Key Issue #1

Where Are States

Located?

What is a state?• A state is an area organized

into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs. A state occupies a defined territory and contains a permanent population.

• A state has sovereignty, which means independence from control of its internal affairs by other states. The term country is a synonym

for state.

Problems with defining states…

• There are approximately 200 states in the world today. However, there are some disagreements about defining the exact number of sovereign states. Korea, China, and Western Sahara are three such states…

Korea: One state or two?

• A colony of Japan for many years, it was divided by the US and USSR following World War II.

• Each side now has an independent government and fits the definition of a state. Both were admitted to the

United Nations in 1992 as separate countries.

China and Taiwan: One state or two?

• According to China, Taiwan is not an independent state, but a part of China.

• Following defeat in China’s civil war, the losing side fled to Taiwan. There, (with US support) they proclaimed they were still the legitimate government of China and would rule at least one island until they could retake the entire country.

• Taiwan’s president proclaimed independence from China in 1999, but China viewed the announcement as a dangerous departure from the prior agreement. Most UN states view Taiwan and China

as two separate and sovereign states.

Western Sahara: Part of Morocco?

• Spain controlled the territory until 1976, at which time an independent government was put in control.

• Morocco annexed the north and Mauritania annexed the south, ignoring the gov. of W.S.

• Mauritania gave up its claim in 1979, at which time Morocco annexed the south. Morocco still maintains control

today, but most African nations recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as the legitimate state.

Varying Size of States

• The land occupied by the states of the world varies considerably. The largest state is Russia, which encompasses 6.6 million square miles (or 11% of the Earth’s land surface).– Russia– China– Canada– U.S.

• On the other extreme are about two dozen microstates, which are states with very small land areas. Monaco (0.6 square miles) is the world’s smallest state. Many microstates are islands, which explain both their small size and their sovereignty

• 1. Vatican City - 0.44 km²• 2. Monaco - 1.95 km²• 3. Nauru – 21 km²• 4. Tuvalu – 26 km²• 5. San Marino - 61 km² • 6. Liechtenstein - 164 km²• 7. Marshall Islands - 181 km²• 8. Saint Kitts & Nevis – 26 km² • 9. Maldives - 298 km²• 10. Malta - 316 km²• 11. Grenada - 344 km²• 12. Saint Vincent & the

Grenadines - 388 km²• 13. Barbados 30 km²• 14. Antigua & Barbuda - 442 km²• 15. Seychelles – 455 km²

• 16. Palau - 459 km²• 17. Andorra - 468 km²• 18. Saint Lucia - 539 km²• 19. Singapore - 683 km²• 20. Bahrain - 694 km²• 21. Federated States of

Micronesia - 702 km²• 22. Kiribati7 - 26 km²• 23. Tonga - 747 km²• 24. Dominica- 751 km²• 25. São Tomé & Príncipe - 964

km²

(Rhode Island… 4,002 km²)

Microstates Under 1,000 km²

DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE CONCEPT

• The concept of dividing the world into a collection of independent states is recent. Prior to the 1800s, Earth’s surface was

organized in other ways, such as city-states, empires, and tribes. Much of Earth’s surface consisted of unorganized territory.

Ancient States

• The modern movement to divide the world into states originated in Europe.

• The development of states can be traced back to the Fertile Crescent in the present day Middle East.Situated at the crossroads of Europe, Asia,

and Africa, the Fertile Crescent was a center for land and sea communications in ancient times.

City-States

• The first states to evolve in Mesopotamia were known as city-states.

• A city-state is a sovereign state that is comprised of a town and the surrounding countryside.

• Walls clearly marked the boundaries of the city. Outside the walls, the city controlled agricultural land to produce food for urban residents. Mesopotamia was organized into a

succession of empires by the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians.

Early European States

• Beginning about the year 1100, a handful of powerful kings emerged as rulers over large numbers of estates.

• The consolidation of neighboring estates under the unified control of a king formed the basis for the development of such modern states as England, France, and Spain. However, much of central Europe,

like Italy and Germany, remained fragmented until the 19th century.

Colonialism

• A colony is a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent.

• In some cases, the “parent” country controls only parts of the colony (like the economy or the military) and other times, it controls everything in and of the colony. European states came to

control much of the world through colonialism, which is the effort by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles on such territory.

Europeans established colonies for three basic reasons:

1) to promote Christianity2) to provide resources that helped the economy of European States, and 3) the number of colonies were considered to be an indicator of power.

The three motives can be summarized by the three G’s: “God, gold, and glory.”

• The colonial era began in the 1400s, when Europeans discovered the Western Hemisphere.

• Europeans lost the U.S. in 1776 and Latin America between 1800 and 1824. They then turned their attention towards Africa and Asia. The European colonization of

Africa and Asia is called imperialism, which is control of territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous society, whereas colonialism is control of previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.

• The United Kingdom assembled by far the largest colonial empire..

• France had the second largest overseas territory The most populated

colony remaining in the world today is Puerto Rico, which is a Commonwealth of the United States. Its residents are citizens of the US, but do not participate in elections, nor are they represented in Congress.

Former British Empire as of 1919

Is the US an imperial

power today?