The History Square

Continents of the World

There are seven continents of the world, separated by oceans. The continents are: Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

Africa:

This continent consists of 53 countries, and its land mass crosses over the equator. The Atlantic and Indian Oceans border the continent.

Asia:

Asia has the largest population of any other continent, and contains 53 countries. Asia is attached to Europe and is in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres.

Rome

Europeans constantly referenced Rome as an ideal throughout the Middle Ages-perhaps in envy. There was almost a constant inferiority complex about the ideal of Rome.

Rome is many faceted as well.

     Some visions of Rome are that they were simultaneously brutal occupiers, but they brought peace, cultural, and institutional progress. 

Electoral Geography

Electoral Geography:

Definition: elections relationship to geographic and socioeconomic factors--the geography of voting (patterns), geographic influences on voting (the neighborhood effect), geography of representation (# of districts & boundaries)

State Divisions

-Regional State: a cross between Federalism & Unitarianism (ex. the U.K.)

-Special Purpose District: districts created to serve a specific focus such, as law enforcement (ex. the U.S.)

-Federal State: has an alliance or coexistence of internal diverse regions (ex. Canada)

-Unitary State: has a 'oneness', a homogenity & cohesiveness-one strong focus (ex. Sweden or Cuba)

First Order Civil Divisions

First order civil divisions are how the countries are divided up principally, before being broken down into smaller sections.

-United Kingdom: 4 constitutional units divided into civil divisions

     (constitutional units: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland)

Boundaries, Borders, and Frontiers

-Boundaries are depicted on ancient maps, but their role in marking geographic continuities across the land is relatively recent.

States came together in Frontier zones rather than boundary lines. The Frontiers of the world have collapsed into boundaries in the past two centuries.

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)

What power do you possess??

'Power is the basic political concept'

Powers that you have:

1. The Right to Vote

2. The Right to run for office

3. The Right to personal space

4. The Right to Free Speech (within limits)

5. The Right to choose your job, where to live, car to drive, etc. 

Four approaches to the study of Political Geography

1. Power Analysis:

   a. Physical-landscape, geography

   b. Movement-transportation, migration, roads

   c. Raw Materials-do you have it? if so, what type?

   d. Population-larger military force, manpower

   e. The Body Politic-this is how a country is governed, how flexible is it, how does it respond to stress

Political Geography: What is it??

Over time the political patterns on the earth are continually changing- "Space and the human use of it is dynamic" (spatial aspect & space on the earth)

*Geography is defined as the science of area differentiation-observe, inventory, map, classify, analyze, & interpret the patterns of Earth (human relationships over different parts of the Earth)