Political

Geography

Warm Up:
Thinking like a (political)
geographer… What does
political organization of
space mean?
What is a “political” geographer?

 Studies human claims and conflicts

concerning the use, patterns, and
ownership of the land and its resources
The World As We See It?
The World In Reality

What is the difference?

Why do we divide the world?
Geography Politics
Where? How to
influence
Why there? decision
Consequences? making?

Political Geography
 6 Themes of
Political Political Geography
People and Identity
Their Resources
Competing and Power
Needs

Authority
Institutions and
Sovereignty
Role of
Strategic
Action
Defining States and Development
of the State Concept

 Problems of defining states

◦ Almost all habitable land belongs to a country today
 In 1940, there were about 60 countries
 Today, there are 193 countries (as evidenced by
United Nations membership)
◦ Some places are difficult to classify
 Korea: one state or two?
 Western Sahara (Sahrawi Republic) or Morocco?
 Claims to polar regions: Many claims.
 China and Taiwan: one state or two?
 The term country is a synonym for state
 4 elements:
◦ People – contains a permanent population
◦ Territory – occupies a defined territory on the
earth’s surface
◦ Government – rules people
◦ Sovereignty - control over its internal and
foreign affairs, independent from other states

 Concept of dividing world into independent

states is recent

What is a state?
 A social/cultural concept, more so tied to ethnicity
 Historical community that shares common ancestry; a
people with a sense of union with one another
 Not every nation has a state
◦ Kurds, Palestinians
 Some states contain more than one nation
◦ Belgium, UK, Canada
 Some nations are larger than one state
◦ About 4 millions Jews live in Israel, many members of the
Jewish nation living elsewhere in the world (US/Eastern
Europe)

What is a nation?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10
 The “Perfect” European Model of State  Nation-state:
 A political unit
State: wherein the
territorial state
coincides with the
area settled by a
certain national
group or people.
 Although seldom
Nation: achieved in
practice outside of
European core, it
is the standard to
which other global
Laws
states are
Nation-State: ------ compared today.
-------
-------
-------- nationalism
 Nation-state?
 Self-determination – concept that every nation/ethnicity has the
right to govern themselves
 Very few, if any, nation-states
◦ Iceland, Sweden, Japan, Greece are mostly culturally
homogenous with few minorities
 Advantages of a nation-state?
 Why is the idea of a nation-state not necessarily realistic?
What would
Africa look
like if
divided by
Ethnicity?

How many
Nation-States
would there
be?
 Multistate nation
◦ Example? ISRAEL
 Multiethnic state
◦ Example? USA
 Multinational state
◦ Examples? RUSSIA
 Stateless Nation
◦ Example? Tibetans

How would you define the following

and give an example?
 Match the descriptions (1-8) to the
corresponding graphic (A-H)
 Next to each graphic, write how many
states are present and how many nations
are present
 If possible, identify the states based on
the description
 We’ll do the first one together
 Take your time and discuss with your
group

Geographic Relationships between States and

Nations WS
A) Palestinians, 3 states (Israel/Jordan/Syria), 1
nation
B) Icelanders, 1 state (Iceland), 1 nation
C) Flemings and Walloons, 1 state (Belgium), 2
nations
D) Albanians, 2 states (Albania/Kosovo), 1 nation
E) Hungarians, 2 states (Hungary, Romania), 1
nation
F) USSR, 1 state, over 100 nations
G) Bretons and Basques, 1 state (France), 2
nations
H) Germans, 3 states
(Germany/Austria/Switzerland), 1 nation

Answers