Geographic Characteristics of States• States vary greatly in Size-some huge like Russia 6.6 m. sq.

miles, others large with 3 m. sq. miles like US, China, Brazil, Canada-some are microstates-Vatican, Monaco, Andorra, Grenada.

• Shape-some are compact while other are elongated or fragmented.

• Demography-some have huge populations like China’s 1.3 billion or tiny like Iceland with 250,000.

• Organization-monarchy, democratic, dictatorship, theocratic.

• Resources-natural and skilled population• Development-subsistence to tertiary• Power-both economic and military

Stateless Nations

• Sovereignty-complete control over a territory’s political & military affairs. Some nations do not have their own state-this can lead to conflict.

• Palestinians are the most well known example-a stateless nation in conflict with Israel over territory.

• Kurds-about 20 million people live in Kurdistan-which covers 6 states-since the 1991 Iraq War-Kurdish Security Zone has been virtually independent.

• Territoriality –“the attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships, by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area.”

– Robert Sack

• Sovereignty –having the last say over a territory – legally.

• Territorial Integrity –a government has the right to keep the borders and territory of a state in tact and free from attack.

Territory

• Territorial Morphology-shape, size & relative location of a state.

• Compact-distance from the geographic center does not vary greatly.

• Fragmented-consisting of 2 or more separate pieces divided by water or other territory.

• Elongated-long & thin states.

Territory• Prorupted-states that are

nearly compact, but have a narrow extension.

• Perforated-having another state lie within ones territory.

• Exclave-an outlier of a state located within another.

• Enclave-the counterpart of exclave-it lies within a country and is independent or ruled by another country.

India: The Tin Bigha Corridor

Fig. 8-7: The Tin Bigha corridor fragmented two sections of the country of Bangladesh. When it was leased to Bangladesh, a section of India was fragmented.

Landlocked Countries

• Landlocked states have a serious disadvantage in trade and access to resources.

• Africa has more landlocked states than any other continent. Sahel is poorly linked to the coastal ports; Uganda linked by rail; Zimbabwe access via South African and Mozambique ports; Rwanda & Burundi the world’s most isolated states; Zambia & Malawi have poor connections.

• Asia-Mongolia & Nepal are landlocked with rough terrain, great distances and limited communication, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia & Georgia.

• South America-Bolivia and Paraguay-lost coastline in war• Europe-Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia,

Moldova, Belarus and Bosnia

Landlocked States

Fig. 8-6: Southern, central, and eastern Africa include states that are compact, elongated, prorupted, fragmented, and perforated.

African States