Political Geography: State Shapes
and Borders
AP Human Geography
Territorial Morphology: The Shape of
States
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Compact
Prorupted
Elongated
Fragmented
Perforated
Micro
Compact
• Ease of communication; distance from capital
to everything else easy
• Example: Switzerland; Hungary
Prorupted
• Compact with a large projecting extension
• Issues with “devolution” sometimes
• Example: DR Congo; Thailand
Fragmented
• States with several discontinuous pieces of
territory; like islands. Devolution an issue
• Example: Indonesia
Perforated
• A state the completely surrounds another one
• Example: South Africa and Lesotho
Elongated
• Long narrow shape due to geography or other
political or economic reasons
• Examples: Chile and Gambia
Microstates
• Tiny, usually homogenous, states
• Example: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,
Singapore
Exclaves and Enclaves
• Exclaves: small bits of territory that lie
separate from the rest of the state by another
state; not land locked
• Example: Russia and Kaliningrad
Enclaves
• Enclaves: landlocked pieces of a state
surrounded by another state
• Example: Armenia, Azerbaijan and NagornoKarabakh
Boundaries
• Physical: easy to see and use; water (lakes,
rivers, etc..) use the median-line principle
• Oceans use: Law of the Sea (1983)- territory
goes out to 12 nautical miles
• Cultural: harder to define; language? Religion?
Ethnicity? “Balkanization” and “shatter
belts”(Caucasus Mts.)
• Geometric: straight and imaginary
Physical and Geometric
Balkanization and “Shatter Belts”
Boundary Disputes
• Positional(definitional): Where is the border?
India and China over Assam/Himalayas
• Territorial: Who should own what? Pakistan vs.
India over Kashmir
• Resource(allocation): Who gets to use the stuff?
Ex: Kuwait vs. Iraq (oil); GA VS FLA. Over water
• Functional(operational): What rules should we
use at the border? Ex: USA/Mexico border control
and NAFTA
India and China