Political Geography

Political Culture  Political cultures vary  Political ideas vs. religion or language  Theocracies  Territoriality  Key element of political culture

State and Nation  Terminology  “State” vs. “country”  A nation may be larger than a state  Nation has historic, ethnic and often linguistic and religious connotations  Stateless nations

Rise of the Modern State  The European model  The Norman invasion & out of “Dark Age”  Thirty Years’ War treaties  The Renaissance  Mercantilism & religious wars  Money vs. land

The Nation-State  Some democratic, some autocratic, and some parliamentary democracies  Sovereignty remained with the nation—the people  European control  Creation of “nation states”  Are there real nation states?  Internal cultural diversity  Heterogeneous states can share “national spirit”  Emotional commitment to the state and for what it stands  e.g., Confederation Helvetica

Spatial Characteristics of States  Physical and cultural properties  Size and population  Needs legitimacy  Boundaries: centripetal or centrifugal forces  Four main features of the European model: 1. Clearly defined territory 2. Substantial population 3. Certain types of organizational structures 4. Some power

Territory  Territorial morphology  Size, shape, and relative location  Present opportunities and challenges  Size  Large vs. small states  Shape  Compact  Fragmented  Elongated  Protruded  Perforated

Compact States  Efficient, distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly.

Prorupted  An otherwise compact state with a large, projecting extension  -can provide a state with access to water.  -can separate two states.

Perforated  A state that surrounds another one.  South Africa

Fragmented  Includes several discontinuous pieces. 2 types of separation:  1. separates another state (Armenia)  2. separated by water

Elongated  Has a long narrow shape:  -may suffer from poor internal communications

Landlocked States

Paraguay Itaipu Dam

Lesotho: an enclave Kaliningrad: an exclave

Ministates/microstates

Land Boundaries  International boundaries  Have a vertical plane cutting through the rocks below, and the airspace above

Land Boundaries  How do we get boundaries?  Three steps of boundary evolution  Define it  Exact location established, via treaty-like legal documents, describing (absolute or relative) actual points  Delimit it  Officially put on a map, by a cartographer  Demarcate it  Actual ground markers—fences, pillars, walls, etc.—if desired  Not all boundaries are demarcated

4 Corners: What type of boundary?

Land Boundaries  Types of boundaries  Geometric boundary  Straight-line boundaries  Totally unrelated to any aspects of physical or cultural landscapes  Physical-political boundary or natural-political boundary  Outlined by a physiographic landscape features (river, mountain ridge, etc.)  Convenient, but nature & meaning might change over time  Cultural-political boundary  Formerly “anthropogenic” boundaries  Mark breaks in the human landscape

Land Boundaries  Origin-based classification  Richard Hartshorne’s Genetic Boundary Classification  Antecedent boundary  Existed before the cultural landscape emerged  Subsequent boundary  Developed at the same time as the major elements of the cultural landscape  Superimposed boundary  Placed by powerful outsiders on a developed cultural landscape  Relic boundary  Ceased to function, but its imprint is still on the cultural landscape  Frontiers  A frontier is a zone of separation

Subsequent and Superimposed

Superimposed and subsequent

A different boundary: The Equator near Quito, Ecuador between the north and south hemisphere

Functions of Boundaries  “Walls”  Limit state jurisdiction  State symbols

Functions of Boundaries  Internal boundaries  For administrative purposes  Examples: United States or Canada  Some culturally divided countries have internal boundaries that do not show on a map

Functions of Boundaries  Boundary disputes  Four principal forms of boundary disputes  Definitional  Focus on the “legalese” of the agreement  Locational  Focus on the delimitation and/or demarcation of the border  Operational  Focus on neighbors who differ over the way their boundary should function  Allocational  Focus on resources that straddle neighbors

Resources  De Blij, Harm, J. (2007). Human Geography People, Place and Culture. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.  Domosh, Mona, Neumann, Roderic, Price, Patricia, & Jordan-Bychkov, The Human Mosaic, A Cultural Approach to Human Geography. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.  Fellman, Jerome, D., Getis, Arthur, & Getis, Judith, Human Geography, Landscapes of Human Activities. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.  Pulsipher, Lydia Mihelic and Alex M. and Pulsipher, World Regional Geography, Global Patterns, Local Lives. W.H. Freeman and Company New York.  Rubenstein, James M. (2008). An introduction to human geography The cultural landscape. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.  Benewick, Robert, & Donald, Stephanie H. (2005). The State of  China Atlas. Berkeley: University of California Press.