activity
Ethnicity and Political
2
geography
INTERACTION
Directions: To develop your ideas on the following topics,
read the material below. You can also search for
another reference for additional learning.
Ethnicity and Race
WHAT IS ETHNICITY?
The word “ethnicity” originates from the ancient Greek root ethnos, which
referred to a unique and cohesive group of people. Presently, it refers to a
population of people whose members identify with each other based on
real or presumed shared ancestry (shared cultural and historical past).
Shared geography, language and religion can often, but not always, factor
into ethnic group categorizations. Ethnic groups distinguish themselves
differently from one-time period to another. Ethnicity can be used by
individuals to identify themselves with others who have shared geographic,
cultural, historical, linguistic, and/or religious ancestry; however, like race,
ethnicity has been defined by the stereotypes created by dominant groups
as a method of "Othering." Othering is a process in which one group, usually
the dominant group, views and represents themselves as "us/same" and
another group as "them/other."
Ethnicity involves more than simply the physical characteristics commonly
associated with race—it also involves a person’s perceived social and
cultural identity.
WHAT IS RACE?
Race, in biological terms, refers to the concept and practice of categorizing people
into groups based on shared physical characteristics resulting from genetic
ancestry. Shared genetic ancestry is a result of geographical isolation. Geographic
isolation, since the era of colonization and even before then, has significantly
decreased in most areas of the world. Less geographic isolation results in the
mixing of racial groups. Thus, classifying people by their race with any accuracy is
difficult.
From a sociological perspective, race is a social construct. Many social scientists
argue that race is a social construct and that the scientific basis for it is very weak
because, as Larry Adelman (2003) argues, "most variation is within, not between,
'races': Of the small amount of total human variation, 84% exists within any local
population. About 94% can be found within any continent" (p. 1). Race, in this
sense, presumes real or assumed shared biology or genes and in 19th century,
racial differences were used to justify colonization, racial inequities, immigration
quotas, and slavery (in the U.S.).
The two terms are often times get confused with each other, however, there is a
thin line that divides the concept and meaning of the two terms; Ethnicity, deals
with cultural aspects of a person. Race, deals with the biological heritage of a
group. Both generally point out human identity in a certain society.
As the trend globalization began reforming people’s perspective, many think of
great value on ethnic diversity, realizing that communities made richer by some
diverse ideas. However, disagreements between people of differing ethnic
identities are also at the heart of many social and political conflicts throughout the
world. In worst cases, conflicts have turned to ethnic violence and has taken the
form of ethnic cleansing, which is the effort to rid or remove everyone of a
particular ethnicity from a country or region either through forced migration, terror
or rape, destruction of villages or through genocide, which is a premediated effort
to kill everyone from a particular ethnic group. With genocide, the true intent is
the death of a group of people at any scale possible until they are extinct.
Political Geography
Local and Regional Geography
Political geography as a systematic branch of human geography has a long, but not
always distinguished, history. It is one of the oldest fields in the discipline of
human geography. It examines some key elements in the evolution of political
geography and focuses on key themes of territory, state, geopolitics, nation,
identity and citizenship, electoral geography, and environment. In doing so it
examines shifts in approaches and methods, outlines important concepts.
Most political geographers focus their rules on one or more of the following
geographic scales: local politics, national politics, and international politics. In
understanding political geography, we use the basic unit of the study which is the
country. A country, more formally called a state, may be composed of more than
one nation. A nation consists of a group of people with a common political
identity and cultural characteristics (ethnicity, language or religion), but every
nation does not have its own state. The term nation-state refers to a geographically
–defines sovereign state composed of citizens with a common heritage, identity,
and set of political goals. This situation rarely exists in the modern world.
Territory, Borders and Geography of Nations
Shape and Boundaries of States
SHAPE OF STATES
The shape of a state is important because it helps determine potential
communication internally, military protection, access to resources, and more. The
following is a list of the six types of state shapes and can be viewed in Google
Maps by clicking on the links provided.
Compact states have relatively equal distances from their center to any
boundary much like a circle. They are often regarded as efficient states. An
example of a compact state would be Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi
.
Elongated states have a long and narrow shape. The major has problem
with these states are with internal communication and cause isolation of
towns from the capital city.
Prorupted states occur when a compact state has a portion of its boundary
extending outward exceedingly more than the other portions of the
boundary. Some of these types of states exist so that the citizens can have
access to a specific resource such as a large body of water. In other
circumstances, the extended boundary was created to separate two other
nations from having a common boundary. An example of a prorupted state
would be Namibia.
Perforated states have other state territories or states within them. A great
example of this is Lesotho, which is a sovereign state within South Africa.
Fragmented states exist when a state is separated. Sometimes large bodies
of water can fragment a state. Indonesia is an example of a fragmented state.
Fragmentation also occurs when a state is separated by another state. An
example in the U.S. would be Michigan.
Landlocked states lack a direct outlet to a major body of water such as a
sea or ocean. This becomes problematic specifically for exporting trade and
can hinder a state's economy. Landlocked states are mostly common in
Africa, when the European powers divided up Africa into territories during
the Berlin Conference of 1884. After these African territories gained their
independence and broke into sovereign states, many became landlocked
from the surrounding ocean. An example here would be the Austria.
TYPES OF STATE BOUNDARIES
State boundaries are determined either by physical features such as rivers,
mountains, deserts, or glaciers or by cultural features such as religion,
culture, or ethnicity. Boundaries are actually dynamic features that vary
with space and time. Throughout most of human history, boundaries were
determined by frontiers where no political entity controlled the area. These
were often large, uninhabitable regions such as deserts, oceans, glaciers, etc.
But technological and communication advancements have allowed nations
to protect their regions without the need of frontiers. Today, most frontiers
have been replaced by boundaries.
Desert boundaries can be quite large barriers for states that can serve
for protection. Deserts are common along 30 degrees north or south
of the equator where permanent high pressure creates sunny, dry
conditions year-round.
Mountainous boundaries can also provide protection over large areas
if they are difficult to climb through. But they can also isolate societies
from each other by means of transportation, trade and export, and
culture. Like desert boundaries, they can also make geopolitics
difficult when determining the boundary of a state since it's not a
distinct boundary or line.
Often times, water boundaries like rivers, lakes, and oceans create
state boundaries. If the body of water is large enough, it can be
protective. Invading armies would need to use boats and limited
resources to attack a state from its water boundary. But boundaries
that use rivers and lakes can be problematic with changing climates. If
a river meanders to a new location, does the boundary of that country
also change?
Geometric boundaries are basically straight lines drawn on a map.
Cultural boundaries are used to separate people with differences in
both of these cultural traits. Often times, cultural and ethnic conflicts
occur between people with different languages or religions. Religious
differences often coincide with boundaries between states, but in only
a few cases has religion been used to select the actual boundary line.
The most notable example was in South Asia, when the British
partitioned India into two states on the basis of religion. The
predominately Muslim portions were allocated to Pakistan, whereas
the predominantly Hindu portions became the independent state
India. Language is an important cultural characteristic for drawing
boundaries, especially in Europe. By global standards, European
languages have substantial literacy traditions and formal rules of
grammar and spelling. Language has long been a significant means of
distinguishing distinctive nationalities in Europe. But recently, the
state of Sudan separated into Sudan and South Sudan along a
language boundary.
UNITARY AND FEDERAL STATES
Many states around the world have been pressured to decentralize their
governments and provide more political power to smaller ethnic groups. Most
governments are placed into two categories: federal states or unitary
states. Unitary states place most of the political power in the hands of a
central government. The unitary state model works best with states that have
little cultural or ethnic diversity and strong national unity. Federal states –
like the United States – works best with nations that have greater diversity.
Size also determines if a government tends to be unitary or federal. Large
states like the United States, Russia, or Canada tend to be federal because
having the entire country controlled by one city (i.e. capital) becomes
impractical.
COLONIES
A colony is a territory that is controlled by a sovereign state. European powers focused
on establishing settlements and political power and all around the world by imposing
their military, economic, political, and cultural influence through colonialism. Europeans
used colonialism to promote political control such as Christianity, extract natural
resources, increase economic influence, and to expand political and military power. The
European states first colonized the New World of the Americas, but later redirected their
focus to Africa and Asia. This colonial expansion across the globe is called imperialism.
Imperialism is the control of territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous
society, whereas colonialism is control of previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited
land.
International Geography
Organic Theory by Friederich Ratzel
It was theorized in 1897 by Friedrich Ratzel, a nineteenth-
century German geographer and ethnographer. The name
“organic theory” comes from Ratzel’s assertion that political
entities, such as countries, behave in a way not too dissimilar
from that of living organisms. More specifically, to survive,
a political entity requires nourishment to gain political
power. This nourishment came in the form of a term he
coined called Lebensraum, which translates from German to “living space.” He
was referring to the physical territory.
Therefore, we can say that organic theory states that political entities continually
seek nourishment in the form of gaining territories to survive in the same way that
a living organism seeks nourishment from food to survive. Essentially, the analogy
is that food for an organism is territory for a country and the more territory that it
conquers the more that the particular political entity can sustain and preserve itself.
As a result, the organic theory implies that for a political entity to maintain control,
it invariably needs to seek out Lebensraum and go out and conquer all the territory
that it possibly can, and complacency is not an option. Otherwise, it risks its
security and is always vulnerable to attacks because other political entities also
behave in this organic way and will try to conquer as much territory as they can as
well for the purpose of self-preservation. You can compare it to the competition
among living organisms for the scarce resource of food, which is their form of
nourishment.
Heartland Theory by Sir Halford Mckinder
The Heartland Theory is a form of geopolitics. Geopolitics are politics influenced
by geography. Since human geography is about how humans are impacted by
geography.
This theory was proposed by Sir Halford Mackinder in his 1904 essay, “The
Geographical Pivot of History.” There is a lot to this theory and its importance, so
let’s outline some key terms:
1. Heartland=Eastern Europe
2. Pivot Area=Heartland
3. World Island=Europe, Asia and Africa
4. Periphery=Rest of the world (including the Americas)
Keep in mind that big historical figures, like Hitler, believed in the Heartland
Theory, and this theory was at the heart –no pun intended—of the politics in both
World Wars, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. Plus, it discusses a little
something called world domination. Are you starting to see why this is a BIG deal?
Mackinder thought that whoever controlled Eastern Europe –the Heartland—
would control the world. The idea was that whoever gained control of Eastern
Europe, controlled the Heartland –also known as the Pivot Area—and whoever
controlled the Heartland, could easily gain control of the World Island (Africa and
Eurasia). Naturally, if someone could control all that, they could easily take over
the world, as they say.
International Alliances
One of the most important trends in current global politics is the development of
the international alliances. International alliances take several forms, one of which
is the international organizations. An international organization is an alliance of
two or more countries seeking cooperation with each other without giving up
either’s autonomy or self-determination. The following are some known
international organizations:
The United Nations (UN) – a global international organization, includes
most of the world’s autonomous states and is specifically focused on
international peace and security. The first international organization is
called the LEAGUE of NATIONS.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – a regional accord
that links the United States, Canada, and Mexico through economic
arrangements aimed at opening borders and promoting trade.
The European Union (EU) – represents a supranational organization.
Similar to international organization but to some extent member nations
must relinquish some level of state sovereignty in favor of group interests.
The EU has over dozen European states has central administrative center in
Brussels, Belgium and a unified currency, the Euro. If strength comes in
numbers, then the unification of Europe into a single cooperative
community has surely produced a great world power.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)- is an
international economic organization whose member countries all have a
single thing in common, they all produce and export oil.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)- this type of
organization may require member states to allow other members to establish
military bases within their territories and thus can be quite internationally
significant.
Confederations- are similar to international organizations in that they
bring several autonomous states together for a common purpose.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)- is a confederacy
made up of independent states of the former Soviet Union who have united
because of the common economic and administrative needs.
SPATIAL CONFLICT
It should be quite evident by now that a large component of political
geography involves the investigation of historical and current conflicts over
territory at all scales, all across the globe. Whether it be the designation of
waters to specific countries, the effects of imposed boundaries on many of
the colonized countries throughout the developing world, or tensions in
choosing voting districts within the United States, space ownership has
proven one of the most volatile issues throughout human history.
Political geography may be one of the most controversial subfields within
human geography. The designation and demarcation of space to particular
unified populations constantly causes political turmoil. As such , political
geographers contribute great understanding of the evolution and constant
changes in political boundaries, as well as understanding of how individuals
and groups within these boundaries successfully interact with other
countries across the globe.
