AP Human Geography Mrs. Bellisari

Political Geography- • The study of the interaction of geographical area and political process• It is the formal study of territoriality and power• Covers forms of government, borders, treaties, trading blocs, conflicts and war.

Basic Vocab: State vs. NationNation (“tribe”) = group of people who share…

– Common language– Common history– Ethnicity – shared ancestry and culture– Religion– Other cultural traits

• Examples:– Japanese, Han Chinese, Swedish, Basque, Kurds, Palestinians,

Chechens, Israelis, Cherokee, etc.

State: (Country) a political territory with…– Defined territory/boundaries– Stable/permanent population (50% of countries have fewer than 5 million

people)– Organizational structure or Government– Sovereignty

• Control $$$, military, and police• Regulate immigration• NO external taxes imposed• Exceptions: Extraterritoriality

– Embassies– Foreign military bases

– International Recognition (what Taiwan lacks)

(Good example of a formal or uniform region)

Example of states - Largest - Russia 6.6 million square miles- 11% of world’s land area• Others with more than 2 million square miles are Canada, US, China, Brazil,

Australia• Microstates - less than 1000 sq km

– Andorra, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahrain, etc.– Many are islands

Question of Taiwan? Is China and Taiwan One State or Two?

• Rest of world sees them as 2 • PRC - Taiwan (ROC) is not sovereign but a

part of China; left over from Chinese Civil War; 1949 - Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan (Formosa) 120 miles away

• Nationalists proclaimed they were the legitimate rulers of China - just waiting to take the mainland back over

• 1999 - Taiwan’s president announced Taiwan would regard self as sovereign independent state but China took it as a threat

• US recognized Nationalists as official govt of China until 1971 when UN voted to give China’s seats to the Communists of the PRC

• Taiwan = most populous state NOT in UN

• Diplomatic relations with USA? Unofficial! Commercial and cultural relations with the people of the US are maintained through an unofficial instrumentality, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), which has its headquarters in Taipei and in the US in Washington, DC; there are also branch offices called Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in 12 other US cities

The Koreas – One State or Two?• 20th century = colony of Japan• Post-WWII - 2 occupation zones led by US & USSR • Divided along 38 N latitude• Established separate govts & withdrew their armies

The Koreas in the 21st Century• Both govts committed to reuniting country into one

sovereign state• Agreed in 2000 to allow exchange visits of families

separated for 50 years & to increase economic cooperation

• Progress halted due to NK’s decision to build nuclear weapons - even though NK can’t provide its citizens with food, electricity, etc.

• 1992 - NK ad SK admitted to UN as separate states

Western Sahara (Sahrawi Republic)• Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic• Considered sovereign by most African countries • Morocco claims it and has built a 2700 km wall

around it to keep out rebels• Spain controlled territory on African west coast

between Morocco & Mauritania until withdrawing in 1976

• Independent Sahrawi Republic declared by Polisario Front but Morocco annexed North and Mauritania annexed South

• Morocco controls most of populated area but Polisario Front operates in vast, sparsely inhabited deserts

• UN has failed to reach a resolution among the groups

Antarctica National Claims • Southern polar region contains only

large landmasses on Earth’s surface that are not part of a state

• States like Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, UK - claim portions of Antarctica

• Argentina, Chile, and UK have conflicting overlapping claims

• US, Russia, and other states do not recognize anyone’s claims

• Antarctic Treaty signed 1959• Provides legal framework for managing

Antarctica• States may establish research stations for

scientific investigations but no military activities are permitted

• Signed by 47 states

Arctic - 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

• Permitted countries to submit claims inside Arctic Circle by 2009

• Thought to be rich in energy resources

Irredentism - is any political or popular movement intended to reclaim and reoccupy a lost homeland. As such irredentism tries to justify its territorial claims on the basis of (real or imagined) historic and/or ethnic affiliations.

Nation-state Examples – Denmark

• Denmark is a fairly good example of a European nation-state. • The territory occupied by the Danish ethnicity closely corresponds to the state of

Denmark. • But even Denmark is not a perfect example of a nation-state. • The country’s southern boundary with Germany does not divide Danish and

German nationalities precisely. • Denmark controls two territories in the Atlantic Ocean that do not share Danish

cultural characteristics—the Faeroe Islands and Greenland. • In 1979 Greenlanders received more authority to control their own domestic

affairs. • One decision was to change all place names in Greenland from Danish to the local

Inuit language.Multinational stateExamples - South Africa, Russia, Belgium

• In some multi-ethnic states, ethnicities all contribute cultural features to the formation of a single nationality.

• Belgium is divided among the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons.

• Both groups consider themselves belonging to the Belgian nationality. • Other multi-ethnic states, known as multinational states, contain two ethnic groups

with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities.

• Republics of the Soviet Union• The Soviet Union was an especially prominent example of a multinational state

until its collapse in the early 1990s.• The 15 republics that once constituted the Soviet Union are now independent

countries. • When the Soviet Union existed, its 15 republics were based on the 15 largest

ethnicities. • Less numerous ethnicities were not given the same level of recognition. • With the breakup a number of these less numerous ethnicities are now divided

among more than one state.

Problems of Multinational StatesMulti-ethnic states (Yugoslavia, Russia, African countries) w/ many nationalities = “centrifugal” forces

- Multiple languages, religions, etc

- Shape of border- Scarce resources, arable land- Weak economy- Ideological differences (pro vs. anti-slavery)- History of violence between groups- Death of strong/popular leader- Desire for “pure” nation-state “Ethnic Cleansing”- Type of government?

Centrifugal Forces lead to…Devolution: Power passed from central government to regional gov’t Ex – India, Yugoslavia, Spain, Scotland One state splits into more than one stateExs – Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia = “Balkanization”, U.S.S.R., Ethiopia/EritreaBelgium? Kashmir? Punjab? Chechnya? UK?Caused by a rise in nationalism among a group…Multi-state nations Examples – Kurds and Koreas Stateless nationsExamples – Kurds and Palestinians Soviet Ethnicities

• The 15 newly independent states consist of five groups, 3 Baltic, 3 European, 5 Central Asian, 3 Caucasus, (and) Russia.

• Reasonably good examples of nation-states have been carved out of the Baltic, European, and some Central Asian states (but not). . . in any of the small Caucasus states, and Russia is an especially prominent example of a state with major difficulties in keeping all of its ethnicities contented.

• Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were independent countries between 1918 and 1940.

• Of the three Baltic states, Lithuania most closely fits the definition of a nation-state, because 81 percent of its population are ethnic Lithuanians.

• These three small neighboring Baltic countries have clear cultural differences and distinct historical traditions.

• To some extent, the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine now qualify as nation-states.

• The ethnic distinctions among Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians are somewhat blurred.

• Belarusians and Ukrainians became distinct ethnicities because they were isolated from the main body of Eastern Slavs—the Russians—during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

• Russians actually constitute two-thirds of the population in the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine.

• After Russia and Ukraine became separate countries, a majority of the Crimeans voted to become independent of Ukraine.

• Control of the Crimean Peninsula was also important to both Russia and Ukraine because one of the Soviet Union’s largest fleets was stationed there.

• The two countries agreed to divide the ships and to jointly maintain the naval base at Sevastopol.

• The situation is different in Moldova. • Moldovans are ethnically indistinguishable from Romanians, and Moldova

(then called Moldavia) was part of Romania until the Soviet Union seized it in 1940.

• In 1992, many Moldovans pushed for reunification with Romania.

• But it was not to be that simple. • The Soviet government increased the size of Moldova by about 10

percent, transferring from Ukraine a sliver of land on the east bank of the Dniester (River).

• Inhabitants of this area are Ukrainian and Russian. • They oppose Moldova’s reunification with Romania.• More than 3,000 years ago Armenians controlled an independent kingdom in the

Caucasus. • During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, hundreds of thousands of

Armenians were killed in a series of massacres organized by the Turks. • Others were forced to migrate to Russia. • After World War I the allies created an independent state of Armenia, but it was

soon swallowed by its neighbors. • Turkey and the Soviet Union divided Armenia. • The Soviet portion became an independent country in 1991. • More than 90 percent of the population in Armenia are Armenians, making it the

most ethnically homogeneous country in the region. • Armenians and Azeris have been at war with each other since 1988 over the

boundaries between the two nationalities.