Political Organization of Space

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Political Organization of Space
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Colonialism and Imperialism

• Definition
• Control by one state over another place
• Often, as state that is colonizing has a more
  industrialized economy than the region it is
  taking over
• European nation-states began building world
  empires in the 16th century and competing for
  territories across the globe up through World War
  II
• 1st period
• The 1st period of colonialism occurred after
  European explorers discovered land in the Western
  Hemisphere in the 15th century
• Columbus

• 2nd period
• Occurred in the late 1800s, as western European
  powers were competing to carve up Africa
  gaining more land to make them appear more
  powerful and to feed their industrializing
  economies
• England and France occupied 70 of colonial
  territory in Africa
• Portugal, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Belgium also
  colonized Africa

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Colonialism and Imperialism

• Mercantilism
• Europeans raced to form colonies in the Western
  Hemisphere in order to extract resources to send
  back home
• Definition
• Economic system in which a state acquires
  colonies that can provide it with new raw
  materials to ship back home and use in making
  products for the population of the mother country
• Other motives for colonization were to spread
  Christianity and to bask in the glory of having
  more land than other states

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Colonialism and Imperialism

• Imperialism
• Colonization fueled imperialism
• The process of establishing political, social,
  and economic dominance over a colonized area
• Europeans acculturated indigenous peoples to
  European Christianity and culture
• Also destroyed indigenous landscapes and imposing
  European architecture to signify dominance

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Colonialism and Imperialism

• Dependence Theory
• Theory many countries are poor today because of
  their colonization by European powers
• Center of neo-colonialism
• Proponents assert that former colonies in South
  America, Africa, and Asia have not been able to
  heal from the imperial domination established by
  the European colonizers and are still dependent
  upon them

• In most cases, political boundaries drawn by the
  colonizers according to resources
• When colonizers left and lands became independent
  states violent ethnonational conflicts
• Nigeria, Sudan
• Many colonial subjects still trade with former
  colonial rulers as their primary source of income
• Senegal and France

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Colonialism and Imperialism

• Because the political and economic structures
  established by the Europeans benefited the
  colonizers, not the local people, essential
  elements of infrastructure were not built in most
  colonized lands
• When European colonizers left, education systems,
  health care networks, roads, communication lines,
  and other basic elements were not in place for
  the regions to thrive on their own
• Many colonies left with finances or ability to
  develop basic infrastructure
• Left little choice to turn back on colonizers and
  ask for loans to build up economies
• Today
• To alleviate some of the effects of
  neo-colonialism, the American economist Jeffrey
  Sachs recommended that the entire African debt
  (ca. 200 billion U.S. dollars) be dismissed, and
  recommended that African nations not repay the
  World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
  (IMF)

• Neocolonialism
• Definition
• Continued economic dependence of new states on
  their former colonial masters
• Also called post-colonial dependency
• the term neo-colonialism describes the
  domination-praxis (social, economic, cultural) of
  countries from the developed world in the
  respective internal affairs of the countries of
  the developing world that, despite the
  decolonization occurred in the aftermath of the
  Second World War (193945), the (former) colonial
  powers continue to apply existing and past
  international economic arrangements with their
  former colony countries, and so maintain colonial
  control.

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Geopolitics

• Definition
• Branch of political geography that analyzes how
  states behave as political and territorial
  systems
• Study of how states interact and compete in the
  political landscape

• Organic Theory
• 19th geopolitical thinker Freidrich Ratzel
• Argues states are living organisims that hunger
  for land and want to grow larger through
  acquiring more nourishment in the form of land
• Adolph Hitler used to justify invasion of other
  states
• Heartland Theory
• Halford Mackinder
• Theory that the era of sea power was ending and
  control over land was key to power
• Believed that Eurasia was the world island and
  the key to dominating the world
• Linked to Communist efforts to dominate Eastern
  Europe and to the United States containment
  policy

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Geopolitics

• Domino Theory
• Warns that democratic allies must protect lands
  from falling into the Communists
• Believed that it would result in Communist
  domination of the world
• Prevalent during Cold war
• Led to Containment theory
• Vietnam War

• Rimland Theory
• Geopolitical thinker Nicolas Spkyman
• Built on Mackinders theory and defined rimland
  to be Eurasias entire periphery
• Encompassed Western Europe, and Southeast, South,
  and East Asia
• Thought it was important to balance power in the
  rimland to prevent a global power from emerging
• Linked to the Vietnam and Korean wars
• Communist and non-communist countries fought for
  control of peripheral lands in the rimland

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Challenges to Political-Territorial Arrangements

• Core and Multicore States
• The region in a state wherein political and
  economic power is concentrated, like the nucleus
  of a cell, is called a states core
• A well-integrated core helps spread development
  throughout the country
• Countries having more than one core region are
  called multicore states
• There is not one dominate core
• Exampled Nigeria
• Several core regions compete for control

• Strong infrastructural development can help
  distribute the growth generated in a core to less
  developed areas in a state
• Ex. Roads, communication lines

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Challenges to Political-Territorial Arrangements

• Primate Cities
• Definition
• A capital city that is not only the political
  nucleus but is also more economically powerful
  than any other city in the state
• Often exist in less developed countries
• Usually where most of the resources are attracted
  
• Examples
• Ulaanbatar, Mongolia
• Lagos, Nigeria

• In countries with primate cities, governments
  often try to spread the growth and development
  out among different cities, rather than just
  allowing it to focus on the primate city.
• Primate cities are also common in old
  nation-states
• City has been cultural center for a long time
• Examples
• Britain
• France

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Challenges to Political-Territorial Arrangements

• Forward Capitals
• Definition
• A capital city built by a state in order to
  achieve some national goal
• Example
• Saint Petersburg
• Built by Czar Peter the Great to bring Russias
  capital closer to Europe
• Islamabad, Pakistan
• Built to spread development out more evenly
  throughout country
• Brasilia, Brazil
• Moved capital to help spread out population
  distribution

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Challenges to Political-Territorial Arrangements

• Electoral boundaries
• Boundaries separating legislative districts
  within countries are periodically redrawn to
  ensure that each district has approx. the same
  population
• U.S. House of Rep districts redrawn every 10
  years
• Redrawing usually assigned to independent
  commissions
• Except in U.S.

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Challenges to Political-Territorial Arrangements

• Gerrymandering
• Redrawing electoral boundaries to give a
  political party an advantage
• Named for Elbridge Gerry
• Gov of Mass (1810-1812)
• Signed a bill to redistrict the state to benefit
  his party
• One looked like a salamander
• Political cartoon led to gerrymander

• Three forms
• Wasted vote
• Spreads opposition voters across many districts
• Excess vote
• Concentrates opposition voters into a few
  districts
• Stacked vote
• Links distant areas of like-minded voters through
  oddly shaped boundaries
• Esp attractive for electing minorities
• Supreme Court ruled illegal in 1985
• But didnt require dismantling of districts

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Challenges to Political-Territorial Arrangements

• Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces
• Centrifugal
• Divide and tear apart a states people and
  regions
• Can lead to Balkanization
• Broke apart Soviet Union
• Examples
• Separatism in a region
• Internal boundary conflicts
• Deep religious divisions
• Centripetal
• Unify a states people and regions
• Examples
• Unifying symbols
• Pledge of allegiance
• Strong identity based on language, religion, or
  other cultural traits.

• Devolution
• Definition
• Process of transferring some power from the
  central government to regional governments
• Often refers to the transfer of power that occurs
  when a state breaks up
• States facing centrifugal forces are often forced
  to transfer to regional governments to reduce
  tensions
• Example
• Scotland
• Pushed for more autonomy in 1990s
• United Kingdom devolved more power to Scotland
• Given own representative parliament

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