AP Human Geography
Political Geography Learning Targets
Updated 8/20/2013
Topic
Territorial
Dimensions of
Politics
Learning Targets
 I can identify ways that territoriality affects interaction at different
scales.
Academic Vocabulary
Territoriality at different scales
Manifest destiny
Political Power
 I can describe the process involved in setting boundaries and give
examples of different types of boundaries.
Boundary definition
Boundary delimitation
Boundary demarcation
Natural/Physical-political boundary
Ethnographic/Cultural-political boundary
Geometric boundary
Antecedent boundary
Subsequent boundary
Superimposed boundary
Border landscape
 I can evaluate the influence of boundaries on group identity,
human interaction and patterns of exchange.
Territorial morphology
(compact, fragmented, prorupt, elongated, perforated)
Microstate (and examples)
exclave (and examples)
enclave (and examples)
Armenia/Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh)
Landlocked states
Definitional boundary disputes
Locational boundary disputes
Operational boundary disputes
Allocational boundary disputes
UNCLOS
Territorial sea
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
 I can describe the nature, meaning, and function of
boundaries.
Median Line Principle
South China Sea
Global Commons
Apartheid
 I can define and give examples of different political organization of
states.
Federal state
Unitary state
Confederations
Centralized government
Forms of governance
 I can explain the relationships between policital patterns and
patterns of ethnicity, gender, economy and environment.
Immanuel Wallerstein
World Systems Analysis
Core/periphery/semi-periphery
Cores and peripheries at different scales
Primate city
Forward capital
Multicore state
Geopolitics
Balance of Power
Friedrich Ratzel (Organic Theory)
Raison d’etre
Sir Halford Mackinder (Heartland Theory)
Nickolas Spykman (Rimland Theory)
Domino Theory
Containment
Shatterbelt
Cold War (and legacy)
Bipolar/multipolar world
Political ecology (impacts of law and policy on the environment
and environmental justice)
Gateway state (and examples)
Buffer state (and examples)
Satellite state
Nunuvut
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Lebanon
Tribalism
Topic
Evolution of the
contemporary
political pattern
Topic
Changes and
challenges to
political-territorial
arrangements
Learning Targets
 I can describe the historical factors contributing to the rise of
nation states and trace the diffusion of the European model.
Academic Vocabulary
Rise of ancient states
City-state
Rise of the nation-state
Mercantilism
Economic nationalism
Treaty of Westphalia
Diffusion of the European model
 I can define and give examples of terms associated with the
concept of the nation state.
Nation (and examples)
State (and examples)
Nation-state (and examples)
Stateless nation (and examples)
Multinational state (and examples)
Multistate Nation (and examples)
 I can describe patterns of colonial control and its effect on those
areas that were colonized.
Colonialism (definition and colonial patterns)
Economic effects
Political effects
Social effects
Treaty ports
Berlin Conference
Colonial mandate system
Decolonization
I can trace the spread of democracy in the world.
Democratization
 I can describe identify and describe patterns of governance.
local
regional
metropolitan
Learning Targets
 I can discuss factors contributing to the changing nature of
sovereignty and identify threats to the state from above and below.
Academic Vocabulary
Sovereignty
Sanctions
Quasi-states (and examples)
Effect of globalization on sovereignty
Threats to the state (from above and below)
NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations)
 I can describe processes contributing to political fragmentation
and cohesion at the state level.
 I can describe processes contributing to the formation of alliances
and give examples.
 I can describe the processes of supranationalism and devolution
and give examples of each.
Centripetal forces (and examples)
Centrifugal forces (and examples)
Iconography
ASEAN
NAFTA
MERCOSUR
ECOWAS
NATO
Warsaw Pact
SEATO
African Union
Arab League
Supranationalism (and examples)
International Alliances
League of Nations (formation, accomplishments, demise)
United Nations (formation and role)
Agencies of the UN (FAO, UNESCO, WHO, IAEA, IMF, UNPO)
European Union (background, policies, issues)
Benelux
Common Market
EC
Euroregions
Devolution (and examples)
Balkanization
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Ethnic cleansing
Irredentism (and examples)
Separatist movements (and examples)
Breakup of Czechoslovakia (The Velvet Divorce)
Breakup of the Soviet Union
Fall of communism
Legacy of Cold War
Russia’s “Near Abroad”
Chechnya
 I can draw conclusions about the factors that influence
distributions shown on electoral maps at different scales.
Electoral maps
Reapportionment
Redistricting
Gerrymandering
 I can define terrorism, cite historical and contemporary examples
and discuss reasons for the distribution of terrorist activities.
Terrorism (definition and examples)
Geographic distribution of terrorist activity
Al Qaeda
Osama bin Laden
Armed conflicts
War
I can discuss changes and challenges to political-territorial
arrangements due to armed conflicts, war, and terrorism.