ch8
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Created by:
stoop1dnessxd on January 9, 2012
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53 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Antecedent boundaries | A boundary line established before an area is populated. |
| Balance of power | Condition of roughly equal strength between opposing countries or alliances of countries. |
| Balkanization | The contentious political process by which a state may break up into smaller countries. |
| United Nations | A global supranational organization established at the end of World War II to foster international security and cooperation. |
| Unitary state | An internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials |
| Theocracy | A state whose government is either believes to be divinely guided or a state under the control of a group of religious leaders. |
| Supranational organization | Organization of three of more states to promote shared objectives. |
| Subsequent boundaries | Boundary line drawn in an area ignoring the existing cultural pattern. |
| States' rights | Rights and powers believed to be in the authority of the state rather than the federal government. |
| State | An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government with a control over its internal and foreign affairs. |
| Sovereignty | Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states. |
| Self- determination | The right of a nation to govern itself autonomously. |
| Rimland theory | Nicholas Spykman's theory that the domination of the coastal fringes of Eurasia would provide the base for world conquest. |
| Relic boundaries | Old political boundaries that no longer exist as international borders, but that have left an enduring mark on the local cultural or environmental geography. |
| Microstate | A state that encompasses a very small land area |
| Prorupted state | An otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension |
| Physical boundary | Political boundaries that correspond with prominent physical features such as mountain ranges or rivers. |
| Perforated state | A state that completely surrounds another one. |
| Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) | An international economic organization whose member countries all produce and export oil. |
| Organic theory | The view that states resemble biological organisms with life cycles that include stages of youth, maturity, and old age. |
| North/south divide | The economic division between the wealthy countries of Europe and North America, Japan, and Australia and the general poorer countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. |
| North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) | An international organization that has joined together for military purposes. |
| North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) | Agreement signed January 1,1994, that allows the opening of borders between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. |
| Nation | Tightly knit group of individuals sharing a common language, ethnicity, religion, and other cultural attributes. |
| Nation-state | A country whose population possesses a substantial degree of cultural homogeneity and unity. |
| Nationalism | A sense of national pride to such an extent of exalting one nation above all others. |
| Buffer state | A relatively small country sandwiched between two larger powers. |
| Lebensraum | Hitler's expansionist theory based on a drive to acquire "living space" for the German people. |
| Law of the sea | Law establishing states' rights and responsibilities concerning the ownership and the use of the earth's seas and oceans and their resources. |
| Landlocked state | A state that does have a direct outlet to the sea. |
| International organization | An alliance of two or more countries seeking cooperation with each other without giving up either's autonomy or self-determination. |
| Geopolitics | The study of the interplay between political relations and the territorial context in which they occur. |
| Imperialism | Control of territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous group. |
| Heartland theory | Hypothesis proposed by Halford Mackinder that held that any political power based in the heart of Eurasia could gain enough strength to eventually dominate the world. |
| Gerrymandering | Process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power. |
| European Union | International organization comprised of Western European countries to promote free trade among members. |
| Geometric boundary | Political boundaries that are defined and delimited by straight lines. |
| Frontier | A zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control. |
| Fragmented states | A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory. |
| Federal state | An internal organization of a state that allocates most powers to units of local government. |
| Enclave | country completely surrounded by another. Term is also used to describe a neighborhood that is completely surrounded by a powerful one. |
| Centrifugal forces | Forces that tend to divide a country |
| Elongated state: | A state with a long, narrow shape. |
| East/west divide: | Geographic separation between the largely democratic and free-market countries of Western Europe and the Americas from the communist and socialists countries of Eastern Europe and Asia. |
| Compact state | A state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly. |
| Confederation | A form of an international organization that brings several autonomous states together for a common purpose. |
| Colony | A territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than completely independent. |
| Colonialism | Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory. |
| City-state | A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediate hinterland. |
| Centripetal forces | Forces that tend to unite or bind a country together. |
| Domino theory | The idea that political destabilization in one country can lead to collapse of political stability in neighboring countries, starting a chain reaction of collapse. |
| Boundary | Invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory |
| Exclave | A bounded territory that is part of a particular state but is separated from it by the territory of a different state. |
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