AP Human Geography Unit 4 Terms

Relic Boundary Origin

Def: A boundary that has ceased to function but can still be detected on the cultural landscape. It no longer exists as an international boundary. Ex: The Berlin Wall between East and West Germany

Antarctica

Def: A continent that is not fully owned by one country or permanently inhabited. Different countries have claims on sections, and some overlap. A treaty has been made to ensure that work is only scientifically driven, not militarily.

Apartheid

Def: Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas

Raison d'etre

Def: The most important reason or purpose for someone or something's existence (literal translation from French: reason to be)

Border Landscape

Def: There are two types of border landscapes, inclusionary and exclusionary. Inclusionary landscapes are meant to facilitate trade and movement, while exclusionary are meant to keep people out. Ex: An example of an inclusionary border landscape is the US-Canada border, while an example of an exclusionary border landscape is the US-Mexico border.

Ethnographic/Cultural Boundaries

Def: a boundary line that coincides with differences in ethnicities, such as language and religion Ex: The boundary between India and Pakistan was formed due to religious differences, India being mostly Hindu and Pakistan being primarily Muslim.

Antecedent Boundary Origin

Def: a boundary that existed before the cultural landscape emerged and stayed in place while people moved in to occupy the surrounding area (created before region was inhabited) Ex: the 49th parallel (part of the border between the US and Canada)

City-State

Def: a city with political and economic control over the surrounding countryside Ex: Singapore, Monaco

Sovereignty

Def: a country's independent authority and the right to govern itself

Territorial Disputes

Def: a disagreement over the possession/control of land between two or more territorial entities or over the possession or control of land, usually between a new state and the occupying power Ex: Israel and Palestine

Reunification

Def: a divided country or region that is brought back together Ex: Germany was reunified in 1990 when East Germany and West Germany joined back together and Berlin reunited into a single city.

Centrifugal

Def: a force that causes a state to separate (internal religious, political, economic, linguistic, or ethnic differences) Ex: The former Yugoslavia was shattered into five different countries because of diversity in culture.

Theocracy

Def: a form of government in which a country is ruled by religious leaders Ex: Iran

Nunavut

Def: a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic region of Canada (Northwest Territories, Denmark (Greenland), Russia (Siberia) and Alaska. The Inuit language is grouped under Eskimo-Aleut languages. An Inuk is an Inuit person.

Median-Line Principle

Def: a legal concept that a nation's maritime boundaries should conform to a median line equidistant from the shores of neighboring nation-states Ex: The Great Lakes use this principle to be divided between the US and Canada

Rimland

Def: a peripheral area of a state or region

Geometric Boundaries

Def: a political boundary defined and delimited as a straight line or arc Ex: The boundary between the U.S. and Canada west of the Great Lakes is a geometric boundary because it is along a line of latitude.

Satellite State

Def: a political term that refers to a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic and military influence or control from another country Ex: During the Cold War, the Soviet Union gained power over several countries that became known as satellite states, including Hungary, Poland, Romania, and a few other eastern European states.

European Union

Def: a politico-economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe; it operates through a system of supranational institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states Ex: (image)

Treaty Ports

Def: a port bound by treaty to be open to foreign trade Ex: Hong Kong, Japan

Exclave

Def: a portion of territory of one state completely surrounded by territory of another or others, as viewed by the home territory Ex: The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is an exclave of Azerbaijan that borders Armenia, Iran, and Turkey.

Enclave

Def: a portion of territory within or surrounded by a larger territory whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct Ex: Lesotho

Shatterbelt

Def: a region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals Ex: The Balkan Peninsula is a shatterbelt because it is between more powerful states that have tried to gain control of it over the years.

EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)

Def: a sea zone prescribed by the UNCLOS over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind Ex: (image)

Buffer State

Def: a small neutral state between two rival powers Ex: Uruguay served as a demilitarized buffer-zone between Argentina and the Empire of Brazil during the early independence period in South America.

Lebanon

Def: a sovereign state in the Middle East with a rich history and a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity; had a conflict and the UN went in and took over until there was more organization/safety

Microstate

Def: a sovereign state with a small population or land size Ex: Singapore

Israel

Def: a state experiencing ethnic conflict and disputes over land

Ministate

Def: a state or territory with a small population or land size Ex: Monaco

Nation-State

Def: a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality Ex: Japan, Iceland

Geopolitics

Def: a study of the influence of such factors as geography, economics, and demography on the politics and especially the foreign policy of a state

Immigrant States

Def: a type of receiving state which is the target of many immigrants Ex: The U.S.

Confederation

Def: a union of sovereign states for common action in relation to other states Ex: The Iroquois League is a group of different Native American tribes who use a representative government known as the Grand Council that makes decisions for the whole nation.

Supranationalism

Def: a venture of three or more states (sometimes two or more) involving formal economic, political, and/or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives Ex: European Union

Frontier

Def: a zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control; political or geographical areas near or beyond a boundary Ex: In the earliest days of European settlement in the United States, the frontier was any part of the forested area of the interior of the continent lying beyond the settled areas of the coast.

Landlocked

Def: almost or entirely surrounded by land; having no coastline or seaport Ex: Mongolia

Stateless Ethnic Groups

Def: an ethnic group, religious group, linguistic group or other cohesive group which is not the majority population in any nation state Ex: the Kurds

Unitary

Def: an internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials Ex: The United Kingdom

Federal

Def: an internal organization of state that allocates most powers to units of local government Ex: (image)

Palestine

Def: an old state that is trying gain back its land from the Israelis

Allocational Boundary Dispute

Def: argument about the distribution of resources; one state covets the resources of a neighboring state Ex: There is a huge oil field beneath the border between Iraq and Kuwait, which has led to conflict over how to divide the drilling rights.

Natural/Physical Boundaries

Def: boundaries created with naturally occurring features such as mountains, deserts, and bodies of water Ex: The border between Argentina and Chile is the Andes Mountains.

Superimposed Boundary Origin

Def: boundary imposed on an area by a conquering or colonizing power that is unconcerned about pre-existing cultural patterns. It ignores the existing cultures and is usually established by a higher authority to satisfy the demands of the superpower Ex: The division of countries in Africa was determined by the British.

Core/Periphery

Def: core containing wealth and industry and periphery containing population and agriculture Ex: The United States is part of the core of the world, while most North African countries are part of the periphery.

Law of the Sea

Def: defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources Ex: EEZ

Operational Boundary Dispute

Def: disagreement over policies to be applied along a boundary Ex: immigration, trading

Compact Territorial Morphology

Def: distance from geometric center is similar Ex: Germany, Hungary

Subsequent Boundary Origin

Def: drawn after a population has established itself; respects existing spatial patterns of some social, cultural and ethnic groups and can accommodate differences; boundary set after the settlements of different groups meet Ex: The boundary between China and Vietnam is the result of a long term process of adjustment and modification.

Colonialism

Def: exploitation by a stronger country of a weaker one Ex: India was a British colony until 1947.

Centripetal

Def: forces that unify a state (national culture, shared ideological objectives, common faith) Ex: In Israel, the modern Hebrew language was created to unify people from many different countries who came to the new Jewish homeland.

Mackinder, Halford

Def: founder of the Heartland theory and geopolitics

Prorupted Territorial Morphology

Def: have an area that extends from a more compact core Ex: Thailand, India

Delimitation Boundary Process

Def: legally establishing the outer limits and drawing of boundaries, particularly of electoral precincts, states, counties, or other municipalities Ex: drawing the boundary on a map

Elongated Territorial Morphology

Def: long and narrow territory Ex: Chile

Conference of Berlin (1884)

Def: meeting between European nations to create rules on how to peacefully divide Africa among them for colonization

Forward Capital

Def: moving a nation's capital to another area within the state to make a statement or create economic growth Ex: Brazil changed its capital to Brasilia in the 1950s because it was more interior compared to the previous capital on the east coast. The goal was to help populate the interior, which was sparsely populated.

International Organization

Def: organization with an international membership, scope, or presence Ex: The United Nations

Demarcation Boundary Process

Def: phase in which the boundary is visibly marked on the landscape Ex: fence, line, sign, wall

Iron Curtain

Def: physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991 Ex: (image)

State

Def: politically organized territory administered by a sovereign government, with a permanent population, and recognized by the international community Ex: Canada

Capital

Def: principal city in a state or country Ex: Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States.

Heartland Theory

Def: proposed by Halford Mackinder; claimed that whichever state controlled the research-rich "heartland" of Eastern Europe could eventually dominate the world Ex: (image)

Rimland Theory

Def: proposed by Nicholas Spykman; theory that the domination of the coastal fringes of Eurasia (the "rimland") would provide the base for world conquest Ex: (image)

Electoral Regions

Def: regions that hold seats in Parliament or Congress; the different voting districts that make up a region Ex: (image)

USSR Collapse

Def: socialism failed economically, outside opposition (Capitalist countries) and Nationalism within the republics, competition with the West (they wanted equality with US, but had no money), and party officials were killed for personal gain, weakening the party

Perforated Territorial Morphology

Def: territory completely surrounds that of another state Ex: South Africa

Decolonization

Def: the action of changing from colonial to independent status

Annexation

Def: the action of seizing something, especially a territory; the political transition of land from the control of one entity to another Ex: Western New Guinea was annexed (taken over) by Indonesia in 1969.

Territoriality

Def: the behavior of animals or people that try to keep others away from an area that they use or control (non verbal communication) Ex: Ethnic territories

Manifest Destiny

Def: the belief or doctrine that it was the destiny of the U.S. to expand its territory over the whole of North America and to extend and enhance its political, social, and economic influences

National Iconography

Def: the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images Ex: the eagle as the US national animal, the Statue of Liberty (symbol of freedom, friendship, immigration, enlightenment)

Heartland

Def: the central or most important part of a state, area, or field of activity

UNCLOS

Def: the most comprehensive attempt at creating a unified regime for governance of the rights of nations with respect to the world's oceans Ex: Law of the Sea

Irredentism

Def: the nationalist belief that a territory belonging to another country should be annexed for ethnic or historical reasons Ex: In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Italy sought to detach predominantly Italian-speaking areas from Switzerland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and incorporate these areas into a new Italian state.

Definition Boundary Process

Def: the phase in which the exact location of a boundary is legally described and negotiated Ex: formal written agreement like a treaty setting up the border

Domino Theory

Def: the political theory that if one nation comes under Communist control then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control Ex: (image)

Self-Determination

Def: the process by which a country determines its own statehood and forms its own allegiances and government Ex: Imperialism

Reapportionment

Def: the process of dividing the number of State representatives and senators among the State's population in order to assure, as close as possible, districts of equal size Ex: The United States changes the apportionment of U.S. representatives after every census.

Balkanization

Def: the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or uncooperative with each other Ex: Balkanization occurred on the Balkan Peninsula after WW1 with the fall of the Ottoman, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian Empires, each of which had gained significant territory on this land. These territories became several new states, including Greece, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria.

Gerrymander

Def: the process of redrawing legislative powers for the purpose of benefiting the party in power

Suffrage

Def: the right to vote in political elections Ex: The 19th Amendment legalized women's suffrage

Global Commons

Def: the set of natural resources, basic services, public spaces, cultural traditions, and other essentials of life and society that are, or should be, part of a public trust to be enjoyed by all people and cherished for the planet's well-being Ex: Antarctica, outer space, atmosphere, oceans

Regionalism

Def: the theory or practice of regional rather than central systems of administration or economic, cultural, or political affiliation; the process of dividing something up by regions according to their similarities in specific topics Ex: increasing states' rights

Devolution

Def: the transfer or delegation of power to a lower level, especially by central government to local or regional administration Ex: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland exercise authority over their own lands, but remain part of the United Kingdom.

Nation

Def: tightly knit group of people sharing a common language, ethnicity, religion, and other cultural attributes Ex: Kurds, Cherokee

Fragmented Territorial Morphology

Def: two or more separate pieces Ex: Indonesia

Locational Boundary Dispute

Def: usually arise when a boundary has been artificially imposed on a landscape, and it divides a homogeneous population Ex: The Ogaden region of Ethiopia is comprised of mostly Somalis. This land was given to Ethiopia by the British without the consent of Somalia, and when Somalia gained independence in 1960, it wanted the region back. Since then, the two countries have engaged in conflicts over the region.

Ethnic Conflict

Def: war between two ethnic groups Ex: There was a mass ethnic genocide in Rwanda between two tribes called the Hutus and the Tutsis in which half a million people were massacred on both sides.

Definitional Boundary Dispute

Def: when states disagree about the interpretation of legal documents that define a boundary Ex: Argentina refused to abide by a binding international award giving the islands of Picton, Lennox, and Nueva to Chile in 1978 and pushed the country to war in an attempt to produce a boundary consistent with Argentine claims.

Women's Enfranchisement

Def: women's right to vote

Stateless Nation

Def: a nation without a state Ex: Palestinians

Religious Conflict

Def: conflict based on religious differences Ex: The Crusades