4.1 notes
Introduction to Political Geography
Political Geography
● Focuses on how Earth’s surface is politically organized and divided.
● Political geographers study how maps changed over the centuries and how spatial
organization leads to unequal social, political, and economic outcomes
The political State
● To be considered a state you must:
○ Have a defined territory with a permanent population organized into a political
unit
○ Be ruled by a government that controls foreign and domestic affairs
○ Be recognized by other states
● Since the first sate was created, believed to be Egypt, countries and boundaries have
changed
● Most states are sovereign today
● For a country to be sovereign, it must be recognized by other states
Types of Political Entities
● There is no general agreement on how many independent states are in the world
● United Nations recognized 195 countries
● Not every UN member state agrees on which countries are independent sovereign
nations
Nations
● A nation is a cultural entity of people within a geographic region who share a past,
common culture, heritage, and identity
● Nations are different from states, which are political entities
Nation-states
● A nation-state is a sovereign state whose cultural borders match its political boundaries
Introduction to Political Geography
Political Geography
● Focuses on how Earth’s surface is politically organized and divided.
● Political geographers study how maps changed over the centuries and how spatial
organization leads to unequal social, political, and economic outcomes
The political State
● To be considered a state you must:
○ Have a defined territory with a permanent population organized into a political
unit
○ Be ruled by a government that controls foreign and domestic affairs
○ Be recognized by other states
● Since the first sate was created, believed to be Egypt, countries and boundaries have
changed
● Most states are sovereign today
● For a country to be sovereign, it must be recognized by other states
Types of Political Entities
● There is no general agreement on how many independent states are in the world
● United Nations recognized 195 countries
● Not every UN member state agrees on which countries are independent sovereign
nations
Nations
● A nation is a cultural entity of people within a geographic region who share a past,
common culture, heritage, and identity
● Nations are different from states, which are political entities
Nation-states
● A nation-state is a sovereign state whose cultural borders match its political boundaries
