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Core Areas, Capital Cities, Primate Cities, Forward Capitals and Maritime Boundaries. APHG 2013. Core Areas. Refer to the center, heart, or focus. The core area of a nation-state is constituted by the national heartland.
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Core Areas, Capital Cities, Primate Cities, Forward Capitals and Maritime Boundaries APHG 2013
Core Areas • Refer to the center, heart, or focus. • The core area of a nation-state is constituted by the national heartland. • It has the largest population cluster and is the most productive region. • It is the area with the greatest centrality and accessibility. • It may also contain the capital city.
Core Areas • May be identified on a map by looking at population distributions and transport networks • As one travels from the core area, towns get smaller, factories fewer, and open land more common. • Some examples: Paris Basin in France, Kanto Plain in Japan, the Cairo-Alexandra Axis and the Nile Delta in Egypt, and in Chile, Santiago lies in the nucleo central.
Multicore states • States that possess more than one core area • May present problems especially if the areas are ethnically diverse, e.g. Nigeria • May not always present problem, e.g., the United States- primary core: Washington, D.C. to Boston; secondary core: West Coast (San Diego to San Francisco); other core areas: Chicago and other Midwestern cities and Atlanta in the South.
Capital City • The political nerve center of the country • National headquarter and seat of government • The center of national life • The status of the capital city is recognized by using its name interchangeably with that of the state itself. E.g., “Washington is at odds with Moscow.”
Primate city • A country’s largest and most economically influential city • It is most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not always) the capital city as well. • There is no other city that comes close to rivaling the city in terms of size and influence. • Some examples: London, Paris, Mexico City, Jakarta, Nairobi, etc.
Forward Capital • The relocation of the capital in pursuit of some national objectives, e.g., economic, political, etc. • Examples: Abuja, Nigeria; Brasilia, Brazil, Malawi: from Zomba to Lilongwe • Pakistan: from Karachi to Islamabad • Malaysia: from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya • Japan: from Kyoto to Tokyo
United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) • Conferences organized by the United Nations for the purpose of defining maritime boundaries, commonly referred to as the Law of the Sea Conference • There have been three of such conferences: • UNCLOS I • UNCLOS II • UNCLOS III: 1982; signed by 157 countries
Historically, how were maritime boundaries determined? • Originated in Europe many centuries ago • A 14th century Italian legal scholar is credited with the first formal proposal that states should be awarded sovereignty over a strip of water next to their coastlines • Led to many debates over the width of the offshore zone • Some suggested the width should be determined by how far a cannonball would fall if fired from the coastline • Various states chose various widths • Very confusing
Maritime Boundaries • 1982- United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) signed by 150 countries • The convention delimits territorial boundaries and rights by defining four zones: • A territorial sea • An exclusive economic zone (eez) • The high seas
Territorial sea • Extends up to 12 nautical miles (1 nm = 1.15 statute miles) • Coastal states have sovereignty over this area, including fishing rights • Vessels of all types normally have the right of innocent passage through this area, except noncommercial (primarily military and research) could be challenged
Median Line Principle • Put in effect to determine the extent of a country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), especially for island countries whose EEZ tend to overlap
What happens when countries lie closer than 400 nautical miles to each other?
Exclusive economic Zone (EEZ) • Up to 200 nm (370 km) • Right to explore, conserve, and manage the natural resources, both living and non-living of the seabed and waters
The high seas (the global common) • Beyond the EEZ • Outside any national jurisdiction • Open to all states, whether coastal or landlocked • Freedom of the high seas includes the right to sail ships, fish, fly over, lay submarine cables and pipelines, and pursue scientific research