TOPIC 4.1 - Introduction to Political Geography
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- The political organization of space results from historical and current processes, events, and ideas.
- For world political maps:
- Define the different types of political entities.
- Identify a contemporary example of political entities.
- Independent states are the primary building blocks of the world political map.
- Types of political entities include nations, nation-states, stateless nations, multinational states, multistate nations, and autonomous and semiautonomous regions, such as American Indian reservations.
- Source Analysis: Identify the different types of information presented in visual sources.
- Nations vs States
- Nation-states
- Multinational states
- Multistate nations
- Stateless nations
- Semi-autonomous regions
- City-states
- Microstates
- Frontier
TOPIC 4.2 - Political Processes
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- The political organization of space results from historical and current processes, events, and ideas.
- Explain the processes that have shaped contemporary political geography
- The concepts of sovereignty, nation-states, and self-determination shape the contemporary world.
- Colonialism, imperialism, independence movements, and devolution along national lines have influenced contemporary political boundaries.
- Data Analysis: Explain what maps or data imply or illustrate about geographic principles, processes, and outcomes.
- Peace of Westphalia
- Colonialism
- Imperialism
- Berlin Conference
- Apartheid
- Independence movements
- Devolution
- Manifest Destiny
- Decolonization
- Neo-colonialism
- Hegemony
- Geopolitics
- Ratzel's Organic State Theory
- MacKinder's Heartland Theory
- Spykman's Rimland Theory
- Cold War
- Wallerstein's World System Theory/Core-Periphery Model
TOPIC 4.3 - Political Power and Territoriality
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- The political organization of space results from historical and current processes, events, and ideas.
- Describe the concepts of political power and territoriality as used by geographers.
- Political power is expressed geographically as control over people, land, and resources, as illustrated by neocolonialism, shatterbelts, and choke points.
- Territoriality is the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land.
- Scale Analysis: Explain spatial relationships across various geographic scales using geographic concepts, processes, models, or theories.
- Sovereignty
- Territoriality
- Territorial integrity
- Self-determination
- Irrendentism
- Territorial morphology
- Compact state - examples, pros and cons
- Fragmented state - examples, pros and cons
- Prorupt state - examples, pros and cons
- Protruded state - examples, pros and cons
- Perforated state - examples, pros and cons
- Landlocked states - examples, pros and cons
- Satellite states
- Immigrant states
- Enclaves and exclaves
TOPIC 4.4 - Defining Political Boundaries
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.
- Define types of political boundaries used by geographers.
- Types of political boundaries include relic, superimposed, subsequent, antecedent, geometric, and consequent boundaries.
- Concepts and Processes: Describe a relevant geographic concept, process, model, or theory in a specified context.
- Boundary making process: define, delimit, demarcate
- Relic boundary - examples
- Superimposed boundary - examples
- Subsequent boundary - examples
- Antecedent boundary - examples
- Consequent boundary - examples
- Geometric boundary - examples
- Physical boundary - examples
TOPIC 4.5 - The Function of Political Boundaries
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
FRQ's - 2012 #1
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.
- Explain the nature and function of international and internal boundaries.
- Boundaries are defined, delimited, demarcated, and administered to establish limits of sovereignty, but they are often contested.
- Political boundaries often coincide with cultural, national, or economic divisions. However, some boundaries are created by demilitarized zones or policy, such as the Berlin Conference.
- Land and maritime boundaries and international agreements can influence national or regional identity and encourage or discourage international or internal interactions and disputes over resources.
- The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in the use of international waters, established territorial seas, and exclusive economic zones.
- Scale Analysis: Explain the degree to which a geographic concept, process, model, or theory effectively explains geographic effects across various geographic scales.
- Boundary disputes
- Definitional disputes - examples
- Locational disputes - examples
- Operational disputes - examples
- Allocational disputes - examples
- UNCLOS - United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea
- EEZ - Exclusive Economic Zones
- Buffer states
FRQ's - 2012 #1
TOPIC 4.6 - Internal Boundaries
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.
- Explain the nature and function of international and internal boundaries.
- Voting districts, redistricting, and gerrymandering affect election results at various scales.
- Scale Analysis: Identify the scales of analysis presented by maps, quantitative and geospatial data, images, and landscapes.
- Representative government
- Reapportionment and redistricting
- Gerrymandering
- Packing and cracking districts
- Majority-minority districts
- Forward and thrust capitals
TOPIC 4.7 - Forms of Governance
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.
- Define federal and unitary states.
- Explain how federal and unitary states affect spatial organization.
- Forms of governance include unitary states and federal states.
- Unitary states tend to have a more top-down, centralized form of governance, while federal states have more locally based, dispersed power centers.
- Spatial Relationships: Describe spatial patterns, networks, and relationships.
- Unitary governments
- Federal governments
- Confederation
TOPIC 4.8 - Defining Devolutionary Factors
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- Political, economic, cultural, or technological changes can challenge state sovereignty
- Define factors that lead to the devolution of states.
- Factors that can lead to the devolution of states include the division of groups by physical geography, ethnic separatism, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, economic and social problems, and irredentism.
- Data Analysis: Explain what maps or data imply or illustrate about geographic principles, processes, and outcomes.
- Devolution
- Ethnocultural devolution - examples
- Spatial devolution - examples
- Economic devolution - examples
- Balkanization
- Break up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia
- Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China
TOPIC 4.9 - Challenges to Sovereignty
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- Political, economic, cultural, or technological changes can challenge state sovereignty.
- Explain how political, economic, cultural, and technological changes challenge state sovereignty.
- Devolution occurs when states fragment into autonomous regions; subnational politicalterritorial units, such as those within Spain, Belgium, Canada, and Nigeria; or when states disintegrate, as happened in Sudan and the former Soviet Union.
- Advances in communication technology have facilitated devolution, supranationalism, and democratization.
- Global efforts to address transnational and environmental challenges and to create economies of scale, trade agreements, and military alliances help to further supranationalism.
- Supranational organizations—including the United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), European Union (EU), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Arctic Council, and African Union— can challenge state sovereignty by limiting the economic or political actions of member states.
- Scale Analysis: Compare geographic characteristics and processes at various scales.
- Supranationalism - examples
- History of the European Union
- NAFTA - USMCA
- Impact of globalization on sovereignty
- Terrorism
TOPIC 4.10 - Consequences of Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:
- Political, economic, cultural, or technological changes can challenge state sovereignty.
- Explain how the concepts of centrifugal and centripetal forces apply at the state scale.
- Centrifugal forces may lead to failed states, uneven development, stateless nations, and ethnic nationalist movements.
- Centripetal forces can lead to ethnonationalism, more equitable infrastructure development, and increased cultural cohesion.
- Scale Analysis: Compare geographic characteristics and processes at various scales.
- Centrifugal forces - examples
- Centripetal forces - examples