Political Organization of Space Political geography: the study of the political organization of the planet, which changes constantly through time. The only constant is that humans divide their living space into political units or territories.

Government is a reference to the leadership and institutions that make a country’s policy decisions, while Politics is all about power—who has it, how did they get it, what challenges do they have in keeping the power? Geographers look at the politics of place, how land space is organized according to who asserts power over what areas. Territoriality is efforts to control pieces of the earth’s surface for political and social ends?

Boundaries are invisible lines that mark the extent of a state’s territory and the control that its leaders have. Frontier—a geographic zone where no state exercises power

Types of boundaries Antecedent boundaries are those that evolved and were defined before the present day human (political) landscape developed. An example is on the island of Borneo. The northern section is part of Malaysia and the majority of the landscape in the south is part of Indonesia. The boundary passes through a mountainous, sparsely inhabited rainforest where there is a break in settlement.

Superimposed boundaries are forcibly drawn across a unified cultural landscape. The Island of New Guinea

Subsequent boundary Evolved as the cultural landscape took shape. . . the result of a long-term process of adjustment and modification

Relict boundary A boundary that has ceased to function, but whose imprint is still felt on the cultural landscape

Physical boundaries coincide with prominent physical landforms.

Geometric border A straight line or arc

Territorial morphology Compact state

Prorupt state

Elongated state Gambia

Fragmented states

Perforated state

Microstates

Landlocked states

Functions of boundaries mark limits of governmental control

Boundary Disputes Positional or definitional disputes

Territorial disputes Who owns the region? (usually around borders) Key term: irredentism A conflict occurring when one country wants to annex part of another country where the people are ethnically similar

Resource or allocational disputes

Functional or operational disputes

Key terms: state nation nation-state binational state multinational state

Stateless nations

The organization of states 1. core areas Most states develop out from a core area. Problems arise when there is more than one core.

The U.S. is a multi-core state

Forward capital: a capital city that serves as a model for national objectives, especially for economic development and future hopes.

Gerrymandering

Colonialism and Imperialism Imperialism is empire-building

Unitary States And Most of Europe

Confederal states spread the power among many sub-units (such as states) AND has a strong central government U.S. under the Articles of Confederation & the Confederate States of America

A federal system divides the powers between the central government and the sub-units

Centripedal forces bind together peoples of a state and make them stronger. or positive can be negative

Centrifugal forces destabilize the government and encourage the country to fall apart. Nationalities challenged the government for independence

Devolution: the tendency to decentralize the decision-making to regional governments; it is usually a reaction to centrifugal forces. 1. Ethnic forces Ethnonationalism: the tendency for an ethnic group to see itself as a distinct nation with a right to autonomy or independence.

Great Britain has given more autonomy to Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland

2. Economic forces The imaginary Ancona line split Italy into wealthy (industrialized northern) and poorer (rural southern), resulting in Italy’s devolving power to regions.

3. spatial forces

Geopolitics Friedrich Ratzel the state is an organism that goes through stages from birth to death/rise to fall. Hitler used this rationale—that a state that doesn’t expand is doomed to fail—to rationalize his expansionism in WWII.

Sir Halford Mackinder’s Heartland Theory Nicholas Spykman’s Rimland Theory

Supranational Organizations

The European Union

Globalization is an ongoing process resulting in increased economic, political and cultural changes fostered through rapid worldwide communication and transportation. The last two decades of the 20th century witnessed the proliferation of satellite phones and Internet communication, as well as worldwide air, water and land transportation, transforming the diverse world into an interconnected place. from GITN