Chapter 8 Flashcards
Political Geography
What is a state?
An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs.
Define sovereignty.
Independence from control of its internal affairs by other states.
What are microstates?
States with small land area.
What is a city-state?
Sovereign state comprising of a town and a surrounding countryside.
What is a colony?
Territory legally tied to a sovereign state.
Define colonialism.
Effort by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic and cultural principles on such territory.
What is imperialism?
Control of a territory already occupied.
What characterizes a compact state?
The distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly.
Define prorupted state.
An otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension.
What is an elongated state?
States with a long, narrow shape.
Define fragmented state.
Includes several discontinuous pieces of territory.
What is a perforated state?
A state that completely surrounds another.
Define landlocked state.
Lacks a direct outlet to the sea because it is completely surrounded by several other countries.
What is a frontier?
A zone where no state exercises complete political control.
What is a unitary state?
Places most power in the hands of central government officials.
Define federal state.
Allocates strong power to units of local government within the country.
What is Gerrymandering?
The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.
Define balance of power.
A condition of roughly equal strength between opposing alliances.
What is a boundary?
Invisible line that marks the extent of a state’s territory.
Define nation.
A group of people that share common cultural characteristics and identify as a cohesive group.
What is an exclave?
An enclave that is a territorial political extension of another state.
What is a forward capital?
Capital city built by a state to achieve a national goal.
Define irredentism.
The attempt by one country to provoke coups or separatist movements in another country.
What is a supranational organization?
Organization that tries to further economic and/or political cooperation.
Define stateless nation.
Nation without a territory to call its own.
What is a buffer state?
Country that lies between two other states but remains neutral in the conflict between them.
Define antecedent boundary.
A boundary that existed before human settlement of the area.
What is a geometric boundary?
Created by using lines of latitude and longitude.
Define physical boundary.
Created by natural features.
What is an ethnographic boundary?
Created by cultural factors such as language, religion, or ethnicity.
What is an enclave?
An enclosed territory with a foreign territory around it.
What is the Law of the Sea?
Law signed that establishes territorial limits for most countries as 12 nautical miles and fishing rights at 200 miles.
Define democratization.
The process by which a state’s government becomes increasingly democratic.
What are civil divisions?
Primary governmental/administrative divisions of a country.
What is a capital?
The city or town that is the official seat of government in a state.
What are the High Seas?
Areas of the ocean that are ‘international’ and not controlled by any state.
Define terrorism.
The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.
What is the United Nations?
A supranational organization formed in 1945 to promote peace, security, and international cooperation.
Define multinational state.
A sovereign state that is viewed as comprising two or more nations.
What was the Berlin Conference?
European powers decided how to divide up Africa.
Define Communism.
A communist state is a political entity that is governed by a single party that claims to uphold the principles of communism, seeking to eliminate capitalism
Define Core.
A “core” refers to a region or country that holds significant economic power, characterized by high levels of wealth, innovation, advanced technology, and dominant control over global trade.
What is devolution?
Devolution” refers to the process of transferring power from a central government to regional or local governments within a state, essentially giving more autonomy to smaller political units within a country.
What is the EEZ?
The economically exclusive zone refers to the 200 miles of sea offshore of a state and has rights to such as explore, exploit, conserve, and manage the natural resources of.
What is the UNCLOS?
It is an international treaty that defines the rights and responsibilities of nations regarding the use of the world’s oceans
