UNIT 4: POLITICAL SPACE
AND ORGANIZATION
Ms. Roti’s AP HG Class
Introduction Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkwA5GJiQx4
Questions for elbow partners:
 What is his main argument?
 Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Key Issues for Unit 4
Where are states distributed?
 Why are nation-states difficult to create?
 Why do boundaries cause problems?
 Why do states cooperate and compete
with each other?

Key Issue #1:
Where are states distributed?
State & Sovereignty

State: an independent political unit
occupying a defined, permanently
populated territory and having full
sovereign control over its internal and
foreign affairs
 Currently,

approximately 200 independent states exist
Sovereignty: the authority to govern
oneself
Markers of a Nation
Nation: a group of people with a common culture
occupying a particular territory, bound together by
a strong sense of unity arising from shared beliefs
and customs (ex. the Kurds)
1. Shared Cultural heritage or shared belief
system
2. Loyalty
3. Permanent territory
4. Self-determination


Nation-state: an ideal form consisting of a
homogenous group governed by their own
state. Very few states are true nationstates, because most states contain minority
peoples who belong to another nation
 ex.

Denmark and Japan
Stateless nation: a people without a state
Challenges in Defining States

Disagreement exists about actual number of sovereign
states as a result of historical disputes involving more than
one claim to a territory
 China
 Most
other countries consider China (People’s Republic of China)
and Taiwan (Republic of China) as separate and sovereign states
 China’s government considers Taiwan part of China
 Western
Sahara
 Most
Africans countries consider Western Sahara a sovereign state
 Morocco claims the territory

Built a 2,700 kilometer wall around it to keep rebels out
Challenges of Defining States

Polar Regions: Many Claims
 Several
states claim portion of the South Pole
region
 Some claims in the South Pole region are
overlapping and conflicting
 US, Russia, and many other states do not
recognize claims to Antarctica
 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
permitted countries to submit claims inside the
Arctic Circle (North Pole) by 2009
Development of the State Concept

Evolution of States
 First
states were known as city-states, which are
sovereign states that are comprised of towns and their
surrounding countryside
 Walls
delineated boundaries
 Area immediately outside walls controlled by city to produce
food for urban residents
 Medieval
 Gained
States
military dominance of individual city-states led to
the formation of empires (e.g. Roman Empire)
 Roman Empire collapse in 5th century led to its land being
broken up and controlled by various monarchies
Development of the State Concept
 After
WWII, leaders of the victorious countries met
at the Versailles Peace Conference to redraw the
map of Europe
 Language
most important criteria to create new
European states and to adjust existing boundaries
 Nation-states created by Versailles conference
lasted through most of 20th century with little
adjustment
Key Issue #2
Why are nation-states difficult to create?
Nation-States and Multinational States

Multi-ethnic state: a state that contains
more than one ethnicity
 Multitude
of ethnicities in some cases all contribute
cultural features to the formation of a single
nationality (e.g. United States)

Multinational state: a state that contains
more than one nation, most countries are
multinational (e.g. Canada)
Colonies

Colonialism
 Colony:
a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign
state rather than being completely independent
 Sovereign
state may run only its military and foreign policy
 Sovereign state may also control its internal affairs
 European
states came to control much of the world
through colonialism, an effort by one country to
establish settlement in a territory and to impose its
political, economic, and cultural principles on that
territory
After Colonialism

New countries are formed and conflict arises from
superimposed boundaries
 Superimposed
boundaries: a political boundary placed
by powerful outsiders on a developed human
landscape
 Occurred in Africa, Asia, Middle East. Leads to conflict
among different ethnicities that are now part of the
same country
Colonies Today

The remaining colonies
 US
Department of State lists 68 places in the world
that it calls dependencies and areas of special
sovereignty
 43
indigenous populations
 25 with no permanent population
 Most current colonies are islands in the Pacific Ocean and
Caribbean Sea

Ex. Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the US, is home to 4 million
residents who are US citizens, but they do not participate in US
election or have a voting member of Congress
Key Issue #3
Why do boundaries between
states cause problems?
Boundaries

Boundary: an invisible line marking the extent of a
state’s territory
 Physical

& Cultural
Boundaries can generate conflicts
Types of Boundaries

Types of boundaries
 Physical
– difficult to cross and sparsely inhabited
 Desert
boundaries
 Mountain boundaries
 Water boundaries (i.e. rivers, lakes, oceans)
 Cultural
 Ethnic
boundaries
 Geometric

Frontiers: a zone where no state exercises complete
political authority
Boundaries

Geometric boundaries
 Straight
lines drawn on a map
 E.G. 2,100 kilometer straight line along 49º north latitude
that separates US and Canada
 Established

in 1846 by treaty between US and Great Britain
Cultural boundaries: Ethnic boundaries
 Boundary
coincides with differences in ethnicity, especially
language and religion
Boundaries and Water

Boundaries of coastal states extend offshore
 Water
enclosed by these boundaries are called
territorial seas
 Territorial seas rarely exceed 12 miles

Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs): areas where
coastal and island states have the right to manage
ocean resources
Shapes of States




Large states have a greater chance for natural
resources, but may have vast areas that are remote,
sparsely populated, and hard to include in mainstream
economy and society
Small states are more likely to have a culturally
homogenous population
Microstate (or mini-state): a sovereign state having a very
small population or very little land area
Size alone is not critical in determining a country’s stability
and strength, but it is a contributing factor
Shapes of States

Controls the length of its boundaries with other states
 Affects
the potential for communication and conflict with
neighbors



Shape is part of a country’s unique identity
Shape also influences the ease or difficulty of internal
administration and can affect social unity
Countries have five basic shapes
Five Basic Shapes of Countries
1. Compact States: Efficient

Distance from center of
state to any boundary
does not vary significantly
 Ideal
theoretical example
would be circle-shaped with
the capital in the center
 Beneficial characteristic
within small states because
good communication can be
more easily established to
all regions
Five Basic Shapes of Countries
2. Elongated States: Potential Isolation



Long and narrow shape
May suffer from poor internal
communication
Example: Chile
 4,000
km long north and south
 Rarely exceeds 150 km wide
east and west
Five Basic Shapes of Countries
3. Prorupted States: Access or Disruption


Compact state with a
large projecting
extension
Proruptions created for
two principle reasons
Provide state access to
a resource, such as
water
 Separate two states
that would otherwise
share a boundary

Five Basic Shapes of Countries
4. Fragmented States: Problematic


State that includes several discontinuous pieces of
territory
Two kinds of fragmented states
 Fragmented
states separated by water
 Fragmented states separated by an intervening state

Makes communication difficult
Five Basic Shapes of Countries
5. Perforated States: South Africa


A state that
completely surrounds
another one
Encompassed stated is
dependent on the
surrounding state for
interactions beyond its
boundary
 E.G.
Lesotho is
completely
surrounded by South
Africa
Landlocked States




Landlocked states: completely
surrounded by one or more
states, lack access to the sea
Direct access to an ocean is
critical to states because it
facilitates international trade
To send and receive goods by
sea, a landlocked state must
arrange to use another
country’s seaport
Prevalence of landlocked
states in Africa is a
consequence of the colonial
era
Boundaries Inside States:
Unitary and Federal States

Governments of states are organized according to one
of two approaches: the unitary system OR the federal
system
 Unitary:
countries with highlighted centralized governments,
few internal cultural contrasts, strong sense of national
identity and borders that are clearly cultural as well as
political (Sweden)
 Federal: a state with a two-tiered system of government and
a clear distinction between the powers vested in the central
government and those residing in the governments of the
component regional subdivisions (US)
 Global
trend towards federations
Electoral Geography


Electoral Geography: examines how people’s political
preferences are manifested in representation
Boundaries separating legislative districts within the US and
other countries are redrawn periodically to ensure each has
about the same population
435 districts of the US House of Representatives are redrawn
every 10 years, following the Census Bureau’s release of the
official population figures
 Job of redrawing boundaries is entrusted to the state legislature


Gerrymandering: process of redrawing legislative
boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power
Electoral Geography

Gerrymandering takes three forms:
 “Wasted
vote” spreads opposition supporters across
many districts but in the minority
 “Excess vote” concentrates opposition supporters into a
few districts
 “Stacked vote” links distant areas of like-minded voters
through oddly shaped boundaries

US Supreme Court ruled gerrymandering illegal in
1985 but did not require dismantling of existing
oddly shaped districts
Electoral Geography


Recent gerrymandering in the
US has been primarily
“stacked vote”
Through gerrymandering, only
about one-tenth of
Congressional seats are
competitive, making a shift of
more than a few seats
increasingly improbably from
one election to another in the
US
Electoral Geography

Gerrymandering Activity!
Key Issue #4
Why do states cooperate and
compete with each other?
Cold War Competition & Alliances


Division of world into military alliances resulted from the
emergence of two superpowers: US and Soviet Union
Military cooperation in Europe
 NATO
(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
 16
democratic states, including the US, Canada, and 14 other
European states
 Warsaw
 Military
Pact
agreement among Communist eastern European countries
to defend each other in case of attack
Cold War Competition & Alliances

NATO and Warsaw Pact were designed to maintain
a bipolar balance of power in Europe
 NATO’s
Objective: prevent the spread of communism by
the Soviet Union
 Warsaw Pact Objective: provide the Soviet Union a
buffer of allied states between it and Germany to
discourage a third German invasion of the Soviet Union
in the 20th century
 Disbanded
once Europe was no longer dominated by
military confrontation between two blocs
Political and Military Cooperation

The United Nations (established 1945)
 Represents
a forum where virtually all states can meet
and vote on issues without resorting to war
Supranationalism


Supranationalism: 3 or more countries form a union
for economic, political, or cultural cooperation
Economic Cooperation
 Most
important elements of state power are
increasingly economic rather than military
 European Union (includes 27 countries)
 Main
task of the EU is to promote development within
the member states through economic cooperation
Economic Alliances in Europe

European Union (EU)
 Formed:
1958
 Original Members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, and West Germany
 Purpose: Heal Western Europe’s scars from WWII

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)
 Formed:
1949
 Original Members: 7 Eastern European Communist states
from the Warsaw Pact plus Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam
 Purpose: Promote trade and sharing of natural resources
Economic Alliances in Europe

The EU in the 21st century
 Expanded
to 12 countries during the 1980s; expanded to
27 in the 2000s
 Main task of the EU is to promote the development within
member states through economic and political cooperation
 Eurozone
 Most dramatic step toward integrating Europe’s nationstates into a regional organization
 European Central Bank given responsibility of setting
interest rates and minimizing inflation throughout the
Eurozone
 Common currency established – euro
Advantages of the EU Membership

No tariffs/import taxes on EU produced products going
to EU countries
tariffs = lower prices  more sales = higher profits
 Result: higher standard of living for all EU members
 No

Greater international influence
 More
power to compete with economies of other countries
 War is less likely



Common passport
Common currency
Universal voting
Concerns & Disadvantages of EU Membership





Devolution issues
Loss of control over individual policy
No protection for local industries (Eastern Europe was
used to this under communism)
Possible unemployment in certain industries
Loss of “national” identity or culture
Devolution



A kind of decentralization whereby a state transfers
some power to a self-defined community, such as
one of its national groups
Process whereby regions within a state demand and
gain political strength and growing autonomy at the
expense of the central government
Breakup of a state (Balkanization)
Examples of Devolution
Break up of a state
 Yugoslavia / Balkans
 Former USSR
 Czechoslovakia
 Austria-Hungary
Demand for Autonomy
 UK: Scotland, Wales,
Ireland, N. Ireland
 Spain: Basques,
Catalonians
Effects of Devolution


Formation of new states
More power to regions
 Formation
of new legislatures
 Local control over policy

Local ethno-nationalism
 Linguistic
 Religious

revival
Regional separatism
Effects of Devolution

Political instability
 Civil
war
 Fighting
 Hostility
 Ethnic cleansing


Economic instability
Mass migration
 Refugees
 Emigration
FRQ #2 Practice
The modern state system is engaged in a struggle
between the forces of supranationalism and devolution.
 A. Define both terms and give a geographic example
of each
 B. With reference to the political and economic
geography of Europe, briefly discuss 2 changes
resulting from supranationalism.
 C. With reference to the political and economic
geography of Europe, briefly discuss 2 changes
resulting from devolution.
Terrorism


Terrorism by individuals and organizations
State support for terrorism
 Libya
 Afghanistan
 Iraq
 Iran
Terrorism by Individuals & Organizations



Terrorism: systematic use of violence by a group in
order to intimidate a population or coerce a
government into granting its demands
Differs from other acts of political violence because
attacks are aimed at ordinary people rather than
military or political leaders
Terrorists consider all citizens responsible for the actions
being opposed, so therefore equally justified as victims
Terrorism by Individuals & Organizations



The US suffered several terrorist attacks during the
late 20th century
With the exception of the Oklahoma City bombing,
which killed 168 people in 1995, Americans
generally paid little attention to the attacks and
had only a vague notion of who had committed
them
Americans’ view on terrorism changed after 9/11
American Terrorists


Some of the terrorists during the 1990s
were American citizens operating alone or
with a handful of others
Theodore J. Kaczynski (the Unabomber) was
convicted of killing 3 people and injuring 23
others by sending bombs through the mail
during a 17 year period


His targets were mainly academics in
technological disciplines and executives in
businesses whose actions he considered to be
adversely affecting the environment
Timothy J. McVeigh (Oklahoma City
Bombing) claimed his terrorist act was
provoked by the Waco, Texas incident
American Terrorists

Dec. 21, 1988 – Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie Scotland 259 killed
Feb. 26, 1993 – Car bomb in World Trade center, 6 killed
April 19, 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing, 168 killed
June 25, 1996 – Apartment Building in Saudi, 19 US soldiers
Aug. 7, 1998 – Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, 190 killed
Oct. 12, 2000 – USS Cole, Yemen, 17 killed

No one much noticed these attacks until 9/11






Except Oklahoma
These attacks resulted in 3,000 deaths
Terrorism by Individuals & Organizations

State support for terrorism
 Several
Middle Eastern states have supported for
terrorism in recent years, at three increasing levels of
involvement:
 Providing

sanctuary for terrorists wanted by other countries
Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan have provided sanctuary for
al-Qaeda terrorists
 Supplying
weapons, money, and intelligence to terrorists
 Planning attacks using terrorists