Territory and its Attributes

The acquistion of territory--

     1. Occupation-people moving in

     2. Prescription-"squatters rights", at the national level

     3. Conquest and Annexation

     4. Voluntary cession-giving territory away

     5. Accretion-addition by natural process (ex. river erosion)

     6. Acquisition of Rights-leases of servitude (easement)

Size--

     Advantages: big, microstates, lots of ethnic groups

     Disadvantages: big, microstates

Ecumene--

     Known earth-effective national territory

Shape--Morphological characteristics

     1. Elongated/Attenuated (ex. Vietnam)

     2. Prorupt/Protruded (ex. Taiwan)

     3. Compact (ex. Cambodia)-nothing hanging off, easy to govern

     4. Fragmented (ex. Phillipines, Indonesia)-hard to govern

     5. Perforated (ex. South Africa)