristics of States.

A. Territoriality

1. Def: An individual or group attempt to identify and establish control over a clearly defined territory considered partially or wholly an exclusive domain; the behavior associated with the defense of the home territory.

2. Human groups have laid claim to territory throughout history. Geographers are interested in the structuring of political control of territory because it is related to both culture and organization of space.

3. Geographers are most interested in the spatial patterns that reflect the exercise of governmental control.

B. Size: This can be a determining factor in regards to a country’s stability and strength, but there are many exceptions

1. HUGE: Russia controls 11% of the world’s land area (similar to the size of South America). It covers 11 time zones. Though large, it has very little arable land (Australia and Canada share same problem). It is also difficult to control that much area and unify the many ethnic groups under one government. Resources are unevenly distributed around the world.

2. TINY: Nauru has 12,000 people. Most tiny countries have an easier time governing and communicating because they are usually homogeneous.

C. Shape: can foster or hinder organization.

1. Compact State: The most efficient shape for a country would be a circle with a capital directly in the middle. Quickest transportation and dissemination of communication. Smallest border to defend. EX: Zimbabwe and Poland

2. Prorupt States: Nearly compact, but possess on or two narrow extensions of territory. Tend to isolate a portion of the state. EX: Thailand and Myanmar

3. Elongated States: the least efficient shape for governmental control. Long-thin shaped countries like Norway, Chile, Vietnam. Parts of the country are very far away from the capital. They can have varying climates, resources, and peoples.

4. Fragmented States: Either composed entirely of Islands (Indonesia and Phillipines) or countries that are partly islands and partly on the mainland (Italy and Malaysia) or a country that is mostly on the mainland, but has a territory separated by another state.

a. Exclave: def: when an area controlled by one country is within another country. Ex:West Berlin was an outlier of West Germany that was within East Germany.

b. Enclave: see “perforated State”

5. Perforated State: A country that completely surrounds a territory that it does not control. EX: South Africa has Lesotho and Swaziland within it.

a. Enclave: is the territory inside of the perforated state. It can be autonomously controlled, or can be controlled by an outside country. It is possible for a territory to be both an enclave and an exclave. West Berlin was an exclave of West Germany, and was an enclave of East Germany. It was totally controlled by West Germany, but was entirely within East Germany.

D. Location

1. Absolute Location (Latitude and Longitude): If a country is located far from the equator (Canada and Russia) they may have much less arable land.

2. Relative Location: the location of a country’s position compared to that of other countries.

a. Landlocked States: (Continue these notes on page 425)

i. Name two landlocked states in S. America

ii. Usually, Landlocked States arrange to use the ports in neighboring countries. (EX: Bolivia uses the Chilean port of Arica)

b. Favorable Locations: on a shipping route (Singapore), on a natural Harbor (New York, New York).

II. The Influences of Core Areas and Capital Locations

A. Core Areas: many states grew outward over time from a central region known as the core area. This is usually characterized as being the most developed economically, the most densely populated, and usually has the most developed transportation systems in the state. These characteristics diminish as you travel outward from the center of the core area into the periphery areas within a state.

a. The Core-Periphery Model works to explain the way culture, politics, and economics work within a state in addition to our previous discussion of it on an international level.

b. Dominant National Core areas include…

i. The Paris Basin of France

ii. Moscow and the Major cities of European Russia

iii. The Northeastern United States

iv. The Buenos Aires megalopolis in Argentina

c. It is possible for a state to have multiple core areas

i. EX: Australia has the Southeastern Coastline as well as the Western Coastline

B. Primate Cities: These are the largest cities in states. They are oftentimes the capital city and are mostly located in the Core areas of states.

a. A primate city usually dominates the structure of the entire country

b. EX: Paris in France, London in the UK, and Mexico City in Mexico are examples of political, cultural, and economic primacies in their states.

C. Unitary States: are characterized by their Capital being their primate city and being located in the core area. They usually have highly centralized governments, strong national identity, and boarders that are usually cultural as well as political.

a. Most European countries are Unitary States

b. Newly independent countries usually become Unitary states by converting their former colonial capitals into their National capitals (which become sources of national pride)

D. Federal States: Usually have provinces or states with strong regional control (Less centralized). Their National capital is usually not the Primate City and does not have to be in the core areas.

a. EX: USA with Washington, DC; Ottawa, Canada; Canberra, Australia, etc

E. Asymmetric Federalism: When near autonomous control is granted to regional governments within a Federal structure.

a. EX: Scotland, Wales, England, and N.Ireland within the UK has a legislature and has significant control of their own needs and have their own capitals

F. CAPITAL CITIES

a. Forward Thrust Capitals: one that has been deliberately sited in Frontier regions to encourage more involvement and development of the periphery regions within their state.

i. EX: Brasilia Brazil was built to help develop and settle its vast interior.

III. Influences of Boundaries

A. International Boundaries and Frontier Zones

a. International boundaries establish the limit of each state’s jurisdiction and control.

b. Historically speaking, boundaries between nations or empires used to be defined by frontier zones usually uninhabited and undesirable.

B. Natural Physical Boundaries: those made by physical features like mountains rivers and lakes.

a. These have inherent challenges

b. Do you divide two countries at the summit ridge of the mountains, or the watershed?

c. Which bank of the river will the boundary be? In the center? Who has the right to the water itself to divert for irrigation or pollute?

C. Geometric Boundaries: ones created by using a line of latitude or longitude.

a. Ex: The Western US and Canada are divided at the 49th Parallel

D. Antecedent Boundaries: one drawn prior to a huge amount of settlement (that 49th parallel was agreed upon by US and Great Britain back in 1846 prior to much settlement

E. Subsequent Boundaries: a line drawn around existing ethnic/religious groups.

F. Superimposed Boundaries: Forced on an existing cultural landscape without regard to ethnic groupings. Often cause territory disputes. Ex: Berlin Conference

G. Relic Boundary: evidence is present in an area that used to be a boundary of a formerly existing nation or territory. Castles and battlements mark relic boundaries in Europe.

H. Boundary Disputes

a. Positional disputes: conflicts arising over the location of a boundary. The boundary may have been drawn before an area was actually explored.

b. Territorial Disputes: Usually arise over a superimposed boundary that divides a pre-existing ethnic group. The ethnic groups will claim rights to the land and try to seize it.

i. Irridentism is a type of territorial dispute where a state tries to annex a territory in another state that has the same ethnic group as they do.

ii. Hitler used this ideology to justify the annexation of Austria and the invasions of Poland and Czechoslovakia because they had pockets of ethnic Germans living there.

c. Resource Disputes: One state will try to take over a portion of another state due to the valuable resources that exist in that section. EX: Iraq invaded Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War in 1990 to take the oil reserves.

d. Functional Disputes: erupt when a state disagrees with its neighbor’s border policies. EX: US and Mexico’s border dispute.

APHG Unit 4: Political Organization of Space

PART 2: Evolution of the Contemporary Political Pattern

Start with Reading Notes Quiz: Finish with Geog Relationships between states and Nations activity Sheet. Team activity.

I. THE NATION STATE CONCEPT

A. Society’s definitions

1. People often use the words Nation, State, and Country interchangeably.

2. Most people think of them as three terms used to describe the same thing.

3. Human Geographers define each differently.

B. Human Geographers Definitions of Nation and State

1. A State can be defined as a political unit within a Federal Framework (like our 50 states).

2. Human Geographers define it on the international level as an independent political unit occupying a defined, permanently populated territory and having full sovereign control over its internal and foreign affairs (FGG)

3. It is synonymous with Country, but not all territories are States

a. Colonies and protectorates do NOT count as States for they are not sovereign

b. Antarctica Treaty of 1959: an agreement between 7 countries (Australia, Norway, France, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, and the U.K.) to keep Antarctica for scientific research only for 30 years. It was extended for 50 years in 1991.

4. Human Geographers define a Nation as a group of people with a common culture occupying a particular territory, bound together by a strong sense of unity arising from shared beliefs and customs. Sometimes language and religion are unifiers, but even more important are opinions of ethnocentrism.

C. Nation-States, Multi-National States, part-National states, and Stateless Nations

1. A Nation-State is a state whose territorial extent is occupied by a distinct nation or people who share a general cohesion and adherence to a common set of values.

a. Examples of Nation-States: Iceland, Slovenia, Poland, and the Koreas.

2. A Multi-National State is (define in your own words)

3. A Part-Nation is when a Nationality is the dominant Nationality in multiple surrounding states.

a. EX: the ARAB nation is found in 17 countries

4. A State-less Nation is one that is spread across multiple states and don’t comprise the majority in any of the states they are in.

a. EX: The Kurds, the Gypsies, Basques, and Palestinians.

II. The Notion of State-hood: Imperialism and Colonialism

A. 18th Century European Philosophers developed the modern universal idea of a state. They developed the idea that people owed their allegiance to a state and its people rather than a feudal lord or king/emperor. This concept was used to fuel the French Revolution and the overthrowing of many of the European Monarchies.

B. Imperialism and its Global Effects

1. Europeans created Superimposed Boundaries that connected peoples and regions that were oftentimes enemies or warring ethnic groups.

2. The new lines represented the limits of the colonizer’s power.

3. As many of the colonies gained independence, they kept the idea of statehood. Most of them kept the superimposed boundaries that their colonizers had put into place in order to avoid ethnic grabs for power.

a. This created many problems for them in long run, though.

b. “Nation-building” is difficult because they are trying to develop feelings of loyalty to a state from arbitrarily associated citizens.

c. The New countries are artificial units.

d. EX: most African countries are struggling to maintain a National identity because of Ethnic conflict.

C. You can see that the idea of National identity has grown over time since the 18th Century.

1. 1776: there were about 35 empires/kingdoms/countries in the world

2. WWII: had doubled to about 70.

3. The End of the Colonial Era to 1990: about 180 existed

4. After Yugoslavia broke up and the USSR disintegrated, there are now over 200 states.

III. For Federal and Unitary States, see Part 1.

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APHG Unit 4: Political Organization of Space

PART 3: Challenges to Inherited Political-Territorial Arrangements

I. The Changing Nature of Sovereignty

A. The State and Nation-State have been the focus of political geography for a long time. People thought that they would be the final definitions of territoriality….they were mistaken. The “state-centric” view of the world is being challenged. The following things weaken the worldview in which governments are all-powerful.

1. Globalization and the existence of multi-national corporations go beyond state borders. They make decisions that benefit the corporation without considering how it would affect the different states it does business with (even its home base state).

2. The Emergence of International organizations like NAFTA, EU, OPEC, and NATO has challenged the traditional state view. Now, as more countries exist than ever before, the international organizations take away individual state autonomy. Now countries must consider their fellow group members before making decisions.

3. NGO’s: (non-governmental-organizations) are special interest groups that share common concerns for charity, fighting AIDS, and protesting harmful governmental policies. They can exert pressures that influence governmental activities.

4. Mass Immigrations of people are undermining the cultural makeups of states. They disrupt loyalties. Now, due to the internet and rapid communication, they can keep in touch with their family members back in their home country which slows acculturation.

5. The increase in Nationalistic and separatist movements are undermining established states.

B. Supranationalism: the trend where states join international organizations for mutual benefit and the achievement of shared objectives. This trend is diluting national sovereignty and independence.

C. United Nations (UN): Almost all of the world’s countries are members of the UN.

1. Purpose: International cooperation, peacekeeping, and development.

2. No standing army or police force. Membership is consentual.

3. There is a International Court of Justice that tries individuals accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes.

4. Interventionism: the current stance of the UN where they will enter to keep one state from violating the sovereignty of another. (Gulf war)

D. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

12nm:sovereignty rights. Commercial ships can pass, but military will be questioned.

24nm: not complete sovereignty, they can enforce laws and hot pursuit into this zone

EEZ:rights to explore,exploit, and protection of resources…high sea laws, though

High seas: resources are free to benefit all mankind, free useage.

Insert the Picture from 441: describe each zone. SEE SPECKS AND SOILS ARTICLE

E. World Trade Organization (WTO): operates under the auspices of the UN.

1. Was started in 1995

2. Purpose: the 148 member countries work to cut tariffs, dismantle trade barriers, and to treat all countries uniformly in matters of trade.

II. Fragmentation, Unification, and Alliance

A. Centripetal Forces

1. Forces that promote Unity and national stability within a state

2. Nationalism: feelings of loyalty and devotion to one country above all others.

a. There are few Nation-states. Most countries are multi-ethnic.

b. In a multi-cultural society, Nationalism helps to integrate the different groups into a unified population. Creates some homogeneity where heterogeneity is prevalent.

c. EX: USA and Switzerland are multi-ethnic states that join together into political entities to inspire the loyalty of their citizens.

3. Iconography is one way that states seek to promote Nationalism. Iconography is the use of symbols like flags, national anthems, national sports teams, national plants and animals, as well as national holidays. The purpose of these things is to create commonality between all members (however diverse they may be) in the society. Other examples are the Declaration of Independence and the monarchs in Europe.

4. Unifying Institutions

a. Schools, armed forces, and state religions indoctrinate children in National history and transmit the strong beliefs about the state through generations

5. Organization, Administration, and Government

a. Citizens will feel loyal to a government that serves their interests.

6. Transportation Systems: They foster integration of the people and their connection to the central government.

a. The Roman Empire built vast road systems to keep in communication and contact with the farther parts of their Empire.

b. Many countries that have effect modes of transportation have strong economies which mutually provide for the transportation systems….infrastructure.

B. Centrifugal Forces

1. Destabilizing forces that create internal discord and disintegration

2. The opposite or lack of Centripetal forces mentioned above often create disunity and disorganization.

3. Organized Religions can compete with state authority. (Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, Muslims in Indian Kashmir, Islamic militancy in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia)

4. Nationalism can spark the idea that all ethnicities and Nationalities deserve their own country. This can spark separatism or autonomous nationalism (when a minority wants above all things the right to be separate.) EX: Quebec in Canada.

5. Devolution: When central governments give in to the separatist movements by granting them more autonomous control.

6. Regionalism and Separatism: When a minority group desires autonomy and is loyal to an area rather than loyalty to the state.

a. Within the Russian Federation are many ethnic groups that desire more autonomy. Chechnya is one that is dominated by Muslims who want to be totally independent from Russia. Civil warfare broke out in 1996 and 1999.

b. Look at the map below for some of the separatist movements in Europe. Many are characterized by a national homeland region, unifying cultural characteristics, and are usually located in the periphery of a country.

Add the map of Europe on page 436.

III. Spatial relationships between political patterns and patterns of ethnicity, economy, and environment

A. Geopolitics: (def) a branch of political geography that considers the strategic value of land and sea area in the context of national economic and military power and ambitions.

1. 19th Century German geographer, Friedrich Ratzel’s theory of Lebensraum. He believed that a state would naturally grow outwards like an organism, controlling new territories to support its growing need for more resources.

2. This was the basis for Geopolitik, the theory the Nazi’s used to justify their expansionistic practices during WWII.

B. From the Heartland theory to the Domino Theory

1. Heartland theory: created by early 20th century English geographer, Halford Mackinder. He believed that the control of land was the most important aspect of global power. He believed that whoever controlled Eurasia, the world’s largest landmass, would have the heartland base from which to conquer the world. He thought Eastern Europe was the key to controlling the heartland.

2. Rimland theory: Nicholas Spykman agreed that Eurasia was the base for global conquest, but disagreed with Mackinder about the heartland being the key to the landmass. He thought the rimland, or the areas of Western Europe, SW, S, SE, and East Asia were the most critical staging points.

Insert the map from page 437 here.

3. During the cold War, the US saw the heartland as the USSR and sought the notion of containment by making alliances with those in the rimland to ward off the spread of communism. NATO was one of these military alliances.

4. Domino Theory: the US believed that if one country went communist, then its neighbors would soon follow. This was used to justify the US involvement in Vietnam. It also was behind the involvement of NATO forces in the former Yugoslavia in 1995.

C. Today’s Geopolitics: Traditional Geopolitics have changed since the breakup of the USSR and the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Traditional Geopolitics has generally dealt with the economic and military strengths of STATES. Now, modern political geographers cite three things that define modern Geopolitics

1. Terrorism: oftentimes state sponsored in secret. Usually religiously affiliated.

2. International economic alliances/blocs (EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, AU, OPEC, etc)

3. 7 Civilizations (Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic, Latin American, and possibly African) Geographers argue that the differences of culture, history, and language run deeper and are harder to solve than economic and political issues.

IV. Electoral Geography, Including Gerrymandering

A. Redistricting and Reapportionment: districts are redrawn to respond to shifts in population.

1. Every 10 years the US performs a census on its population

2. The updated numbers are used to redistrict the 435 seats in the House of Representatives among the 50 states.

3. This is done by state legislatures: here is where the controversy starts.

4. Problems arise when the lines are drawn to maximize, minimize, or nullify the representational power of a group of people.

B. Electoral Geography: the study of how boundaries are drawn around voting districts and the results they yield (based on socioeconomics).

C. Gerrymandering: the practice of drawing boundaries of districts so as to unfairly favor one political party over another.

1. Stacked Gerrymandering: drawing circuitous boundaries to enclose pockets of strengths or weaknesses of the group in power.(most common)

2. Excess Vote: concentrates the votes of the opposition into a few districts which they win easily, but it leaves them few potential seats.

3. Wasted Vote: dilutes the opposition’s strength by dividing its votes among a number of districts.

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