What do I need to know for AP Human Geo Unit 4? (Political Organization)

Unit IV. Political Organization of Space (13-17%)

Unit 4 Summary

Unit 4 Essential Questions

• What social, historical, and economic factors have influenced modern political maps at various scales?
• How do boundaries reflect ideas of territoriality and political power on various scales?
• How has globalization changed the way people live?

Models to Know from Unit 4

1. Organic Theory
2. Mackinder's Heartland Theory
3. Domino Theory
4. Spykman's Rimland Theory
5. Core-Periphery Model

Past FRQs from Unit 4

UNIT 4 KEY CONCEPTS - COURSE OUTLINE

The Political Map

• The terms state, country, and nation are often used interchangeably, but they have some differences.
• The US recognizes 195 sovereign states in the world.
  • Sovereign states have power over their own affairs
• Types of states. Hang tight, this can get confusing.
  • Nation-States = Country made up of one nationality (examples: Iceland, Japan)
  • Multinational States = Countries made up of many nationalities (examples: US, Canada)
  • Stateless Nations = Nationalities without a recognized home country (examples: Kurds, Palestinians)
  • Multistate Nations = Nationalities that spread among many states (example: Koreans live in North & South Korea plus many in China and the US)

• Forces that unify or break-up countries
  • nationalism = nation's desire to create its own state
  • centripetal force = unifies people within a state (examples: shared religion, external threats, common languages)
  • centrifugal force = pulls people within a state apart (examples: different religions and languages that cause tensions)

• Imperialism & Colonialism
  • The political map was vastly altered because of imperialism
  • What's the difference between imperialism and colonialism?
    • Imperialism is a more broad term that includes any time a country is exerting influence over another country
    • Colonialism is a type of imperialism where people move into and settle on the land of another country
  • A brief history
    • Spain & Portugal kicked things off in the 1500s by establishing empires in Central and South America for "God, Glory, and Gold"
    • England, France, and the Netherlands followed, mostly colonizing North America
    • The early Europeans fought each other frequently for more dominance across the Americas straight through the 1800s
    • In the late 1800s, Germany, Belgium, and Italy joined the game,
    • As all of Europe turned to Africa, leaders met at the Berlin Conference (without any African leaders present) to divide up the content.
    • In all of colonial history, no attention was paid to tribal or traditional boundaries.

• Geopolitics in the 20th & 21st Centuries
  • Many colonized countries rebelled and secured independence in the 20th century, thus adding several new countries (Angola, Vietnam, India, etc)
  • Civil Wars & genocides led to mass movements of people and the development of new states (Israel)
  • The Soviet Union dominated as a second superpower, but then collapsed in 1990 leading to 15 new republics from former satellite countries.

Territory, Power, and Boundaries

• Concepts of Political Power & Territoriality
  • Why do some states grow while other stay weak?
    • Organic Theory = states need living space to survive, or lebensraum, by annexing lands from weaker states (example: Nazi Germany)
    • Heartland Theory = Land-based power led to domination. Whoever controlled the "heartland" (Russia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe), would dominate the world
    • Rimland Theory = Whoever controlled the seas would rule the world (coastal regions across Europe, Asia)

• Types of Boundaries
  • Defined = established by a legal document
  • Delimited = drawn on a map
  • Demarcated = identified by physical objects (walls, signs)
  • Natural = based on physical features (rivers, mountains)
  • Geometric = straight lines drawn by people
  • Cultural = based on human traits or behaviors, without an official boundary

• Boundary Disputes
  • Definitional = disagreement on how to define legal docs (ex: Chile & Argentina at the Andes Mountains)
  • Locational = differences on where a boundary should be (ex. Poland / Germany after WWII)
    • Irredentism = type of expansionism when one country annexes another because it has cultural ties to the population (Germany annexing Austria in WWII)
  • Operational = how the boundary functions (ex: disputes around Syria based on who should care for refugees)
  • Allocational = natural resources in dispute (ex: Iraq / Kuwait dispute)

• The Law of the Sea
  • Territorial Sea = 12 miles of sovereignty away from coast

• Voting Boundaries in the US
  • Districts set up based on population data from the census

• But lots has been done to mess with these boundaries in order to benefit different political parties
  • gerrymandering = changing voting boundaries based on race, voting patterns, class, etc
    • For example, if there is a huge population of liberal black voters in a district, they would win seats as they outvote conservative white voters
    • But if you split the district through the black population, now you could have two districts with a majority of white conservative voters and minority black liberal voters
    • By doing this, there would now be two conservative congress-people representing an area that is actually a majority liberal
• Effects of Boundaries
  • Any boundary has consequences, whether positive or negative
  • For example, people who speak the same language or practice the same religion are split
• Different Forms of Governance
  • Federal = power is shared between central gov't and state or local gov't (ex: US)
  • Unitary = power held primarily by central gov't without much power given to local gov't (ex: France)
• Shapes of States
  • 🤩 Review the shapes of states with Dustin Fowler
  • Compact = everywhere is about the same distance from the center (Poland, Romania)
  • Elongated = stretched out, difficult to travel (Chile, Norway)
  • Prorupted = compact + extension (Thailand, India)
  • Perforated = has another state completely within its boundaries (South Africa - Lesotho, Italy - Vatican City)

Globalization

• The world has become WAY more connected in the last century because of technology, global markets, and political influence.

• Challenges to State Sovereignty
  • Ideas spread fast, which leads to more independence movements (ex: Arab Spring

• Supranationalism

• When multiple countries form an organization (NATO, UN, EU, NAFTA)
• 🤩 Review supranationalism with Dustin Fowler 
  • Economic Supranationalism
    • Some examples = WTO, ASEAN, OPEC
    • Transnational companies span across countries like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple
  • Military & Strategic Supranationalism
    • Cross-country pacts: NATO, Warsaw Pact
  • Supranationalism & the Environment
    • Climate change will need a solution that includes every country
• Devolution
  • It's the transfer of power from one central gov't to many local/regional gov'ts (Ex: Fall of Soviet Union)
    • 🤩Review devolution with Dustin Fowler.
  • Forces leading to devolution
    • Physical = isolation because of mountains (India)
    • Ethnic = minority groups fighting for independence (Spain - Basques & Catalans)
    • Terrorism = organized violence (ETA in Northern Ireland)
    • Economic = control of natural resources (Brazil)
    • Social Issues = different languages (Quebec, Belgium)
    • Irredentism = annexed because of similar culture or language, but then pulled back (Armenia, Azerbaijan)
• Fragmentation
  • Autonomous regions = relative to stateless nations, groups that have independence to manage daily governance, but not their own state (Navajo)
  • Sub-nationalists = connected more to nationality than central gov't (Quebec, Jews in Poland/Ukraine)
  • Balkanization = fragmented state into smaller, often hostile, states based on language/ethnic lines (Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania)

LIST OF CONCEPTS & VOCABULARY FROM UNIT 4

• Annexation
• Apartheid
• Balkanization
• Boundary, disputes (definitional, locational, operational, allocational)
• Boundary, origin (antecedent, subsequent, superimposed, relic)
• Boundary, process (definition, delimitation, demarcation)
• Boundary, type (natural/physical, ethnographic/cultural, geometric)
• Buffer state
• Centrifugal
• Centripetal
• City-state
• Colonialism
• Confederation
• Conference of Berlin (1884)
• Core/periphery
• Decolonization
• Devolution
• Domino theory
• EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)
• Electoral regions
• Enclave/exclave
• Enfranchisement
• Ethnic conflict
• European Union
• Federal
• Forward capital
• Geopolitics
• Gerrymander
• Heartland/rimland
• International organization
• Iron Curtain
• Irredentism
• Landlocked
• Law of the Sea
• Manifest destiny
• Median-line principle
• Microstate
• Ministate
• Nation
• National iconography
• Nation-state
• Raison d’être
• Reapportionment
• Regionalism
• Religious conflict
• Reunification
• Satellite state
• Self-determination
• Shatterbelt
• Sovereignty
• State
• Stateless ethnic groups
• Stateless nation
• Suffrage
• Supranationalism
• Territorial disputes
• Territorial morphology (compact, fragmented, elongated, prorupt, perforated)
• Territoriality
• Theocracy
• UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)
• Unitary