Territoriality

1. Territoriality The Political Organization of Space

2. Territoriality of the Classroom • Question: • How does the concept of territoriality apply to the classroom? How is it delimited? Who is sovereign? • Definition of territoriality – “The attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships, by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area.”

3. Sovereignty • Sovereignty basically means having the last say over a territory – politically and militarily. • States are sovereign and have the right to defend their territorial integrity against incursion from other states. Can be a controversial issue in global politics as seen in Iraq

4. Nations • Nation – a culturally defined group of people with a shared past and a common future who relate to a territory and have political goals. • People construct nations to make sense of themselves. • Nations are “imagined communities” -Benedict Anderson • imagined = you will never meet all the people in your nation • community = you see yourself as part of it

5. The Gator Nation • How would you define the Gator Nation? • What is the cultural definition that unites the ‘group’ or nation? • What is the ‘shared past’ and ‘common future’? • What are its ‘goals’? • Is there really a Gator Nation?

6. Nations are “imagined communities” Nations are ‘made’ by the people themselves not from the outside-in.

8. Nations • Nations are created by people in order to give themselves an identity at that scale.

9. Distribution of national territory • As a rule, the more compact the territory the better • Theoretically, the most desirable shape for a country is round or hexagonal • Allow short communication lines • Minimizes amount of border to be defended • No country has this ideal degree of compactness • Some countries come close—France, Poland, Zaire, and Brazil

10. Prorupted Elongated Fragmented Perforated Compact Enclave

11. Distribution of national territory • Unfavorable territorial distributions can inhibit national cohesiveness • Enclave — district surrounded by a country but not ruled by it

12. Distribution of national territory • Exclaves — Pieces of national territory separated from the main body of a country by the territory of another • Hard to defend • Isolated population may develop separatist feelings

13. Distribution of national territory • Pakistan as an exclave in 1947 • Two parts were separated by 1,000 miles of India territory • West Pakistan had the capital, most of the territory, and hoarded the country’s wealth • East Pakistan had most the people and resources • Divided in 1973, East Pakistan became Bangladesh

14. Boundaries • Historically, frontiers rather than boundaries separated states. • A frontier is a geographic zone where no state exercises power, whereas a boundary is a thin, imaginary line. • Buffer state— independent but small and weak country lying between two powerful countries • Mongolia—lies between Russia and China • Nepal—lies between India and China • Satellite state -- a buffer state that falls under the domination of one of its powerful neighbors and loses much of its independence

15. Boundaries • Most modern boundaries are lines rather than zones • Natural boundaries— follow some feature of the natural landscape • Ethnographic boundaries — based on a culture trait often religion or language • Geometric boundaries — regular, often perfectly straight lines drawn without regard for physical or cultural features

16. Boundaries • Some boundaries are of mixed type • Relic boundaries — no longer exist as international borders • Often leave behind a trace in local culture • Example of the reunification of Germany where different levels of prosperity still show between east and west • International borders can be very divisive