State Shapes and Sizes
This type of state is compact and roughly circular, with the capital ideally in the center for equal access.
What is a compact state?
This term describes a boundary that was drawn before significant settlement occurred in an area.
What is an antecedent boundary?
This term describes the supreme authority of a state to govern itself without external interference.
What is sovereignty?
The transfer of power from central government to regional governments is called this.
What is devolution?
This type of state concentrates power in a single central government with little to no power given to regional subdivisions.
What is a unitary state?
An elongated state like Chile or Vietnam faces this major challenge related to internal connectivity and communication.
What is difficulty maintaining connections between distant regions/difficulty with internal cohesion?
The 49th parallel between the U.S. and Canada is this type of boundary, based on lines of latitude or longitude.
What is a geometric boundary?
Taiwan is an example of this: a functioning government that lacks widespread international recognition as an independent state.
What is a stateless nation/de facto state/unrecognized state?
This region of Spain has a distinct language and culture and has seen a strong independence movement, including a 2017 referendum.
What is Catalonia?
In this type of government system, power is divided between a central government and regional governments, as in the United States.
What is a federal system/federalism?
This type of state has a long extension or "arm" projecting from the main body, often created to reach resources or coastline.
What is a prorupted state?
When a boundary is established after settlement and follows cultural divisions like language or religion, it's called this type of boundary.
What is a subsequent boundary?
This military alliance, formed in 1949, includes the United States, Canada, and many European nations for collective defense.
What is NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)?
Physical geography, ethnic separatism, economic inequality, and this final factor are the four main causes of devolution.
What is terrorism/irredentism/political instability?
This landlocked African nation is an example of a microstate, completely surrounded by South Africa.
What is Lesotho?
Fragmented states like Indonesia and the Philippines face challenges with this, especially when islands have distinct ethnic or cultural identities.
What is national unity/territorial cohesion/separatism?
This type of territorial dispute occurs when a state claims territory in another state where people of similar ethnicity live, as Russia claimed regarding Crimea.
What is irredentism?
This concept describes the grouping of multiple sovereign states for economic, political, or military cooperation, with the European Union as a prime example.
What is supranationalism/a supranational organization?
The breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s was primarily driven by devolutionary pressures based on this type of division.
What is ethnic/religious/cultural division?
Electoral geography studies how the drawing of voting district boundaries can lead to this practice, which manipulates political representation.
What is gerrymandering?
A perforated state completely surrounds another state, like this African nation that surrounds Lesotho.
What is South Africa?
The process of determining and marking the exact location of a boundary on the ground is called this.
What is demarcation?
This type of sovereignty exists when a state has complete control over its internal affairs but must answer to international law and norms regarding human rights and international conduct.
What is internal sovereignty (as opposed to external sovereignty)?
This term describes a minority ethnic group's desire to create an independent state or join another state with similar ethnicity.
What is separatism/nationalism/self-determination?
This zone, typically 12 nautical miles from the coast, is where a state has full sovereignty over the water.
What is the territorial sea/territorial waters?