An Introduction to Political Geography

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An Introduction toPolitical Geography
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Political Culture

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

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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

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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

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The Nation-State

• Some democratic, some autocratic, and some
  parliamentary democracies
• Sovereignty remained with the nationthe 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

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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
• Clearly defined territory
• Substantial population
• Certain types of organizational structures
• Some power

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Territory

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

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Territory

• Relative location
• Landlocked countries
• Exclaves and enclaves

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Itaipu Dam
Paraguay
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Lesotho an enclave
Kaliningrad an exclave
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Land Boundaries

• International boundaries
• Have a vertical plane cutting through the rocks
  below, and the airspace above

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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 markersfences, pillars, walls,
  etc.if desired
• Not all boundaries are demarcated

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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

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Land Boundaries

• Origin-based classification
• Richard Hartshornes 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

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Functions of Boundaries

• Walls
• Limit state jurisdiction
• State symbols

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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

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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

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STATE ORGANIZATION AND NATIONAL POWER
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Large-area Influenceson State Power

• Colonialism

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Large-area Influenceson State Power

• Economic dimensions of power
• Economic trends
• Understanding a countrys global economy
• World-System Analysis
• View the world as an interlocked system of states
• Perspective ties political geography more closely
  to economic geography

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Large-area Influenceson State Power

• Geopolitics
• Freidrich Ratzel
• Organic theory of State Development
• Sir Halford Mackinder
• Heartland theory
• Those that rule the land, rule the world
• Nicholas Spykman
• Rimland
• Recent Developments

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The Character of State Territory

• Population vs. territory size
• E.g., China
• Acquisition of colonial empires
• ½ worlds states lt 5 million people
• Organizational capacity more important
• Core areas
• Usually the original nucleus of a state
• Play an important role in a state's development
• No core area vs. Multicore states
• E.g., Nigeria's three cores mark ethnic and
  cultural diverse areas of the state

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The Character of State Territory

• Capital cities
• Political nerve center
• Former colonies tried to imitate European model
• Primate cities
• A capital city by far the largest and most
  economically influential
• Common in agriculturally-dominant economies
• Forward capitals
• Reunification and capitals

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Internal Political-Geographic Structure

• All states confront divisive forces
• The needs of a well-functioning state
• Clearly bounded territory with adequate
  infrastructure
• Effective administrative framework, a productive
  core area, and a prominent capital

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Unitary Federal Systems

• Early European nation-states were unitary states
• The federal state arose in the New World
• Federalism accommodated regional interest by
  vesting primary power in provinces
• Switzerland
• Location for a capital city challenging for
  federations
• Britain and India
• Todays divisive forces in Europe

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European reconstruction
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Internal Political-Geographic Structure

• US Electoral patterns
• Electoral geographers
• Electoral geography
• Gerrymander

• Maps of voting patterns often produce surprises

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Forces ofFragmentation and Cohesion

• Centripetal forces
• Centrifugal forces

Fidel Castro
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Discussion Questions

• How do human feelings toward state territory
  affect the political climate?
• The theatre of political geography has a very
  diverse cast, yet when it comes to people, its
  not as influential as language or religion. Why?