Political Geography
Geographic Factors that Promote Stability of Governments
Political geography1. Territorial Distribution & National Cohesiveness: Territorial Morphology =size and shape of country or state
- involves the study of how territory or space is organized in different environments and under different cultural conditions
- tries to explain how and why boundaries are located where they are
- tries to explain from a geographic point of view the factors that tend to promote political stability within a definite amount of space or within a region
Major ideas/factors considered by a political geographer
- territory size
- territory shape or morphology
- territory location
- land form/physical patterns
- economic development
- cultural/population patterns
- infrastructure
DefinitionsSTATE: or country. an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government which has control over internal and foreign affairs
SOVEREIGNTY: a country or state that has complete control over its foreign and domestic affairs
NATION: a collection of people who occupy a particular area and who have a strong sense of unity based upon shared beliefs, history, language, religion, customs, blood, kinship, music, literature, heroes, etc.
Centripetal & Centrifugal Factors of State Stability
Centripetal Factors:
Centrifugal Factors
- moving toward the center
- factors which promote national unity and identify
- binding or uniting forces
- "Nationalism" loyalty & devout ion to a state that represents a nation's distinctive cultural characteristics; strong symbols as flags & songs; people who have a strong sense of unity because of language, religion, history, beliefs, attitudes, common ancestry or "blood"; "being a nation involves being 'different' and being proud of one's differences.
- moving away from the center
- factors that promote instability
- Nationalism: several nations within the boundaries of one state
- Multinational State: one group of people might try to dominate other "nations" of people within the borders; former Yugoslavia, Cyprus
- Nations divided among more than one state; nationality split among more than one state and unable to control the government of any state; might try to carve out a new nation-state from portions of existing ones; nationality may already dominate one country but wish to expand the country's boundaries to include members of the nationality living in other states
- Kurds: northern Iraq, eastern Turkey, western Iran, USSR, Syria; non-Arab group of Sunni Muslims who speak language similar to Farsi [Iran]; distinctive cultural traditions, literature, social customs and dress
- Ireland: divided between Republic of Ireland [Catholic] and Northern Ireland [Protestant] of 26 districts that close to join United Kingdom; many Catholic in Ireland wish to see the 6 counties that have been created in Northern Ireland join the 26 counties of Catholic Ireland; IRA=Irish Republican Army, militant organization dedicated to achieving Irish national unity without Britain
Use an Atlas to Look at the Following State Examples
- What is the ideal size of a country: Athens, Rome, old USSR, Canada, Brazil, USA, China--- the larger the size the greater the possibility of more people and greater variety of resources and climates
- Organic State Theory: territorial expansion can be desirable and in some cases necessary in order to obtain more resources, population, fighting space, etc. ... A country is like a person; needs to be fed and grow in order to remain strong
- Territorial growth can become a liability to a central government trying to rule over wide spaces; greater the size the harder it will be to obtain loyalty of all people to central government; transportation problems; multiple cultures within the state; several "nations" within one set of boundaries.
- ENCLAVE: nation island in the middle of another state; could become a base for invasion into another country; "en" =into; territory surrounded by another state but not ruled by it as the Vatican City, San Marino, Lesotho
- EXCLAVE: part of a country separated from the main body of a country; isolation; defense problems; separatist feelings; ethnic differences as with the "old" West Pakistan and East Pakistan that became Bangladesh; "ex"= from or out; territory that is separated from the political body that it controls; fragmented state as Malaysia, United Kingdom, USA, Indonesia --- several parts of the country are located far away from each other = problems of national cohesion or "togetherness"
- Territorial Shape Ideal--- a compact shape; distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly. Compactness = good communications, to all regions; Poland, Hungary, Romania. Capital City: in the center of the country= good as France, El Salvador, Poland, Romania, Uruguay, Zimbabwe
- Island Nations: Cuba, Iceland, Taiwan [Republic of China], Madagascar, New Zealand, Sri Lanka ---- easy to defend
- Elongated: long, narrow country as Chile, Italy, Norway, Panama, Thailand, Vietnam. travel, communication, internal cohesion, nationalism, trade difficult to develop; people do not feel "together" major differences between one end of the country and the other
- Prorupted: lengthy land extensions as peninsulas or landlocked corridors as Mynamar [Bum], Thailand, Namibia, Zaire, India [Assam region], Argentina
- Landlocked: access to the sea necessary for trade and commerce. The following are do not have access to the sea-- Austria, Bhutan, Chad, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Czech Republic, Moldavia, Belorussia, former Soviet Islamic republics -- Uzbek, Kirghiz, Tadzhik, Kazakh
- Fragmented State: country has boundaries or parts that are not connected which makes transportation and communication difficult; Philippines, Indonesia
2. Population Distribution-- Where should the people live? How will distribution of people affect the stability of the state?look at a population map in atlas and see distribution of population for Canada, Russia, Brazil, Australia
- Ideal= population concentration in the center of the country and with the center being surrounded by mountains or desert
- Bad=population scattered around the edges of the country as a doughnut; generally people will live near the ocean or water
3. Boundaries: Which type of boundary will create better internal stability?
- Natural Boundary as a river, desert, mountains-- "definite" boundary created so everyone will know; easier to defend in the past; rivers change the way they flow which may create problems; major lake as Caspian and Black Seas
- Ethnographic: boundaries based upon cultural traits of people--- all of one nation within certain set of boundaries
- Geometric: straight lines; tendency to divide economic, cultural, and physical regions; Canada and the USA
- Superimposed: boundaries determined after settlement; could be drawn across a unified cultural landscape and will probably divide ethnic groups or nations; forcibly placed upon an existing cultural landscape
- Antecedent: boundaries determined before settlement of the land; Canada and the USA
- Subsequent: conform to a certain degree of cultural space through which they lie; adjusts to linguistic, religious or ethnic breaks as Belgium's borders with France, Germany, Netherlands & Luxembourg
- Relic: boundary that has ceased to function but whose imports are still evident on the cultural landscape as boundary that separated former British Somali land and Italian Somali land; Somali now somewhat unified but place names still remain either English or Italian
4. Core Areas and Capital City
5. Landform Patterns What physical factors will promote internal stability of a country?
- Heartland of a state or core area; growth from a small nucleus; dense population in the center of the country; social, political and economic center or most important part of the sate; think of an apple with a core; the core contains the most important part, i.e. the seeds.... the remaining part of the apple protects the core area
- states that expand from a central core area = more stability;
- states that have two or more "core areas" have problems--- Missouri with Kansas City and St. Louis
- Paris= folk fortress or people have always looked to Paris as the most important city, even though it is not directly in the center
- Capital City: primate city or dominant city
- Headlink Capital= capital close to the border
- Forward thrust capital= capital city moved to the frontier area. Look at Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria
- Which African nations have a capital city in a location that might create stability or instability?
- Location of Berlin in the unified Germany and without pre-World War II land on the east that became Poland after World War II.... Is Berlin in an ideal location? Should the capital city be moved? [It was moved from Bonn to Berlin. What prompted this development?]
- Physical Boundaries: mountains, deserts, water [though the precise location of water can change]; territorial limit [how far does a country extend out into the ocean] differs among countries from 12 to 200 miles--- why 12 miles?
- Landlocked: water critical to facilitate international trade; Africa has 14 of 53 states with no access to the ocean; they are at the mercy of neighbors for imports and exports; railroads must pass through independent and friendly country
- Ideal: border of mountains or desert with access to the sea and the interior plains
- Interior Barriers: desert or mountains disrupt communications, transportation and cause separatist movements; isolated mountain valleys= region of possible insurgency that can start in the middle of the country
- Transportation:
- Highways and railroads to connect the frontier with core areas to reduce internal stability and reduce isolation; all regions should be tied to all other regions with strong transportation network
- Access to the sea for international trade; outlet to world markets without being dependent upon neighboring states
7. Political Organization--- Unitary or Federal State?
- Unitary: power concentrated in central government with little power to outlying regions; works best in countries with few internal cultural differences; requires effective communication and transportation;
- France: national government strong and dominates local government decisions; each of 95 departments headed by commissioners who are appointed by national government rather than elected by the local people. Examples= former Soviet Union and many in Latin America except Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina; majority of African and Middle East countries plus China
- Federal State: national government allocates strong powers to units of local government within the country; possess authority to adopt their own laws;
- Multinational states usually adopt a federal system of government to give power to different nationalities-- Canada, US, India, Brazil
- Former Yugoslavia had 7 neighbors, 6 republics, 5 nationalities, 4 languages, 3 religions, 2 alphabets, 1 dinar or form of money---- From a geographers point of view, why was the former Yugoslavia ever created?
8. Agriculture and Industry
- Is the country or state dependent upon other states for food and/or industrial items?
- Diversified or single crop/product that subject to ups and downs of laws of supply and demand. The economic health of the country can be determined by forces outside the country if the price of the produced item goes down.
- Internal trade or regions within the country? Or, do different parts of the country naturally trade with countries across the border because of inadequate transportation or whatever?
- How much international trade does the country have?
- What is the balance of imports to exports?
- Is the country only supplying "primary" goods [raw materials as iron, oil, tin, copper, cotton, coffee] or does the country produce the finished products?
- What is the educational level or technical skills of the population?
9. The Insurgent State:
10. Cultural Factors:
- insurgent=a person who rises in forcible opposition to lawful authority; especially one who engages in an armed resistance to the recognized government.
- Guerrilla: member of a small independent band of soldiers that harasses the government by surprise raids; attacks on the infrastructure or communication and supply lines.
- Guerrilla Leader: good geographer who keenly aware of both the physical and cultural environment; not well armed as adversaries or have as many soldiers; must know the land that they are moving across or they will be trapped and destroyed; must be able to tap the basic stresses and strains in the cultural groups they wise to win over.
- Stages of Guerrilla War:
- Insurgency initiated by deep dissatisfaction with the existing government and belief that needed changes can be accomplished only by force; dissidents need not be numerous but require sympathy of sizable segment of population; 1st stage= mobile warfare in which small bands are unable to seize permanent control of territory; constantly moving to avoid capture; confine operations to specific, carefully chosen regions; usually in mountains or other inaccessible lands; chosen area should be largely self-sufficient economically, discontented politically and located near key military objectives such as cities or transport lines
- 2nd Stage: guerrillas become strong enough to establish permanent bases that they continuously control; bases form core area of evolving insurgent state; insurgent movement forms a "government" by appointing administrators, collects taxes, etc.; base area expands outward into surrounding areas and guerrillas dispatched to establish new bases in other suitable regions; insurgent state has bases scattered throughout the country; same problem of a fragmented state with communication with leadership and goals of the revolution
- 3rd stage: revolutionary forces abandon guerrilla tactics and engage in conventional warfare; rival governments are now military equals competing for territory; guerrillas make major efforts to enlist support of all dissident elements in the country and portray revolution as inevitable
- Insurgent states win in Cuba and Vietnam; lost in Nigeria and Peru; Columbia and Sri Lanka undecided
- If you wanted to "take over a country" from within, where would you set up your initial base camp? What geographic factors would you consider?
- Do people have a strong sense of unity as seen by symbols on flag, national songs, common language, common religion, common blood, common history, etc. that creates "nationalism"
- Is the state made up a number of "nations" that do not live well with each other
- Negative cultural factors in Cyprus, South Africa, Ireland, the old Yugoslavia, the old USSR, the new Russia, Nigeria and most of the Africa states.
If you were able to redraw the map of the world and create logical boundaries for the world's states, what would you consider if political stability was your major goal? Look at the political, cultural and physical maps of Africa. Why is it not a surprise to see the amount of political instability in Africa that we have seen since the mid 1960's?