Intro to POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY [AP Human Geography Review—Unit 4 Topic 1]
Summary
TLDRThis script offers an insightful exploration into political geography, focusing on the concept of states and their evolution. It clarifies the difference between a 'state' and a 'nation,' explaining sovereignty and its significance. The video delves into the historical shift from empires to nationalism, leading to the current map of 195 independent states. It further categorizes political entities into six types: nations, nation-states, stateless nations, multi-state nations, multinational states, and autonomous/semi-autonomous regions, using examples to illustrate each. The script concludes with a plug for an AP Human Geography review guide.
Takeaways
- 🌍 The script discusses political geography, focusing on how the world is divided into states and how these divisions are made.
- 🏛️ A 'state' in political geography is a political unit with sovereignty over a defined territory and population, unlike the common usage of 'state' to refer to subnational entities like Ohio.
- 🗺️ There are 195 recognized independent states in the world as per the United Nations, with some additional disputed ones.
- 🏛️ Sovereignty is a key concept, indicating a state's power to govern its territory and make decisions within its borders.
- 🏰 Historically, the world was made up of large empires, not the collection of independent states we see today.
- 🌐 Nationalism, a sense of shared identity based on language, religion, and culture, has been a driving force behind the creation of new states since the 19th century.
- 👥 The script differentiates between 'Nation', which refers to a group sharing a common culture, and 'State', which is a political entity with sovereignty.
- 🏙️ 'Nation-state' is an ideal where a state's population is made up of a single nation, but this is rarely the case in reality.
- 🌎 'Stateless Nations' are groups that share cultural values but do not have their own state, such as the Kurds spread across the Middle East.
- 🌉 'Multi-state nations' are nations that are divided across multiple states, like the Yoruba people in West Africa.
- 🏙️ 'Multinational states' contain multiple cultures and ethnicities within their borders, like the United States with its diverse immigrant populations.
- 🏛️ Autonomous and semi-autonomous regions have varying degrees of self-governance within a state, with examples like Hong Kong and Scotland.
Q & A
What is political geography?
-Political geography is the study of how the world is divided and spatially arranged by the exercise of political power and the drawing of boundaries.
How many independent states are recognized by the United Nations?
-According to the United Nations, there are exactly 195 independent states as of the recording of the video.
What is the difference between a state and a nation?
-A state is a political unit that has power over a geographic territory and exerts sovereignty, while a nation refers to a group of people who share a common language, history, and culture.
What is meant by the term 'sovereignty' in political geography?
-Sovereignty in political geography refers to the right of a state to determine what happens within its borders and to defend its territory if necessary.
How has nationalism transformed the political map of the world?
-Nationalism, which started in the 19th century, created a sense of commonality among people based on shared language, religion, and social customs, leading to a desire for territory and the formation of new states.
What is a nation-state?
-A nation-state is a state made up of a single unified nation where the state boundaries are drawn around a single nation, and the idea is that State equals Nation.
What is a stateless nation?
-A stateless nation is a group of people who share common cultural values and history but lack a formal state, such as the Kurds spread across Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
What is a multi-state nation?
-A multi-state nation is a single nation living in more than one state, like the Yoruba people who live in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo.
What is a multinational state?
-A multinational state is a state that contains multiple cultures and ethnicities within its boundaries, like the United States with its diverse cultural backgrounds.
What is the difference between autonomous and semi-autonomous regions?
-Autonomous regions have a great deal of authority to operate independently of their national government, while semi-autonomous regions have more limited authority granted by the national government.
Can you provide an example of an autonomous region mentioned in the script?
-Hong Kong is mentioned as an example of an autonomous region that operates largely independent of China's government.
What is the role of the United States in the concept of state as discussed in the script?
-The United States is used as an example to explain the concept of a state, emphasizing that while Ohio is not a state in political geography, the United States as a whole is considered a state.
Outlines
🌍 Introduction to Political Geography
This paragraph introduces the topic of political geography, which is the study of how the world is divided and arranged by political power and boundaries. It explains that there are 195 independent states recognized by the United Nations, but the concept of independent states is relatively new. Historically, territories were often part of larger empires. The paragraph also defines key terms: 'state' refers to a political unit with sovereignty over a territory, while 'sovereignty' implies the power to govern and defend that territory. The video script distinguishes between 'state' in political geography and 'state' as used in the United States to refer to regions like Ohio or Nebraska. The concept of nationalism, which emerged in the 19th century and is based on shared language, religion, and social customs, is identified as a driving force behind the creation of many modern states.
🏛️ Types of Political Entities
This paragraph discusses six types of political entities: nations, nation-states, stateless nations, multi-state nations, multinational states, and autonomous/semi-autonomous regions. A 'nation' is defined as a group sharing a common culture and history, distinct from a 'state,' which is a political entity with defined borders and sovereignty. A 'nation-state' is an ideal where state boundaries match a single nation, exemplified by Japan. 'Stateless nations' are groups with a shared culture but without a state, such as the Kurds. 'Multi-state nations' live across multiple states, like the Yoruba people in West Africa. 'Multinational states' contain multiple cultures and ethnicities, like the United States. Lastly, 'autonomous' regions have significant independence within a state, while 'semi-autonomous' regions have limited autonomy, as seen in Hong Kong and the UK's Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Political Geography
💡State
💡Sovereignty
💡Nationalism
💡Nation
💡Nation State
💡Stateless Nations
💡Multi-state Nation
💡Multinational States
💡Autonomous and Semi-autonomous Regions
Highlights
Political geography is the study of how the world is divided and spatially arranged by political power and boundaries.
There are 195 independent states recognized by the United Nations as of the recording.
The concept of independent states is relatively new, with much of world history featuring massive empires.
Nationalism, which emerged in the 19th century, is a driving force behind the creation of new states.
A state is defined as a political unit with sovereignty over a geographic territory.
Sovereignty includes the right to determine what happens within a state's borders and to defend its territory.
A nation refers to a group of people who share a common language, history, and culture.
A nation-state is an ideal where state boundaries coincide with a single nation.
Stateless nations are groups with common cultural values but lack a formal state.
Multi-state nations describe a single nation living across multiple states.
Multinational states contain multiple cultures and ethnicities within their boundaries.
Autonomous regions have significant authority to operate independently within a state.
Semi-autonomous regions have limited authority granted by the national government.
Hong Kong is an example of an autonomous region operating largely independent of China's government.
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are semi-autonomous regions within the United Kingdom.
The video offers a comprehensive review guide for AP Human Geography to help students achieve high grades.
Transcripts
this is a political map of the world and
we've got to understand how all these
political entities we call States came
to be and that's what this video is all
about so if you're ready to get them
brain cows milk let's get to it all
right it's time to get your party pants
on y'all because unit 4 is all about
political geography which is the study
of how the world is divided and
spatially arranged by the exercise of
political power and the drawing of
boundaries and so if we consider today's
world map as kind of like a puzzle then
these pieces that make up the puzzle are
what we call independent states and
according to the United Nations there
are exactly 195 of them as of this
recording although there are several
others that are disputed so as is our
custom let's begin with a couple
definitions a state refers to a
political unit that has power over a
geographic territory which is defined by
borders and contains a population and if
you live in the United States don't get
confused here because when you think of
a state you think of like Ohio or
Nebraska but that is not what we mean by
state in political geography a state is
a political unit that exerts sovereignty
over a territory and sovereignty is just
a fancy word related to power so that
means a state can only be classified as
a state if it possesses sovereignty
which includes the right to determine
what happens within its borders and to
defend its territory if necessary so
Ohio is actually a subunit of a larger
State namely the United States like Ohio
doesn't have complete power over its
population and borders because it still
answers the Big Daddy federal government
in Washington DC so by our definition
Ohio is not a state but the US is a
state and so is Russia and Brazil Etc so
you know don't get confused now here's
where I tell you that this arrangement
of independent states across the world
is a relatively new phenomenon this is
not how the world map looked 200 years
ago or 500 years ago and certainly not a
thousand years ago or to blow your mind
even 20 years ago like for much of world
history territory and peoples were
Consolidated into massive honking
Empires that included a huge variety of
different peoples with various cultural
heritages and languages it wasn't until
about the 19th century that a new
phenomenon called nationalism started
sweeping across the globe which
transformed the political map of the
world now by definition nationalism
describes a sense of commonality among a
People based on shared language and
religion and social customs and it's
often linked with a desire for territory
in other words nationalism happens when
people look around at each other and say
hey we speak the same language we have
the same culture we ought to have a
state of our own dang straight and it
was that sense of commonality that
created a flurry of new states on the
global stage throughout the 20th and
21st centuries and gave us the political
map of the world that we see today oh
hey and if you're struggling to exercise
sovereignty over your AP human geography
grade then you might want to check out
my he review guy it's got everything you
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along practice questions practice exams
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if that's something you're into check
the link in the description anyway now
that we have those definitions down I
need to explain the six types of
political entities that exist in our
world today and you're going to need to
know a contemporary example of each the
first entity you need to know is the
nation which refers to a group of people
who share a common language history and
culture be careful here because it's
easy to confuse Nation with State
remember what I said before State refers
to a political entity but Nation refers
to the people who consider themselves a
distinct cultural units so for example
in Belgium which is a state there are
two distinct Nations the Flemish in the
North and the the walloons in the South
they both speak different languages but
the majority of power and wealth is
concentrated in the South or here in the
United States we have many nations
present not only distinct peoples like
various Native American groups but we
also have distinct cultural units like
the Deep South or Northeast Yankee okay
the second entity is the concept of the
nation state which describes a state
made up of a single unified Nation the
idea is that the state boundaries will
be drawn around a single nation in other
words here State equals Nation now to be
clear the nation state is kind of an
ideal that doesn't exist in reality
because nearly every modern state has
some cultural diversity within however
some states come pretty dang close to
the ideal like our friends in Japan now
historically they've been pretty
restrictive on immigration and that
means that a huge majority of its
citizens share Japanese cultural trait
but here's where I tell you they've been
easing their immigration restrictions
more recently since Japan's rni shout
out to unit two has been in Decline for
the last few decades a third you need to
know about stateless Nations which
describe a group of people who share
common cultural values in history but
lack a formal State and to be clear this
designation applies only to Nations that
possess no State anywhere like German
American Americans for example live in
America but they're not stateless since
you know last time I checked Germany
exists so then maybe the best known
stateless nation is the Kurds who are
spread out across the national
boundaries of Iraq Iran Syria and turkey
but the Kurds themselves have a deeply
cohesive and unique cultural identity in
history and although Kurds living in
Iraq have sought Independence in many
ways over the years they've been
unsuccessful and thus remain a stateless
nation okay The Fourth Kind of political
entity is known as a multi-state nation
which describes a single nation living
in more than one state so the Kurds fit
this description as well but another
example is the Yoruba people who live in
West Africa and are divided by the state
boundaries of Nigeria Benin and Togo now
to further confuse you the Kurds and
Yoruba are multi-state nations but they
are also classified as stateless Nations
see previous points but not all
multi-state nations are stateless and
here we come back to the Germans Germans
have a state but German people also live
in neighboring states like Austria
making them a multi-state nation also
and then fifth we have multinational
states which are states that contain
multiple cultures and ethnicities within
its boundaries and most modern countries
fit this definition to a greater or
lesser degree for example the United
States because of its long history of
immigration has been the home of many
different cultures that means that there
isn't necessarily one nation in America
since there are as I mentioned before
multiple Native American nations for
example several strong Latin American
nations and dense pockets of Asian
Nations throughout the territory that
doesn't mean that there haven't been
attempts to impose a dominant culture on
all Americans for example every now and
then bills are introduced to Congress to
make English the official language of
the United States but so far they've all
been shot down and the US remains a
multinational and then sixth you need to
know autonomous and semi-autonomous
regions autonomous describes regions
within a state that have a great deal of
authority to operate independently of
their national government
semi-autonomous are regions within a
state that have more limited Authority
granted by the national government and
here's where I tell you that in theory
these are two different kinds of regions
but in reality it's a little more
squishy because it's more about degrees
of autonomy like if a place was actually
fully autonomous then it would be its
own independent state but regardless
I'll give you two examples first is Hong
Kong now while it's technically part of
the Chinese state it operates largely
independent of ch China's government and
even has freedoms and basic rights for
its citizens that are not available in
China proper and that is to put a mildly
a great annoyance to the Chinese States
second Scotland Wales and Northern
Ireland are semi-autonomous regions in
the United Kingdom so they have their
own Parliament which pass laws in the
interest of their own people but at the
end of the day they're still answerable
to Big Mama Britain Okay click here to
keep reviewing other topics in unit four
and click here to get your hands on my
AP Human Geography himler review guide
which has everything you need to get an
A in your class and a five on your exam
in May it's the fastest way to study and
I think you're going to like it and I
appreciate you coming around and I'll
catch up the flip-flop himler out
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