Unit 4: Political Geography

Question 1

state

Answer 1

a politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population; a country

Question 2

sovereignty

Answer 2

the right of a government to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders

Question 3

nation

Answer 3

a cultural entity made up of people who have forged a common identity through a shared language, religion, heritage, or ethnicity—often all four of these

Question 4

nation-state

Answer 4

a politically organized and recognized territory composed of a group of people who consider themselves to be a nation

Question 5

multistate nation

Answer 5

people who share a cultural or ethnic background but live in more than one country

Question 6

irredentism

Answer 6

attempts by a state to aquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation

Question 7

multinational state

Answer 7

a country with various ethnicities and cultures living inside its borders

Question 8

autonomous

Answer 8

having the authority to govern territories independently of the national government; for example, by having a separate currency

Question 9

semiautonomous

Answer 9

describing a region that is given partial authority to govern its territories independently from the national government

Question 10

stateless nation

Answer 10

a people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state

Question 11

territoriality

Answer 11

the attempt to influence or control people and events by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area; the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land

Question 12

colonialism

Answer 12

the practice of claiming and dominating overseas territories

Question 13

neocolonialism

Answer 13

the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies

Question 14

choke point

Answer 14

a narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass

Question 15

shatter belt

Answer 15

a region where states form, join, and break up because of ongoing, sometimes violent, conflicts among parties and because they are caught between the interests of more powerful outside states

Question 16

self-determination

Answer 16

the right of all people to choose their own political status

Question 17

imperialism

Answer 17

the push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other nations or peoples

Question 18

devolution

Answer 18

the process that occurs when the central power in a state is broken up among regional authorities within its borders

Question 19

define

Answer 19

to explicitly state in legally binding documentation such as a treaty where boundaries are located, using reference points such as natural features or lines of latitude and longitude

Question 20

delimit

Answer 20

to draw boundaries on a map, in accordance with a legal agreement

Question 21

demarcate

Answer 21

to place physical objects such as stones, pillars, walls, or fences to indicate where a boundary exists

Question 22

administer

Answer 22

to manage the way borders are maintained and how goods and people cross them

Question 23

antecedent boundaries

Answer 23

a border established before an area becomes heavily settled

Question 24

subsequent boundaries

Answer 24

a border drawn in an area that has been settled and where cultural landscapes exist or are in the process of being established

Question 25

consequent boundaries

Answer 25

a type of subsequent boundary that takes into account the differences that exist within a cultural landscape, separating groups that have distinct languages, religions, ethnicities, or other traits

Question 26

superimposed

Answer 26

a border drawn over existing accepted borders by an outside or conquering force

Question 27

geometric boundaries

Answer 27

a mathematically drawn boundary that typically follows lines of latitude and longitude or is a straight-line arc between two points

Question 28

relics

Answer 28

a former boundary that no longer has an official function

Question 29

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

Answer 29

the international agreement that established the structure of maritime boundaries

Question 30

exclusive economic zone (EEZ)

Answer 30

an area that extends 200 nautical miles from a state’s coast; a state has sole access to resources found within the waters or beneath the sea floor of its EEZ

Question 31

federal state

Answer 31

the organization of a state in which power is shared between the federal government and its internal regional units

Question 32

unitary state

Answer 32

an organization of a state in which power is concentrated in a central government

Question 33

concurrent

Answer 33

sharing authority

Question 34

reapportionment

Answer 34

the redistribution of representative seats among states based on shifts in population

Question 35

electoral college

Answer 35

a set of people, called electors, who are chosen to elect the president and vice president of the United States

Question 36

redistricting

Answer 36

the redrawing of internal territorial and political boundaries

Question 37

gerrymandering

Answer 37

the dividing of legislative boundaries to give one political party an advantage in elections

Question 38

majority-minority districts

Answer 38

an electoral district in which the majority of voters are members of an ethnic or racial minority

Question 39

ethnic separatism

Answer 39

the process by which people of a particular ethnicity in a multinational state identify more strongly as members of their ethnic group than as citizens of the state

Question 40

ethnic cleansing

Answer 40

the process by which a state attacks an ethnic group and tries to eliminate it through expulsion, imprisonment, or killing

Question 41

supranational organization

Answer 41

an alliance of three or more states that work together in pursuit of common goals or to address an issue or challenge

Question 42

economies of scale

Answer 42

cost reductions that occur when production rises

Question 43

ethnonationalism

Answer 43

the process by which the people of a country identify as having one common ethnicity, religious belief, and language, creating a sense of pride and identity that is tied to the territory; also called ethnic nationalism