1. Chapter 8
Political Geography

2. Key Issue #1 Where Are States Located?

3. What is a state?
A state is an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs. A state occupies a defined territory and contains a permanent population.
A state has sovereignty, which means independence from control of its internal affairs by other states.
The term country is a synonym for state.

4. Problems with defining states…
There are approximately 200 states in the world today. However, there are some disagreements about defining the exact number of sovereign states. Korea, China, and Western Sahara are three such states…

5. Korea: One state or two?
A colony of Japan for many years, it was divided by the US and USSR following World War II.
Each side now has an independent government and fits the definition of a state.
Both were admitted to the United Nations in 1992 as separate countries.

8. China and Taiwan: One state or two?
According to China, Taiwan is not an independent state, but a part of China.
Following defeat in China’s civil war, the losing side fled to Taiwan. There, (with US support) they proclaimed they were still the legitimate government of China and would rule at least one island until they could retake the entire country.
Taiwan’s president proclaimed independence from China in 1999, but China viewed the announcement as a dangerous departure from the prior agreement.
Most UN states view Taiwan and China as two separate and sovereign states.
China and Taiwan: One state or two?

10. Western Sahara: Part of Morocco?
Spain controlled the territory until 1976, at which time an independent government was put in control.
Morocco annexed the north and Mauritania annexed the south, ignoring the gov. of W.S.
Mauritania gave up its claim in 1979, at which time Morocco annexed the south.
Morocco still maintains control today, but most African nations recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as the legitimate state.

12. The land occupied by the states of the world varies considerably
The land occupied by the states of the world varies considerably. The largest state is Russia, which encompasses 6.6 million square miles (or 11% of the Earth’s land surface).
Russia
China
Canada
U.S.
On the other extreme are about two dozen microstates, which are states with very small land areas. Monaco (0.6 square miles) is the world’s smallest state. Many microstates are islands, which explain both their small size and their sovereignty
Varying Size of States

13. Microstates Under 1,000 km² 1. Vatican City - 0.44 km²
2. Monaco km²
3. Nauru – 21 km²
4. Tuvalu – 26 km²
5. San Marino - 61 km²
6. Liechtenstein km²
7. Marshall Islands km²
8. Saint Kitts & Nevis – 26 km²
9. Maldives km²
10. Malta km²
11. Grenada km²
12. Saint Vincent & the Grenadines km²
13. Barbados 30 km²
14. Antigua & Barbuda km²
15. Seychelles – 455 km²
16. Palau km²
17. Andorra km²
18. Saint Lucia km²
19. Singapore km²
20. Bahrain km²
21. Federated States of Micronesia km²
22. Kiribati km²
23. Tonga km²
24. Dominica km²
25. São Tomé & Príncipe km²
(Rhode Island… 4,002 km²)

15. DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE CONCEPT
The concept of dividing the world into a collection of independent states is recent.
Prior to the 1800s, Earth’s surface was organized in other ways, such as city-states, empires, and tribes. Much of Earth’s surface consisted of unorganized territory.

16. Ancient States
The modern movement to divide the world into states originated in Europe.
The development of states can be traced back to the Fertile Crescent in the present day Middle East.
Situated at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Fertile Crescent was a center for land and sea communications in ancient times.

19. City- States
The first states to evolve in Mesopotamia were known as city-states.
A city-state is a sovereign state that is comprised of a town and the surrounding countryside.
Walls clearly marked the boundaries of the city. Outside the walls, the city controlled agricultural land to produce food for urban residents.
Mesopotamia was organized into a succession of empires by the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians.

20. Early European States
Beginning about the year 1100, a handful of powerful kings emerged as rulers over large numbers of estates.
The consolidation of neighboring estates under the unified control of a king formed the basis for the development of such modern states as England, France, and Spain.
However, much of central Europe, like Italy and Germany, remained fragmented until the 19th century.

21. Colonialism
A colony is a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent.
In some cases, the “parent” country controls only parts of the colony (like the economy or the military) and other times, it controls everything in and of the colony.
European states came to control much of the world through colonialism, which is the effort by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles on such territory.

22. Europeans established colonies for three basic reasons:
1) to promote Christianity
2) to provide resources that helped the economy of European States, and
3) the number of colonies were considered to be an indicator of power.
The three motives can be summarized by the three G’s:
“God, gold, and glory.”

23. The colonial era began in the 1400s, when Europeans discovered the Western Hemisphere.
Europeans lost the U.S. in 1776 and Latin America between 1800 and They then turned their attention towards Africa and Asia.
The European colonization of Africa and Asia is called imperialism, which is control of territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous society, whereas colonialism is control of previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.

24. The United Kingdom assembled by far the largest colonial empire..
France had the second largest overseas territory
The most populated colony remaining in the world today is Puerto Rico, which is a Commonwealth of the United States. Its residents are citizens of the US, but do not participate in elections, nor are they represented in Congress.
The British proclaimed that the “Sun never set” on their empire.
France’s colonies were concentrated mostly in W. Africa and S.E. Asia.

25. Former British Empire as of 1919

26. Is the US
an imperial
power today?