UNIT 4 LESSON:
POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS
STUDENT WILL BE ABLE TO…
Understand that states are organized entities.
TECHNICAL DEFINITIONS ARE IMPORTANT
Country: an identifiable land area
Nation: A population with a single culture (Not the same
as a state!)
State: A population under a single government
Sovereignty: Free of outside control and is recognized
by the international community as a state.
Nation-State: A single culture under a single
government (Very uncommon, Japan is best example)
Nations
State Name
Country
England, Scotland, Wales,
Northern Ireland, Isle of
Man, and the Channel
Islands.
United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Island
Great Britain
Han, Manchu, Zhuang,
Mia, Uygur, Tibetan, and
others…
People's Republic of China China
Anglo-Canadian,
Quebecois, and First
Nations
Canada
French, German, Italian, and Convfoederatio Helvetica
Romansch
Canada
Switzerland
STATELESS NATIONS
 Stateless Nation: A people without
a state.
 People have a shared identity,
history, etc. However, they do
not formally have sovereignty
over a recognized piece of land.
 Examples: Kurds, Roma, Basques,
Palestinians and some Native
American tribes in U.S.
TREATY/PEACE OF WESTPHALIA
 Concept of a state is a relatively new concept dates to 1640’s with
Peace of Westphalia
 Lot’s of independent cities and princes in Europe
 Had led to years of fighting
 Major powers; France, Sweden, Spain, Representatives of Holy
Roman Empire, and Netherlands were present
 Set-up internal political boundaries in Europe
 Major powers were now responsible for what happened in their area.
 Concept of sovereignty emerged; leave it alone if it’s not in your state
FRY &
LAURIE
WHY TREATY OF WESTPHALIA MATTERS
 Prior to Westphalia; no states existed, all nations (based on a single
cultural element)
 You’re French because you speak French; not where you live.
 Now; line arbitrarily drawn is your “state”. You’re French if you live in
France.
 Some nations became states; all the Swiss speakers were in a single
area of Switzerland.
 Nation-State Concept
 Some became binational or multinational states
 Contains more than one nation
 Belgium  one of the best examples; Flemish speak Dutch (59%) and
Walloons who speak French (41%) Two areas (Flanders and Wallonia)
WE’RE GOING TO DIVERGE A LITTLE BIT….
 We’re actually going to read from a world history textbook after your
Tuesday-Thursday reading.
 Colonialism: An attempt by one country to establish settlements and
to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another
territory (Rubenstein, 2014)
 You learned about colonialism in U.S. History to 1865
 Colonialism is about trying to change the culture, religions, and
establishing a government over the area.
 India was also colonized by the British
 Set-up government, created an educational exchange system, etc.
 People will say it was imperialism…could argue either way.
IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM ARE DIFFERENT,
BUT OFTEN USED INTERCHANGEABLY
 Imperialism: Extension of the power of a nation through direct or indirect
control of the economic and political life of other territories.
 Berlin Conference literally divided up Africa to different countries and did
not care about people or the languages that they spoke, beliefs, etc.
 The Treaty of Westphalia is different from the Berlin Conference because
Treaty of Westphalia actually recognized people existed.
 Countries that went into Africa “claimed” portions, but did little to create
infrastructure; such as a long-term government or educational system, etc.
 We’re going to spend time the next few days in class watching a video on
Africa and imperialism; you learn a lot in World History, but it’s useful for
understanding Political Geography
BERLIN CONFERENCE
1884-1885
European
powers came
together and
literally
claimed
portions of
Africa on a
map for
themselves.