Political Geography Chapter 8

By Carina Escobedo

Key Issue #1 This key issue will be about the problems of defining states, the varying size of states, and the development of the state concept .

Problems of Defining States ●  A state is an area who is ruled by an established government who has

major power and who can control its internal and foreign affairs. A state contains sovereignty which is the power of being independent from control of other countries taking over and making decisions having to do with their internal affairs. In political geography state does not have the same meaning as the 50 states inside the U.S. because all of the 50 states fall under the same state when it comes to the political geography due to the fact that they all fall under and are controlled by the same government.

Korea ●  Korea has been divided by the United States and the Soviet Union into two

regions after Japan was defeated in world war 2. ●  Korea was divided into 2 parts South Korea and South Korea which later it

stayed as an official separation in the late 1940s because they had different governments and they retreated their army.

●  North Korea and South Korea were both committed to reuniting after a three years of war.

●  The plans on reuniting downpoured after North Korea decided to build nuclear weapons even though people from South Korea were lacking basic needs such as food and water,

China and Taiwan ●  Many outside countries considered China and Taiwan to be two different

and sovereign states ●  According to China Taiwan is a part of China therefore it is not a

sovereignty ●  This was an outcome of the civil war in China between the nationalists and

communists ●  After the Nationalists were defeated they moved to Taiwan and they also

claimed that they would remain the rulers of China after they would defeat the communists which would lead them to gain more power.

●  The president of Taiwan declared that they were now independent and a sovereign state.

●  UNder the United States and the Soviet Union they are both a separate state and sovereignty.

Western Sahara ●  The arab democratic Republic is considered a sovereign state by most

african Countries ●  Morocco says otherwise since they have walls around their territories to

keep the rebels outside. ●  Spain controlled some of the territory in morocco and Mauritia until it

retracted in the 1976. ●  morocco and Mauritania annexed the the northern and southern proportion

respectively ●  3 years later the Mauritania retreated and Morocco claimed all the territory ●  The united Nations has tried to to have a resolution among the parties but

has failed every time they've attempted.

Polar regions ●  The south polar region is the only region on earths surface that has yet t0

be a state. ●  Many countries claim parts of that territory while others say it overlapping

and conflicting ●  Many countries have claimed proportions of Antarctica ●  In 1959 there was a treaty made that only allowed scientists to “claim

territory” but only for research. ●  The United Nations and the United Stated have made it official for it only

to be for research otherwise their fossil fuels would be drained by other countries that had claimed territory

State Support for Terrorism ●  Some states support terrorism by providing them weapons and money for

what they may need. ●  This is a way of trying to destroy a country without actually “going to war”

and losing money through war ●  Stated being accused of such thing has been Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Iran

and pakistan ●  Even though the purpose of this support for terrorism is to “prevent” war, it

usually causes wars because it causes other countries find out they're aiding these terrorists and end up attacking them.

Varying Size of States ●  Largest state is Russia which is 11% of land area ●  States taking up more than 5 million square kilometers are Canada, the

U.S.A., China, Brazil, and Australia ●  There are two dozen microstates which are tiny states ●  The smallest Microstate is Monaco but this is only for the United Nations ●  The smallest Microstates in the United Nations who are smaller than 1000

square kilometers are Andorra, Antigua y Barbuda , Bahrain, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, Liechtenstein… etc...

Development of the State Concept

●  Back in the old days Earths surface was put together and organized into city-states, empires, and tribe.

●  It is believed that the division of earth into stated originated in Europe. ●  Ancient and Medieval states were formed around the ancient Fertile

Crescent and the gulf of Mesopotamia ●  The first state that evolved in Mesopotamia were city-states which are

sovereign states that comprises a town and the surrounding countryside. ●  Early European States were ruled by the establishment of the Roman

Empire. ●  Colonies are territories who are legally not completely independent since

they are part of another sovereign state. ●  Colonialism is when a country tries to establish settlements in a territory

and to ,pose its political economic and cultural principles.

Development of the State Concept pt. 2 ●  The purpose of colonialism is to promote religions, to obtain useful

resources from that area they're claiming and to gain more power. ●  Imperialism is when a country takes over a place previously occupied by

indigenous society. ●  Now there are only 43 colonies standing with indigenous populations,

Key Issue #2 ●  This key issue will be about the shapes of

the states, the types of boundaries and the boundaries within a state.

Shapes of States ●  The shape of states are very important since they determine how much

power they'll be able to have. ●  There are five basic shapes ●  One basic shape are compact states which are states that have their

territory all clustered together and have a similar distance from the center. ●  Elongated states are long and narrow a good example could be Chile. ●  Prorupted state is like a compact state with a large projecting extensions. ●  Perforated states are states that completely surround another state, having

a state in the middle of their own. ●  Fragmented states are states that have territory here and there,

discontinuous properties.

Landlocked States ●  Landlocked states are states with no access to waterways ●  These states are usually less developed than the others since they cannot

access water therefore cannot export their good ●  Also they lack imports which also affects their developments and ways of

life,

Types of boundaries ●  The boundaries for the states are either physical boundaries or cultural

boundaries ●  Physical boundaries are having to do with the natural landscape ●  Cultural boundaries are having to do with the distribution of cultural

characteristics ●  Types of physical boundaries could be desert boundaries and mountain

boundaries since they are difficult to cross and are hardly inhabited. ●  Water boundaries are physical boundaries that are good because they

help and add protection to a state by preventing attacks from other states. ●  Cultural boundaries are geometric boundaries, religious boundaries and

language boundaries.

Cyprus “Green Line” Boundary ●  Thirds largest island in the Mediterranean sea ●  It is inhabited by Turkish and Greek ●  Wall was created to avoid conflicts between the differences of the

nationalities ●  In recent years both sides appear to be getting closer

Frontiers ●  A frontier is an area in which there is no complete political control. NO

CONTROOL, powerless and I don't care it's obvious. (one direction song sorry not sorry)

●  Many frontiers in between states have been removed and replaced by boundaries

Boundaries inside states ●  Some boundaries inside state are unitary and federal states, trend toward

federal government, electoral geography. ●  Unitary and federal states is when the official government to the local city

government units, ●  Unitary state has more power than a federal state ●  Many countries are transferring to federal government from Unitary

Government. ●  Electoral geography tries to ensure a balanced population between

districts. ●  Gerrymandering is the the redrawing of legislative boundaries for the

benefits the political parties

Key issue #3 ●  This key issue will be about why do states

cooperate with each other, the political and military cooperation, and also the economic cooperation

Political and Government corporations

●  The main point of the United Nations is to bring peace within the countries and prevent wars.

●  The regional Military Alliances was formed a bit after world war two mainly to prevent this from happening again and also for their own protection.

●  The world contained many superpowers but after the war. Now only the United States and the United Nations remain, they sent some of her military bases to other countries to remain powerful.

●  After world war two many states from europe joined either NATO or the warsaw pact. Both were very powerful military bases.

●  Economic cooperation is much more important increasing than military ●  Leading superpowers are several states from Europe.

Key issue #4 ●  This key issue will be about the increase of terrorism by individuals and

organizations and state support for terrorism.

Terrorism by individuals and organizations

●  Terrorists against americans have been quite a lot. ●  Terrorism has been present for a long time but for some reason it keeps

growing and growing, ●  Some terrorists attacking America were americans ●  September 11, 2001 terrorists attack were one of the biggest attacks to

even happen in the United States, leaving people terrified and unfortunately caused almost 3,000 fatalities,

●  Al-Qaeda is a group of terrorists that have been attacking the U.S, for a long time now, this was founded by Osama Bin Laden, a horrible person who was also responsible for the attacks on september 11, 2001.