The Political Imprint

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The Political Imprint

• Cultural Geography Political Geography

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Culture Regions

• Political culture regions
• Political diffusion
• Political ecology
• Politico-cultural integration
• Political landscapes

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Independent countries

• Earths surface is divided into some 190
  independent countries

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• Human Territoriality
• Country any expanse of land
• State (from the Latin status meaning standing)
• Nation people with a sense of belonging to a
  common group

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Distribution of national territory
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Distribution of national territory

• Enclave district surround by a country but not
  ruled by it

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Distribution of national territory

• Exclaves Pieces of national territory separated
  from the main body of a country by the territory
  of another

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• A is Armenia
• C is Iran

• B is Azerbaijan
• a is Nagomo-Karabakh
• b is Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic
• c is Okibair Eskipara enclave
• d is Sofulu enclave
• e is Kyarki enclave
• f is Bashkend enclave

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Distribution of national territory

• Pakistan as an exclave in 1947
• West Pakistan had the capital, most of the
  territory, and hoarded the countrys wealth
• East Pakistan had most of the people
• Divided in 1973, East Pakistan became Bangladesh

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Boundaries

• Frontiers or marchlands
• Buffer state
• Mongolialies between Russia and China
• Nepallies between India and China
• Satellite state -- a buffer state that falls
  under domination

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Boundaries

• Natural boundaries
• Ethnographic boundaries
• Geometric boundaries

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Niagara Falls

• Niagara River forms a natural boundary between
  Canada and the United States

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Cyprus
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Boundaries

• Relict boundaries no longer exist as
  international borders

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Spatial organization of territory

• -Unitary governments
• -Federal governments

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Centrifugal and centripetal forces

• Centripetal forces those forces that promote
  national unity and solidarity
• Raison detre (Principal centripetal force of a
  country)
• Centrifugal forces whatever disrupts internal
  order and encourages destruction of the country

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Centrifugal and centripetal forces

• How many independent countries should there be?
• We live in a time of new country proliferation
• Former Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 new
  countries
• Yugoslavia became 5
• Czechoslovakia became 2
• Russia, Iraq, Peru, and others could also fragment

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Supranational political bodies
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Supranational political bodies

• Supranational organization self-governing
  countries form international associations for
  purposes of trade, military assistance, or mutual
  security
• Some represent vestiges of collapsed empires
• British Commonwealth
• French community
• Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.) a
  shadow of the former Soviet Union

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Electoral geographical regions

• When people vote in an election a political
  culture region is created

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Electoral geographical regions

• Electoral regions also exist in the United States
  and Canada
• Daniel Elazar described three of these
• Traditionalistic
• Believe best government is the least government

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Electoral geographical regions

• Moralistic
• Views government as means to achieve a good
  society

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Electoral geographical regions

• Individualistic
• Seen as dirty used to further personal,
  rather than societal interests

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Functional electoral regions

• Electoral geographers are concerned with
  functional culture regions

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Functional electoral regions

• Majority political groups can arrange voting
  districts geographically to maximize their power
• gerrymandering

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Culture Regions

• Political culture regions
• Political diffusion
• Political ecology
• Politico-cultural integration
• Political landscapes

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Country building as diffusion

• Most countries diffused outward from a small
  nucleus called a core area
• capital city
• Cultural heart of country

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Country development from a core area

• Examples
• China
• The United States

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Countries with multiple competing cores

• Example of Spain
• Castile and Aragon united in 1479
• Old core areas of Madrid and Barcelona continue
  to compete for political control
• Symbolize two language-based culturesCastilian
  and Catalonian

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Spread of political independence in Africa

• In 1914, only Liberia and Ethiopia were
  independent of European colonial rule
• By 1994 independence had swept the continent

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Culture Regions

• Political culture regions
• Political diffusion
• Political ecology
• Politico-cultural integration
• Political landscapes

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Folk fortresses

• Examples of countries with protective
  environmental features
• The British Isles
• Egypt and the Nile Valley core

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Folk fortresses

• Countries without natural defenses have often had
  problems maintaining their independence
• Korea
• Poland

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The heartland theory

• Halford Mackinder
• Mackinder believed the continent of Eurasia would
  be the most likely base from which a successful
  campaign for world conquest could be launched

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The heartland theory

• Discerned two environmental regions first the
  heartland
• Interior of Eurasia lying remote from the sea
• Earlier conquest by Mongols in China provided
  example

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The heartland theory

• In Mackinders view, a unified heartland power
  could probe into the coastlands
• Mackinder predicted Russian conquest of the world

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The heartland theory

• His second environmental region was the rimland
• Densely populated coastal fringes of Eurasia in
  the east, south, and west
• After the communist revolution in Russia in 1917,
  leaders of rimland empires and the United States
  employed a policy of containment