| Term | Definition |
|---|
| antecedent boundary | A political boundary that existed before the cultural landscape emerged and stayed in place while people moved in to occupy the surrounding area. An example is the 49th parallel boundary, dividing the United States and Canada between the Pacific Ocean and Lake of the Woods in northernmost Minnesota. |
| boundary | A vertical plane that cuts through the rocks below and the airspace above. |
| boundary definition | The written legal description of a boundary between two countries or territories. |
| boundary delimitation | The translation of the written terms of a boundary treaty into an official cartographic representation. |
| boundary demarcation | The actual placing of a political boundary on the landscape by means of barriers, fences, walls, or other markers. |
| compact state | A political-geographical term to describe a state that possesses a roughly circular, oval, or rectangular territory in which the distance from the geometric center to and point on the boundary exhibits little variance. Cambodia, Uruguay, and Poland are examples of this shape category. |
| cultural-political boundary | Boundaries that mark breaks in the human landscape. |
| elongated state | A state whose territory is decidedly long and narrow in that its length is at least six times greater than its average width. Chile and Veitnam are two classic examples on the world political map. |
| enclave | A peice of territory that is surrounded by another political unit of which it is not a part. |
| exclave | A bounded (nonisland) peice of territory that is part of a particular state but lies separated from it by the territory of another state. |
| fragmented state | A state whose territory consists of several separated parts, not a contiguous whole. The individual parts may be isolated from each other by the land area of other states or by international waters. |
| frontier | Zone of advance penetration, usually of contention; an area not yet fully integrated into a politically organized area. |
| geometric boundary | Political boundaries defined and delimited as straight lines or arcs. |
| human territoriality | A term associated with the work of Robert Sack that describes the efforts of human societies to influence events and achieve social goals by exerting, and attempting to enforce, control over specific geographical areas. |
| landlocked | An interior country or state that is surrounded by land. |
| microstate | A very small state. |
| nation | Legally, a term encompassing all the citizens of a state. Most definitions now tend to refer to a tightly knit group of people possessing bonds of language, ethnicity, religion, and other shared cultural attributes. |
| nationalism | The desire on behalf of a group that sees itself as a nation to achieve self-government through the esstablishment or promotion of a nation-state with genuine soveregnty. |
| nation-state | Theoretically, a recognized member of the modern state system possessing formal sovereignty and occupied by a people who see themselves as a single, united nation. |
| natural-political boundary | Political boundaries that coincide with prominent physical features in the natural landscape - such as rivers or the crest ridges of mountain ranges. |
| perforated state | A state whose territroy completely surrounds that of another state. South Africa, which encloses Lesotho and is perforated by it, is an example. |
| physical-political boundary | Political boundaries that coincide with prominent physical features in the natural landscape - such as rivers or the crest ridges of mountain ranges.(the other one) |
| political culture | The type of culture that maps are based on. |
| political geography | A subdivision of human geography focused on the natural and implications of the evolving spatial organization of political governance and formal political practice on the Earth's surface. |
| prorupted state | A type of state territorial shape that exhibits a narrow, elongated land extension leading away from the main body of territory. Thailand is an example. |
| relict boundary | A politiccal boundary that has ceased to function but the imprint of which can still be detected on the cultural landscape. |
| Renaissance | Europe's rebirth. |
| sovereignty | A principle of international relations that holds that final authority over social, economic, and political matters should rest with the legitimate rulers of independent states. |
| state | A politically organized territory that is administered by a sovereign government and is recognized by a significant portion of the international community. |
| subsequent boundary | A political boundary that developed contemporaneously with the evolution of the major elements of the cultural landscape through which it passes. |
| subsoil | THe soil below the surface. |
| superimposed boundary | A political boundary placed by powerful outsiders on a developed human landscape. Usually ignores pre-existing cultural-spatial patterns, such as the border that now divides North and South Korea. |
| territorial morphology | A state's geographical shape, which can affect its spatial cohension and political viability. |
| theocracy | A state whose government is unde |
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