in our last topic review video we talked about how colonialism and imperialism reshape the world today we are going to look at other ways in which people in States Express political power and territoriality over a geographic area remember if you find Value in this video consider subscribe now I mentioned territoriality this is often expressed by delimiting and demarcating boundaries of claim geographic area territoriality is how people use space to communicate ownership or occupy an area people often express territoriality through non-verbal communication by controlling the boundaries military action promoting certain political or economic systems or controlling the activities that exist inside a region to help remember territoriality think about how you might get territorial with other students in your class who sit in your spot or that feeling of ownership you have with your room in your house today we can see that states around the world try to promote their interests in the global Community by exerting their political and economic influence on other states countries expand their political and economic influence over less developed countries in a process known as neocolonialism this happens in a variety of different ways neocolonialism is the use of political cultural or economic power to influence or control other countries or territory and I should know that it's not just countries that do this large multinational companies do this as well a multinational company also known as a transnational company is a corporation that operates in more than one country such as Apple Disney Tesla or McDonald's just to name a few oftentimes multinational companies use their scale and economic and political power to be able to locate production in developing countries and take advantage of their cheaper tax rates looser regulations and also cheaper labor this often leads to Global Supply chains and also helps reduce the operating costs for the company if we look at countries we can see them practice neocolonialism in a variety of different ways as well some countries gain influence over a developing country by by giving them loans that the country knows they won't be able to pay back this allows the developed country to gain more political and economic control over the developing country since now they'll be in debt countries can also promote their interests by promoting their cultures in other regions around the world as Global culture starts to replace folk culture and local cultures more people will want to buy products from the developed world we also see local languages start to be replaced by languages of more developed countries along with the adoption of universalizing religions instead of local religions and cultural practices now when looking at the practice of neocolonialism we can see it becomes more prevalent after decolonization occurs today we can see many multinational companies and developed countries disproportionately benefit from the relationships and Partnerships between them and the developing World which we can see when we go into wallerstein's World System Theory which we'll talk more about in unit 7. to better understand neocolonialism let's take a look at the continent of Africa over the past decade China has been made making major moves in Africa and other parts of the developing World in 2018 China pledged 60 billion dollars in projects for Africa in the form of assistance Investments and loans and in 2022 China started issuing over 44 billion dollars in financial bonds to help with key projects across Africa like I said this isn't something new China's been doing this for a while if we go back to 2008 we can see China provided a loan of 562 million dollars to help build a new Hydro Dam which improved water shortages and irrigation in 2019 China helped build a 3.2 billion dollar Railway in Kenya that's over 300 miles long and that isn't even scratching the surface China has been funding infrastructure projects ranging from ports to roads to high-speed rails while the majority of these loans that China is giving come with low interest rates but also come with conditions that benefit China if the loan cannot be repaid China's goal here is to create political alliances and gain more influence and control over countries in Africa China is hoping to benefit it from what will soon become a booming African economy as more and more countries continue to urbanize and continue to advance in the demographic transition model moving from stage two countries to stage three and eventually four here we can see China is using their wealth and political power to gain influence and power over the region as Africa continues to industrialize China will continue to move more of their manufacturing jobs to Africa which will end up benefiting China since their own economy is advancing causing labor costs to rise and more jobs to move out of the secondary sector of the economy and into the tertiary sector and it's not just economic influence that China is using to gain favor in Africa they're also using their political power as well African countries that recognize Taiwan as a country something that China is definitely not okay with receive on average 2.7 fewer Chinese infrastructure projects a year which motivates African countries to follow China's political goals and not recognize Taiwan as its own state if we turn our attention to the United Nations we can also see China's influence over Africa as well African countries that vote with China in the United Nations receive around 1.8 more infrastructure projects a year thus again supporting China's Global interest we can see that China is using neocolonial practices to be able to benefit themselves in the long run okay now we're going to shift gears a little bit and talk about choke point these are Geographic areas that have to be passed in order to reach a destination choke points are extremely important and the country or countries that control them hold a lot of political power in the area to highlight the importance of Choke points let's go back to May 2021 when the ever given ran aground in the Suez Canal blocking access to the canal this canal is one of the busiest trade routes in the world in fact the blocking of this canal was estimated to cost around 9.6 billion dollars in trade just in a day which breaks down to 400 million dollars an hour so as you can imagine countries around the world pay pretty close attention to choke points such as the Suez Canal and have a vested interest in making sure they remain open and operational for everyone other examples of choke points would include the Panama Canal and the Strait of Hormuz just to name a few any country that controls a choke point gains political and economic power in the world alright now before we wrap up this video I also want to talk about One More Concept which is shatter belt a shatter about to the geographic area that is caught between larger external Powers who are currently fighting countries or people that are located within a shatter belt region often experience political cultural and economic pressures from the outside powers that are currently at odds with one another this creates instability in the region and uncertainty for the people that live there the people and the States located in this area were caught in the middle of a larger conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union speaking of the Cold War we could also look at the Korean War as an example of a shadow belt region as the war became an example of territoriality both sides were fighting to gain influence and control over the Korean Peninsula the region ended up becoming part of the larger Conflict at the time and ultimately resulted in the splitting of North and South Korea with a demilitarized zone splitting the two countries sometimes the shatter belt region can be created due to religious conflict such as in India and Pakistan where we see fighting over Kashmir with both Pakistan and India claiming ownership and both countries trying to exert control over the region we can also see religious conflicts create chatter belts in Israel and Palestine with both sides claiming ownership over the area or we could look at the border between Sudan and South Sudan where different religious and ethnic groups come in contact and conflict with each other so we can see that countries Express political power and territoriality in a variety of ways which shape not only local communities but the rest of the world as well all right and just like that another topic review video is done now comes the time to practice answer the questions on the screen and when you're done you can check your answers in the description of this video or in the comment section down below also if you found value in this video consider subscribing and supporting the channel and check out my ultimate review packet it's a great resource that can help you get an A in your class and a five on the national exam as all always I'm Mr sin thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time online