1. Where are States Located?
Ch.8 Political Geography
Where are States Located?

2. Key Terms
Territoriality: A country’s or more local community’s sense of property and attachment toward its territory, as expressed by its determination to keep it inviolable and strongly defended
- Ex. Sketch a map of the school (where do you find certain groups of people?)
-sense of ownership

3. Key Terms
Sovereignty: A principle of international relations that holds that final authority over social, economic, & political matters should rest with the legitimate rulers of independent states
- Ex. Map of school, do you have the legal right to defend your territory?

4. Cont’d…….
Nation: Legally, a term encompassing all the citizens of a state. Most definitions now tend to refer to a tightly knit group of people possessing bonds of language, ethnicity, religion, & other shared cultural attributes.
Quebec: “a nation within a nation”

5. Cont’d…….
State: A politically organized territory that is administered by a sovereign gov’t & is recognized by a significant portion of the int’l community. A state has a defined territory, a permanent population, a gov’t, & is recognized by other states
Synonym for country

6. Cont’d…….
Nation-State: Theoretically, a recognized member of the modern state system possessing formal sovereignty & occupied by a people who see themselves as a single, united nation. Most nations & states aspire to this form, but it is realized almost nowhere. Such homogeneity actually prevails in within very few states
Ex. Japan- almost all Japanese, Iceland, these 2 are closest to a “true” nation-state, Denmark

7. Stateless nation: is the case of an ethnic group of people without a state
Ex. Kurdish people found in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria & Armenia

8. How many countries are there?

9. Intro
Up until about 50 yrs ago, the world contained about 50 countries (states)
UN members now 193 (Textbook-191)

10. United Nations Members
The UN has increased from 51 members in 1945 to 191 in 2003.

11. UN Members Timeline 1945: When UN was founded - 51 members
- Only 4 of these were African states (Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, & South Africa)
1950’s: 6 more African states
1960’s: many more African states (16 alone in 1960) *Gained independence from Europe
1990’s: Break-up of Soviet Union
2016: 193 member countries (+ 2 UN observer states)
Your textbook (2006) lists 191 which ones have been added since?????
Montenegro (2006)
South Sudan (2011)

12. Antarctica: National Claims
Antarctica is the only large landmass that is not part of a state, but several countries claim portions of it.

13. Korea
Divided into northern & southern sections along the 38° N latitude
Post WWII (Japan)
Became permanent in late 1940’s
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North)
People’s Republic of Korea (South)
Both govt’s have the goal of reuniting
North Korea preventing this with recent actions
UN recognizes as 2 countries

14. Google Earth Image
North Korea vs. South Korea at Night

15. China & Taiwan Taiwan island 200km off Chinese coast
China doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a
separate sovereign state
Until 1999, Taiwan agreed
Situation arose from civil war between Nationalists & Communists during 1940s
Nationalists lost & leaders fled in 1949 to Taiwan
Nationalists still considered themselves the rulers of China
Most world govt’s now consider these 2 separate states
Taiwan now most populous state not in UN

16. Western Sahara AKA: The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Western Africa (Morocco/Mauritania)
Most African countries recognize it as a sovereign state
Morocco claims this territory & has built a wall around it
Once controlled by Spain, withdrew in 1976

17. Size Matters Largest Countries Russia Microstates Canada Monaco China
USA
Brazil
Australia
Microstates
Monaco
Andorra
Antigua & Barbuda
Bahrain
Malta
Dominica
**About 2 dozen under 1000 km²
                                                               

18. Development of the State Concept
Prior to 1800s - city-states, empires & tribes
Unclear boundaries
Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, Roman empire

19. Colonies
A colony is a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state
various levels of control
Colonialism – 3 basic reasons “God, Gold & Glory”
Imperialism in Africa & Asia
UK largest colonial empire
Once colonies were widespread, now nearly all are islands in the Pacific Ocean or Caribbean Sea
Currently 68
Largest is Puerto Rico (USA)

20. Colonial Possessions, 1914
Fig. 8-4: By the outbreak of World War I, European states held colonies throughout the world, especially throughout Africa and in much of Asia.

21. Colonial Possessions, 2012
Fig. 8-5: Most of the remaining colonies are small islands in the Pacific or Caribbean.

22. Theories not in our book….
Heartland Theory MacKinder; early 1900s; based on land power. Believed that the best base for world domination would be the Eurasian Heartland.
Rimland Theory Spykman; 1944; based on coastal power. Reasoned that the best base for global conquest would be the Eurasian Rimland.
In 1904, Sir Halford Mackinder published a theory about political strength in Eurasia. He analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the various regions and concluded that the Russian Core and areas east of the core contained the potential to become a world power. In 1919 he revised his theory to include Eastern Europe and the theory became known as Mackinder's Heartland Theory.
Basically stated: - Who rules East Europe commands the heartland. - Who rules the heartland commands the World Island (Eurasia and Africa) - Who rules the World Island commands the World.
In 1942, Nicholas Spykman proposed a theory which countered Mackinder's Heartland Theory. Spykman stated that Eurasia's Rimland, the coastal areas or buffer zone, is the key to controlling the World Island, not the heartland.
Nicholas Spykman's book, "America's Strategy in World Politics" was published during World War II and deals with political and military strength of the United States at that time. Today we look at the Rimland in terms of its economic strength and potential. While the book does deal with economic issues, what has become known as the Rimland Theory deals primarily with military intervention, control and conquest of the Old World. The chapter entitled "The Geography of the Second World War" deals with this military situation on a global geographic basis. It is in this chapter that we find the foundations of the Rimland Theory of global domination. The theory was later expanded and refined in a series of lectures which were transcribed into the book "The Geography of the Peace".