Transcript An Introduction to Political Geography

An Introduction to
Political Geography
Political Culture
 Political cultures vary
 Political ideas vs. religion or language
 Theocracies
 Territoriality
 Key element of political culture
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
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
The Nation-State
 Some democratic, some autocratic, and some
parliamentary democracies
 Sovereignty remained with the nation—the 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
Spatial Characteristics of States
 Physical and cultural properties
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Size and population
Needs legitimacy
Boundaries: centripetal or centrifugal forces
Four main features of the European model:
1. Clearly defined territory
2. Substantial population
3. Certain types of organizational structures
4. Some power
Territory
 Territorial morphology
 Size, shape, and relative location
 Present opportunities and challenges
 Size
 Large vs. small states
 Shape
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Compact
Fragmented
Elongated
Protruded
Perforated
Territory
 Relative location
 Landlocked countries
 Exclaves and enclaves
Itaipu Dam
Paraguay
Lesotho: an enclave
Kaliningrad: an exclave
Land Boundaries
 International boundaries
 Have a vertical plane cutting through the rocks
below, and the airspace above
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 markers—fences, pillars, walls, etc.—if
desired
 Not all boundaries are demarcated
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
Land Boundaries
 Origin-based classification
 Richard Hartshorne’s 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
Functions of Boundaries
 “Walls”
 Limit state jurisdiction
 State symbols
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
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
STATE ORGANIZATION AND
NATIONAL POWER
Large-area Influences
on State Power
Colonialism
Large-area Influences
on State Power
 Economic dimensions of power
 Economic trends
 Understanding a country’s global economy
 World-System Analysis
 View the world as an interlocked system of states
 Perspective ties political geography more closely to
economic geography
Large-area Influences
on 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
The Character of State Territory
 Population vs. territory size
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E.g., China
Acquisition of colonial empires
½ world’s states < 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
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
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
Unitary & Federal Systems
 Early European nation-states were unitary states
 The federal state arose in the New World
 Federalism accommodated regional interest by
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vesting primary power in provinces
Switzerland
Location for a capital city challenging for
federations
Britain and India
Today’s divisive forces in Europe
European reconstruction
Internal Political-Geographic
Structure
 US Electoral patterns
 Electoral geographers
 Electoral geography
 Gerrymander
 Maps of voting
patterns often
produce surprises
Forces of
Fragmentation and Cohesion
 Centripetal forces
 Centrifugal forces
Fidel Castro
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, it’s not as influential as language
or religion. Why?