Cultural Geography -
Political Geography
Overview
Key Terms
- Political Geography -
location and organization of the earth's surface into a collection of political
units. (Units may be international and national)
- Most fundamental
cultural imprint on the landscape; arbitrary yet very real
- State - an organized
independent political unit (synonymous with country)
- Nation - a group of people
with a commonality (ancestry, race, religion)
- Nation-State - A state
whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular nation
Evolution of the State
- Ancient City-States -
Mesoptamia
- Empires -controlled vast
areas through efficient networks, strong military, organized government
- Kingdoms - king of vast
estates; European countries today from this evolution
- Colonies - extension
of kingdom (missionaries, resources, indication of power)
Colonialism - extension of kingdoms & countries
- Spain & Portugal
conquered New World
- England (United Kingdom)
- attained a colonial empire that circled the globe
- "empire where
the sun never set"
- France - colonized nearby
lands
- Others - Germany, Belgium,
Dutch, US
- All established an elite
ruling class favoring the imperial powers; seeds of unrest in future
- Imperialism - refers to Asia and Africa; absolute
control of an inhabited areas for power & resources
Organization of States
- Unitary - most of the
power is in the hands of one central government
- France controls all
subregions (regions and departements)
- Federal -a strong central
government but local authority with autonomy is given to regional governments
- World Powers
- Number of States
- Process of Devolution
Map
Exercise of Former USSR
Multinational States
- Former Soviet Union (USSR)
- Former Yugoslavia
Preliminary
Questions1
Shapes of States
- Fragmented - a state
that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory.
- more difficult to
govern because of isolation
- Prorupted (protruded) - an otherwise
compact state with a large projecting extension
- can benefit if the
proruption leads to a resource, access point or as buffer
- Compact - a state in
which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly
- efficient and easy
to run is capital is place near center
- Elongated - a state with
a long, narrow shape
- harder to manage
because of possibility of long distances from the capital; poor communication
- Perforated - a state
that is completely surrounds another one
- somewhat hard to
govern because two states must be agreeable to each other
- usually landlocked
and dependent on outer state to support it
Other
Boundaries
- Landlocked States - lack
access to ocean or major transportation corridors
- Frontier - a zone of
separation between two states in which neither state exercises political control;
few areas left; Antarctica & Arabia
Boundary Types
- Physical boundaries
- Cultural boundaries
Supranational Organizations
- Alliances, trade associations, and organizations designed to represent the
interests of multiple states.
- Economic organizations
- Political organizations
- Military organizations