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The world is divided up into different countries called **states.** The idea of states is fewer than 400 years old. **Territoriality** is a major part of a state**. Sovereignty** is closely tied to territoriality. The event that marks the beginning of the modern state is the Peace of Westphalia(1648). This was a peace treaty was in Europe and ended the Thirty Years' War. The emerging political state was accompanied by **mercantilism**. [] Peace of Westphalia

Nations and countries/states are two distinctly different words. A nation is a group of people who are culturally connected and a state is the border which a country inhabits. Stateless nation: A nation that does not inhabit a state. Ex: Palestinians Multinational state: a state with more than one nation inside its borders. Ex: Yugoslavia Nation-state: a nation and state occupy the same place. Ex: Japan

Europe causes most of this spread through 2 waves of colonialism. These waves happened between 1500 and 1975. The first wave was Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The second wave's colonizers were Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. These countries colonized Africa. Some motives were economic profit and spreading Christianity. Through colonialism, Europe was in control of much of the world.
 * Spread of the concepts of state, sovereignty, and the desire for nation-states.**

There were many impacts of colonialism. One of the major effects was the construction of a global order by differences in economic and political power. Many European countries became major centers for economic and political powers, but not all equally. Poverty persisted within the most powerful European states. Russia and the United States also became powerful through colonialism, expanding their land and territory. Colonialism brought together the economies of many places, creating a global economic order, the world economy. These economies are extremely different and the wealth is not distributed evenly. Wallerstein created a world systems theory that helped explain the world economy. This theory is, 1) The world economy has one market and global division of labor, 2) Although the world has multiple states, almost everything takes place within the context of the world economy, 3) The world economy has a three-tier structure. This world economy is **capitalism,** which people produces and exchange goods on the global market to produce a profit. This is "hand in hand" with **commodification** which puts prices on goods. The world-systems theory is a three tiered structure, core, periphery, and semi-periphery. The core and the periphery are not just places, but processes. Core is a more developed country, with high levels of education, higher salaries, and more technology. The core generates the most wealth in the world economy. Periphery would be less developed countries with lower levels of education, lower salaries, and less technology. Semi-periphery are places where core and periphery processes are both happening. In many cases, the core exploits cheap labor of the periphery. Economic power and political power are not the something, but economic power can bring political power. Having great economic and political power means that a country has the ability in influence others through their strength. Great wealth can bring political power and a strong military to countries. Political power is diplomatic. Having a strong political power means that the country is organized and independent. There are forces within a state that can strengthen or weaken it. **Centripetal** forces unify the people while **centrifugal** forces divide them. Some things that factor the unification or division of people are timing, scale, interaction, and perspective. Governments try to unify people by nation-building. The two main governmental structures are unitary and federal. Unitary is highly centralized governments, with the capital city the focus of power. Unitary governments try to have nation-states by repressing and suppressing any smaller nations. Federal systems organized the state territory by dividing it into substates and regions. In a strong federal system regions have a lot of power over the central government, while in a weak federal system regions have little control. Most federal systems are between the two. With power over certain areas, but with the federal government controlling other parts. Devolution is the movement of power from the central government to regional governments within a state. In Europe, many devolutionary movements came from nations separating themselves. These separations are because of differences in ethnicity, linguistic, or religion. In Czechoslovakia, Czechs and Slovaks divided the country peacefully due to differences in their ethnicity. Devolution comes from a combination of sources. Economics is a powerful force in devolution. In many cases, economic differences are the cause of devolution. This is what happened in Brazil in the 1990's. In many cases, devolution occurs on the margins of states. This can tell us that space can cause devolution.The regions far from the national capital are most likely to seek devolution.The United States faced devolutionary pressures from the Islands of Hawaii. It is not hard to tell that space plays a huge role in devolution. A key component to the spacial organization of government is the state's electoral system. **Territorial representation** is used to represent a district in a democracy. These districts elect who represents them. Reapportionment is when districts are moved due to population shifts. To prevent the minority from not getting their voice heard, **majority-minority districts** were made. These are districts where the majority is kept away from the minority, insuring that the minority has a voice. Gerrymandering is when redistricting is used from an advantage. However, it has been used to provide representation to minorities. Below is a video describing gerrymandering which is an aspect of electoral geography and boundaries. This will give a politician an unfair advantage because of the skewed population distribution. media type="youtube" key="EqlZGUU0GZc" height="315" width="560" A **boundary** is a vertical plane that cuts through the rocks below and the airspace above, dividing one state from another. Many boundaries were established be for subsoil resources were found. This caused many problems for countries. For example, a gas reserve was under the Netherlands and Germany, and there was many issues between the 2 countries about the use of it. Also, an oil reserve under Iraq and Kuwait started an international crisis. Establishing a boundary is a 4 step process.**1st**: Define the boundary through a legal document, in which actual points in the landscape (or latitude and longitude) are described. **2nd**: cartographers delimit the boundary by drawing it on a map. **3rd**: the states can demarcate the boundary by using poles, walls, fences, or other visible means to mark the boundary if they wish. **4th**: To administrate the boundary-to determine how the boundary will be maintained and how people will cross the boundary. Boundaries with a grid system are **geometric boundaries**. The US and Canada use this. The uses of natural boundaries are used because they are visible on the landscape. This is called **physical-political boundaries**. This can be rivers, the crest of a mountain range, and even lakes. There are 4 major boundary disputes: definitional, locational, operational, and allocational. **Definitional** is the legal boundary agreement. An example of this could be rising and falling water levels of a river boundary could cause problems. **Locational** disputes center on the delimitation of the the boundary. This dispute could be cause of a vague boundary treaty. **Operational** disputes involve neighbors who differ over the way the boundary should function. This could be over differences in the limitation of migration. **Allocational** disputes are usually over resources. Such as oil reserves under 2 countries. In the German School, Ratzel postulated that the state is like a biological organism. It has a birth and a death. In its existence in needs to claim territory from other competitors. in the British/American School, Mackinder proposed the **heartland theory**. This said that one must have control over the Soviet Union to control the world. These 2 men influenced international relations. The concept behind critical geopolitics is is that intellectuals of statecraft construct ideas about places. This is used to influence people process our own notions of places and politics. This was used during the Cold War by Ronald Reagan when he called the Soviet Union an Evil Empire. Geopolitical world order is how politics are conducted at the global scale. This world order is unilateralism, when one nation is dominant, and the United States in the position. However, many countries are growing and our power is declining.
 * Construction of the Capitalist World Economy**
 * World Systems and Political Power**
 * Forces within States**
 * Form of Government**
 * Ethnocultural Devolutionary Movements**
 * Economic Devolutionary Forces**
 * Spacial Devolutionary Forces**
 * Electoral Geography**
 * Boundaries**
 * Establishing Boundaries**
 * Types of Boundaries**
 * Boundary Disputes**
 * Geopolitics**
 * Critical Geopolitics**
 * Geopolitical World Order**

All of the Information was gotten from.. De Blij, H.J., Alexander B. Murphy, and Erin H. Fouberg. //Human Geography People, Place, and Culture//. 8th ed. Danvars, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2007. 219-248. Print.