Hello there geographers and welcome back to the Mr. Sin channel. Today we start going into Unit 4 of AP Human Geography, Political Patterns and Processes. This video is going to start our conversation off by looking at Unit 4, Topic 1, An Introduction to Geography. Now geographers, you know better, don't let that term introduction fool you. This video is going to be packed full of a bunch of different political geography goodies.
We're going to be looking at different states, nations, stateless nations, multinational states, autonomous regions, semi-autonomous regions, and much more. Now throughout AP Human Geography and throughout this whole unit, you're going to hear the term state. And when you hear state, I need you to think of a country.
That's what state means. Now this can be confusing for some students, especially if you live in the United States of America, because, well, we have 50 states that make up the United States of America. And that can be confusing.
But remember, geographers, scale matters. When we're talking about the 50 states that make up the United States, We're looking at the subnational level. However, the United States of America in itself is a state. It is a country.
Now, in order to be classified as a state, you have to have a permanent population. We need people that are going to reside within the state. The next thing that you're going to need is actually defined boundaries. We have to understand where the state starts and where it ends.
The next component after that is sovereignty. A state cannot exist if it does not have sovereignty. Sovereignty is a state's right to be able to govern over itself. And the last component that a state needs to exist is, well, recognition.
They have to have recognition by other states around the world. Throughout history, we can actually see that the concept of a state is a relatively new concept. We used to have society organized by city-states. City-states were major cities that started off in the Fertile Crescent and expanded throughout history. They had political and economic control both over their own city and also the countryside around it.
we started to see them actually expand and diffuse throughout Africa, the Middle East, and into Europe. Eventually the city-states were replaced by empires, where we saw political unity occur throughout different regions. Most of the time actually happening through military expansion. Think of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or the Mongol Empire, just to name a few.
And as time kept passing on, eventually new strong leaders emerged, and a state started to replace the empires. And throughout all this time, we saw unique, distinct cultures start to form. And these new groups of people wanted to protect their cultural identity, their history, and they wanted to be able to govern themselves. And I know now that you're thinking, Mr. Sin, what do we call these people that have a shared culture, history, homeland, and a desire to actually govern themselves?
Well, My friends, it is the concept of a nation, and this is the starting of it. Now notice, I did not say a state. Remember, to be a state, we have to have a permanent population, defined boundaries, a sovereign government, and recognized by other states.
A nation, on the other hand, is a group of people with that shared history, that shared culture, shared homeland, and a desire to govern themselves. There is a distinction between the two, and we have to make sure that we understand that. So with the creation of different nations, we can also see the formation of nation-states.
A nation-state is a state that has subjects that are relatively homogenous in their culture, language, religion. They have that shared history component to homeland, and they also have a history of self-determination. Nation-states are traditionally smaller in size, and they're made up primarily of one nation, hence nation-state. A great example of it would actually be Japan.
Now when talking about a nation-state, I talked about self-determination. Self-determination is an important aspect of a state becoming a state. A nation has self-determination when they have the right to be able to govern themselves without the interference of external forces, other countries, or also nations.
Oftentimes this happens because, well, the nation wants to protect their unique cultural identity. They want to make sure that they can govern themselves in a way that's in their best interest. Now, in some cases, we actually have states that have multiple nations that reside within their boundaries.
These states are known as multinational states. This is a state that has at least two or more national groups with a history of self-determination that have agreed to peacefully coexist as one state. while remaining culturally distinct.
Oftentimes, multinational states have one cultural group that has control over the political, economic, and social systems of society. Throughout history, we can see actually a lot of different examples of a multinational state. A great example would be the former Soviet Union or modern day Russia.
Another type of state we can look at is a multi-state nation. This is when a nation stretches across the boundaries of multiple states. Their cultural identity is prevalent in multiple countries. And this creates that multi-state nation. A great example of this would actually be the Koreans, which stretch across both North and South Korea.
Another great example would be the Kurdish people. The Kurdish nation stretches across the boundaries of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, parts of Armenia, and also Azerbaijan. Speaking of the Kurdish nation, we could also see that they're a great example of a stateless nation. Here we have a nation that has a history of self-determination, but does not have a recognized state. And this could be for a variety of reasons.
They might not have political boundaries that have been solidified, they might not have a government that has sovereign rule, or they might just in general not have a say over their internal or external affairs. Going back to the Kurds as our example of a stateless nation, we can see that the Kurdish people have a unique and distinct culture. They speak Kurdish, their religion is Islam, they do not identify as Arabs, they identify as Kurds, and they also have a historical claim to the homeland which is...
is a proposed nation state of Kurdistan. The country of Kurdistan was first proposed after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, but unfortunately for the Kurds, after Turkey moved in and took over their land, they had never actually transpired. So the nation state never came to be, but the Kurdish nation still exists, thus making them a stateless nation.
And since we're on the topic of control over our own people and government, let's move on to our last two political organizations, which is autonomous regions and semi-autonomous regions. Autonomous regions are located within another state. Now, they're not recognized as their own state, however, they do have a high degree of freedom and also self-governance from the state that they're located within.
A great example of an autonomous region could be the Native American reservations that exist within the United States of America. Semi-autonomous regions, on the other hand, have a moderate degree of autonomy. The national government can intervene in their day-to-day operations when they think it's in their best interest. So the region still has a...
over their political and economic systems. However, the other state will get involved more frequently within their own internal affair. A great example of a semi-autonomous region would be China and Hong Kong.
We can actually see the struggle of power happening in 2019 and 2020, as the Chinese government continues to try and gain more influence and control over Hong Kong. But the people of Hong Kong have been pushing back, trying to limit China's power over the territory. Today, we've gone over what it means to be a state, the concept of a nation, self-determination, and quite frankly, just a bunch of political organizations. All of these we can see in the world today, and we can see throughout history how they've reshaped society and impacted our global community. Now, you know the drill, geographers.
The time has come to practice what we've learned. This video had a ton of different concepts on it, so it's important that you answer the quiz questions that are on the screen right now. And of course, don't forget to check the comment sections for your answers.
And if you found value in this video and you want to make sure that you can, one, support me on Patreon, support the channel, but also make sure you get notified when I post new videos, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. It's a great way to say thank you for the videos and helps me make more videos. Also, if you're struggling with your AP Human Geography class and need a little bit more help, don't forget to check out my Ultimate Review Packet.
You can find it in the description of this video. It's a great resource that covers all the units of the class and it'll definitely help you get that A in the class and a 5 on that national exam. All right, geographers, that's all the time I have for today. I'm Mr. Sin, and until next time... I'll see you online