Political Geography

1. Political Geography

2. To review from yesterday…

3. Ethnicities and Nationalities • State: An independent, bounded, and internationally recognized territory with full sovereignty over the land and people within it • Nation: Cultural unit- group that shares ancestry, regardless of whether the group owns its own country • A group becomes a nation when they start to see themselves as separate and different from foreigners

4. Ethnicities and Nationalities • Nationality: Identity with a group of people who share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a particular country • Nation-state: A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality • Denmark, Japan, Sweden, Portugal, Costa Rica • Most countries are NOT nation-states • Nationalism: Loyalty and devotion to a nationality • It is a centripetal force!

5. Ethnicities and Nationalities • Multiethnic State: A state that contains more than one ethnicity • United States- multiple ethnicities that claim the U.S. as their nation – their nationality is American • Multinational States: A state that has two ethnic groups with traditional self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully • Former Soviet Union (doesn’t exist. Former.) • Russia • UK • Canada • South Africa • Stateless nation: A nation without a state

6. Ethnicities and Nationalities • Ethnonationalism- feeling of belonging to a minority nation that is in a state dominated by a more powerful nation • Can lead to separatism • Irredentism- when a nation’s homeland spills into another state, so then the people on the “wrong side” want to join the other state • Multi-state nation

7. Disagreements over Sovereignty • Korea • Divided after WWII • The UN recognizes them as separate • China and Taiwan • Taiwan run by nationalists • Taiwan says they’re sovereign, China disagrees • The U.S. only agreed with Taiwan until 1971 • Western Sahara • Morocco claims it • Most African nations recognize its sovereignty • Polar regions • Different states “control” different portions

8. Three basic types of government • Unitary • Central government has most of the power • France, Saudi Arabia, Japan • Federal • Regional governments share power with the central government • Often has a constitution • United States of America, Mexico, Canada, India

9. Colonialism and Imperialism • City-state: a sovereign state that comprises a town and the surrounding countryside • Colony: A territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent • Colonialism: The effort of one country to establish colonies and to impose their political, economic and cultural principles on that territory • Imperialism: Control of a territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous society

10. State Shapes • Compact • Elongated • Prorupted • Perforated • Fragmented • Landlocked States

11. Boundaries • Boundary: vertical plane between states that cuts through the rocks below, and the airspace above (even outer space). •   Evolution (of boundaries): • -Definition: legal document or treaty drawn up to specify actual points in the landscape • -Delimitation: cartographers put the boundary on the map • -Demarcation: boundary is actually marked on the ground w/ wall, fence, posts,… (too expensive or impractical for most borders to be demarcated) •   Types (of boundaries): • -Geometric: straight-line, unrelated to physical or cultural landscape, lat & long (US/Canada) • -Physical-political: (natural-political) – conform to physiologic features (Rio Grande: US/Mexico; Pyrenees: Spain/France) • -Cultural-political: mark breaks in the human landscape (Armenia/Azerbaijan) •   Genesis: origin-based classification of boundaries • -Antecedent: existed before the cultural landscape emerged (e.g., Malaysia/Indonesia) • -Subsequent: developed contemporaneously with the evolution of the cultural landscape (e.g., US/Mexico) • -Superimposed: placed by powerful outsiders on a developed landscape, usually ignores pre-existing cultural-spatial patterns (e.g., Indonesia/Papua New Guinea; Haiti/Dominican Republic) • -Relict: has ceased to function, but its imprint can still be detected on the cultural landscape (e.g., North/South Vietnam, East/West Berlin) •   Disputes (over boundaries): • -Definitional: focus on legal language (e.g. median line of a river: water levels may vary) • -Locational:  definition is not in dispute, the interpretation is; allows mapmakers to delimit boundaries in various ways • -Operational: neighbors differ over the way the boundary should function (migration, smuggling) (e.g., US/Mexico) • -Allocational: disputes over rights to natural resources (gas, oil, water) (e.g., Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, in part, due to a dispute over oil rights regarding the Ramallah oil field (mostly in Iraq but straddling into Kuwait)

12. Centripetal and Centrifugal • Bind states, unify them and help them succeed • Nationalism • Iconography is using symbols • Unifying institutions • Schools • Military • religion • Destabilizing, challenging, creates discord • Organized religion • Nationalism in a state with many nationalities • Subnationalism • Devolution • Ethnic cleansing

13. Supranationalism • An association of three or more states created for the mutual benefit and to achieve shared objectives •  loss of national independence •  someone has your back! •  easier to achieve goals • UN • EU • NATO • NAFTA • Arab League • OPEC • British Commonwealth

14. Some words… • Enclave- a district surrounded by a country but not ruled by it • Lesotho • Exclave- part of a national territory separated from the main body of the country • Alaska • Ethnic Enclave: examples include Chinatown, Little Italy

15. Devolution • Regions in the state demand more autonomy and receive it • By doing this, the central government loses authority • Basque and Catalonia in Spain • Chechnya in Russia

16. Balkanization • The break up of a large country into smaller, independent regions or countries • First used when Yugoslavia broke into six countries during the late 80s- early 90s

17. Electoral Geography • Redrawing legislative boundaries with the purpose of benefitting the party in power • Wasted vote- spreads out the opposition • Excess vote- concentrates opposition into a few districts • Stacked vote- Links distant areas of like-minded voters into oddly shaped boundaries • Often used to elect ethnic minorities