This is a political map of the world, and we've got to understand how all these political entities we call states came to be. And that's what this video is all about, so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked... Let's get to it. Alright, it's time to get your party pants on, y'all, because Unit 4 is all about political geography, which is the study of how the world is divided and spatially arranged by the exercise of political power and the drawing of boundaries.
And so if we consider today's world map as kind of like a puzzle, then these pieces that make up the puzzle are what we call independent states. And according to the United Nations, there are exactly 195 of them as of this recording, although there are several others that are disputed. So as is our custom, let's begin with a couple definitions. A state refers to a political unit that has power over a geographic territory with a which is defined by borders and contains a population.
And if you live in the United States, don't get confused here, because when you think of a state, you think of like Ohio or Nebraska. But that is not what we mean by state in political geography. A state is a political unit that exerts sovereignty over a territory.
And sovereignty is just a fancy word related to power. So that means a state can only be classified as a state if it possesses sovereignty, which includes the right to determine what happens within its borders and to defend its territory if necessary. Ohio is actually a subunit of a larger state, namely the United States.
states. Like, Ohio doesn't have complete power over its population and borders because it still answers to Big Daddy federal government in Washington, DC. So by our definition, Ohio is not a state, but the US is a state and so is Russia and Brazil, etc.
So don't get confused. Now here's where I tell you that this arrangement of independent states across the world is a relatively new phenomenon. This is not how the world map looked 200 years ago or 500 years ago and certainly not a thousand years ago or, to blow your mind, even 20 years ago.
Like, for much of world history, territory and peoples were consolidated into massive massive, honking empires that included a huge variety of different peoples with various cultural heritages and languages. It wasn't until about the 19th century that a new phenomenon called nationalism started sweeping across the globe which transformed the political map of the world. Now, by definition, nationalism describes a sense of commonality among a people based on shared language and religion and social customs, and it's often linked with a desire for territory.
In other words, nationalism happens when people look around at each other and say, Hey, we speak the same language. Yes. We have the same culture.
Uh-huh. We ought to have a state of our own. commonality that created a flurry of new states on the global stage throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and gave us the political map of the world we see today. Oh hey, and if you're struggling to exercise sovereignty over your AP Human Geography grade, then you might want to check out my Heimler Review Guide. It's got everything you need to get an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May, like exclusive unit review videos, note guides to follow along, practice questions, practice exams, and answer keys for every bit of it.
So if that's something you're into, check the link in the description. Anyway, now that we have those definitions down, I need to explain the six types of political entities that exist in our world today, and you're going to need to know a couple of contemporary example of each. The first entity you need to know is the nation, which refers to a group of people who share a common language, history, and culture.
And be careful here, because it's easy to confuse nation with state. Remember what I said before, state refers to a political entity. But nation refers to the people who consider themselves a distinct cultural unit.
So for example, in Belgium, which is a state, there are two distinct nations, the Flemish in the north and the Walloons in the south. They both speak different languages, but the majority of power and wealth is concentrated in the south. In the United States, we have many nations present, not only distinct, but also distinct.
distinct peoples like various Native American groups, but we also have distinct cultural units like the Deep South or Northeast Yankee. Okay, the second entity is the concept of the nation-state, which describes a state made up of a single, unified nation. The idea is that the state boundaries would be drawn around a single nation. In other words, here, state equals nation. Now to be clear, the nation state is kind of an ideal that doesn't exist in reality because nearly every modern state has some cultural diversity within it.
However, some states come pretty dang close to the ideal, like our friends in Japan. Historically, they've been pretty restrictive on immigration, and that means that a huge majority of its citizens share Japanese cultural traits. But here's where I tell you they've been easing their immigration restrictions more recently since Japan's RNI has been in decline for the last few decades.
A third you need to know about is stateless nations, which describe a group of people who share common cultural values and history with each other. but lack a formal state. And to be clear, this designation applies only to nations that possess no state anywhere.
Like, German Americans, for example, live in America, but they're not stateless since, you know, last time I checked, Germany exists. So then, maybe the best known stateless nation is the Kurds who are spread out across the national boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. But the Kurds themselves have a deeply cohesive and unique cultural identity in history.
And although Kurds living in Iraq have sought independence in many ways over the years, they've been unsuccessful and thus remain a stateless nation. Okay, the fourth kind of political- entity is known as a multistate nation, which describes a single nation living in more than one state. So the Kurds fit this description as well. But another example is the Yoruba people who live in West Africa and are divided by the state boundaries of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo.
Now to further confuse you, the Kurds and Yoruba are multistate nations, but they are also classified as stateless nations. See previous points. But not all multistate nations are stateless, and here we come back to the Germans. Germans have a state, but German people also live in neighboring states like Austria, making them a multistate nation also.
And then fifth, we have multinational states, which are states that contain multiple cultures and ethnicities within its boundaries, and most modern countries fit the status quo. definition to a greater or lesser degree. For example, the United States, because of its long history of immigration, has been the home of many different cultures.
That means that there isn't necessarily one nation in America, since there are, as I mentioned before, multiple Native American nations, for example, several strong Latin American and dense pockets of Asian nations throughout the territory. And that doesn't mean that there haven't been attempts to impose a dominant culture on all Americans. For example, every now and then, bills are introduced to Congress to make English the official language of the United States, but so far they've all been shot down and the U.S. remains a multinational state.
And then sixth, you need to know autonomous and semi-autonomous regions. Autonomous describes regions within a state that have a great deal of authority to operate independently of their national government. Semi-autonomous are regions within a state that have more limited authority granted by the national government. And here's where I tell you that in theory, these are two different kinds of regions, but in reality, it's a little more squishy because it's more about degrees of autonomy.
If a place was actually fully autonomous, then it would be its own independent state. But regardless, I'll give you two examples. First is Hong Kong.
Now, while it's technically part of the Chinese state, it operates largely independent of China's. government and even has freedoms and basic rights for its citizens that are not available in China proper. And that is, to put it mildly, a great annoyance to the Chinese state.
Second, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are semi-autonomous regions in the United Kingdom. So they have their own parliaments which pass laws in the interests of their own people. But at the end of the day, they're still answerable to Big Mama Britain.
Okay, click here to keep reviewing other topics in Unit 4 and click here to get your hands on my AP Human Geography Heimler Review Guide which has everything you need to get an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May. It's the fastest way to study and I think you're going to like it. And I appreciate you coming around and I'll catch you on the next one.
on the flip-flop, Heimler out.