State Organization and National Power

Chapter 15

Colonialism:Europeans established colonies for

three basic reasons:God,Gold, Glory

There were two waves of colonization

• 1415-1800 Settlement colonies in the Americas.

• Late 1800s to late 1940s Colonies of occupation designed to provide

resources for European factories

Colonialism in Latin America

• Spain and Portugal were dominant• Independence in early 1800s• Stratified social structure and great disparities in

wealth• Indigenous populations were decimated• Based on extraction of wealth• Considerable intermarriage with indigenous

population

Treaty of Tordesillas

African influences in Caribbean and coastal Central America and along

NE coast of Brazil

Mestizo in Mexico ad Central America

Indian influence in the Andes

More European in the South

Colonialism in Africa

• Last colonized, last decolonized (many in the late 1960s.)

• France and Britain dominated

• Berlin Conference--1884

• Mostly occupation colonies (with settlement colonies in East Africa, South Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.)

Contemporary state system that emerged was problematic

• Landlocked states

• Ethnic rivalries

• Uneven development of infrastructure

• Legitimacy of government (control had come from outside).

• Tendency of European powers to play groups against each other.

Colonialism in US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

• “Settler empires” dominated by British--essentially seen as empty areas where migrants could make a home for themselves

• Governance--concept of limited government

• Social Structure--more egalitarian than Latin America

Soooo.. Broad implications

• Through “circular and cumulative causation” these former colonies were put at a disadvantage--a situation that persists. (structuralist viewpoint)

• Still evident in geographic dynamics of global economy.

• Political effects--patterns of governance • Large-scale political maneuverings (Cold War and

beyond• Complex social and cultural interplay between

former colonies and colonizers

Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory has three tiers

• Core regions dominate trade, control the most advanced technologies, and have high levels of productivity within diversified economies.

• Peripheral regions have undeveloped or narrowly specialized economies with low levels of productivity.

• Semiperipheral regions are able to exploit peripheral regions, but are themselves exploited and dominated by core regions.

You can also have cores and peripheries at the national level.

• Regional growth creates regional core areas.

• Cumulative causation--economic growth supports further economic growth.

• Regional decline can create downward spiral syndrome.

In urban geography, the core area has a dependent hinterland.

• At all scales, the model assumes that at least partially and temporarily, the growth and prosperity of core regions is at the expense of exploited peripheral zones.– Backwash—initial negative effects on periphery

– Spillover—eventual positive effects on periphery

Unitary States

• Centralized authority• Little local political autonomy• A stable form of political authority for a

nation-state or single-culture-group state• Works well provided there is no tribalism or

high degree of diversity• Examples: France, Japan, Iceland, Saudi

Arabia, Pakistan

Federal State

• Primary political authority is distributed and vested in the regional governments

• Creates integration when a level of regional diversity exists

• Examples: USA, Germany, India, Russia,

A primate city is a country’s leading city that is disproportionately larger and

functionally complex that any other.

• Metropolitan Seoul contains over 40% of the total population and one half of the urban population of South Korea.

• Luanda has almost two thirds of Angola’s urban population.

• A heritage of the colonial past.

• Not all primate cities are in the less-developed world.

A forward capital is located in a particular place in order to further a

country’s political or economic goals.

• In 1959, Pakistan moved its capital from Karachi to Islamabad to focus attention on its historic interior.

Brasilia--The classic example of the forward capital

Electoral Geography

• There are 435 seats in the House of Representatives, which means there must be a fixed number of electoral districts.

• Reapportionment is the process of reallocating the electoral seats that change as population distribution changes.

Redistricting occurs as a result of reapportionment.

• Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing the boundaries of voting districts in a way that favors one group over another.

Gerrymandering Made SimpleR R R R

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Democrats Rule

Republicans Rule

Nobody Rules

Copyright © 2001 by Michael D. Robbins, FraudFactor.com

Gerrymandering – excess vote• Concentrate one group

together in a district• Minimize their impact in

other districts• This guarantees them some

representation – but weakens them overall

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Gerrymandering – wasted vote• Break up

concentrations of voters

• Mix with different voter groups

• Dilutes their voting power

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Gerrymandering – stacked voteGroup power bases

togetherRemoves much

contestation from elections

Often done by incumbents to ensure continued election

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The Bullwinkle (New York’s 12) Hispanic majority

Images from Mark Monmonier’s Bushmanders and Bullwinkles: How Politicians Manipulate Electronic Maps and Census Data to Win Elections. Univ. Chicago Press, 2001

The Earmuffs (Illinois 4th) Hispanic majority

Mask of Zorro (Louisiana’s 4th) black majority

Flying fossilized reptile (Texas’ 30th) black majority

Bird with plumage (Texas’ 29th) Hispanic majority

Gnawed wishbone (Florida’s 3rd) black majority

Affirmative gerrymandering• Supreme Court has

said gerrymandering is legal –

• When done to correct for previous underrepresentation

• Or assure minority representation

• But must be based on more than race alone

Majority-minority district proposed in Virginia Beach

IowaOne of the least diverse (and therefore least gerrymandered) states

Centripetal forces tend to bind together the citizens of a state.

Centrifugal forces threaten the unity of a state.