SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIONS 1112017 WHAT IS A POLITICAL

SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIONS 1/11/2017

WHAT IS A POLITICAL GEOGRAPHER? v. Someone who studies human claims and conflicts concerning the use, patterns, and ownership of the land its resources

Geography Where? Why there? Consequences? Politics How to influence decision making? POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

WHAT IS STATE? v. State a political unit that has sovereignty (ultimate power within your territory) over a particular piece of land v. Almost all habitable land belongs to a country today v. In 1940 there were about 60 countries and today there are 193! v. Some places are difficult to classify as there are many claims to them

v. The term country is a synonym for state v. Four elements of a state: v. People – contains a permanent population v. Territory – occupies a defined territory on the earth’s surface v. Government – rules people v. Sovereignty – control over its internal and foreign affairs, independent from other states

WHAT IS A NATION? v. Nation A large collective of people united by common descent, history, language, culture or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory v. A social/cultural concept, more tied to ethnicity; a people with a sense of union with one another

EXAMPLES OF NATIONS v Korea – almost everyone in Korea is Korean v Nations can transcend geographical borders v Kurds who live in Turkey, Iran and Iraq v. The Kurds are a stateless Nation

NATION-STATE v Nation-State A political unit wherein the territorial state coincides with the area settled by a certain national group or people. v This term coincides with the geographical area occupied by a nation v Many governments try to build nationalism within a state in order to make it a nation-state

NATION-STATE EXAMPLES v Self-determination concept that every nation/ethnicity has the right to govern themselves v. There are very few nation-states (mostly in Europe) v Iceland, Sweden, Japan, Greece v. They are all mostly homogenous with few minorities

What would Africa look like if divided by Ethnicity? How many Nation-States would there be?