Jarrett Book: Chapter 15 (239 – 254)

Essential Questions

What factors determine where boundaries between countries

are established?

How do different countries relate to each other?

Important Ideas• Governments generally set up clear boundaries and exercise power within those boundaries.

• Political units are created within boundaries.

• Political maps show the borders of political units, such as countries, cities, towns, counties.

• A nation’s level of power affects its international role.

When we discuss political divisions, borders, nations and terms like that, they can be confusing. A major problem is that people use some of these words in

the wrong way. In other cases the same word might mean different things.

What is the difference between a nation and a country?

If Texas is a “state” how

can a country like Israel also be

referred to as the “State of

Israel”?

This stuff can seem confusing, but let’s try to keep it simple. A proper

definition of these terms is less important than how they might be

used in a question.

Even though they are different, you can think of these words as partners. They are sort of like non-identical twins.

Government

Political Unit

&The area a government controls sets up a

political unit or political region.

Boundaries

Borders

&A border is a boundary that is set up by a

political unit.

Nation

Country

&A country is a self-governed political unit and

a nation is a group of people that share a common culture.

“Mini” Assignment: Follow all directions to complete the assignment. WE CANNOT GO ON UNTIL YOU PROVE

TO ME YOU UNDERSTAND THESE TERMS!

Yassie. Creative Commons 2.O, December 2009

Houston, Texas • People in a particular place might belong to several different political units. For example, the people of Houston belong to the city of Houston, Harris County, the state of Texas, and the country of the United States of America.

• Each level of government works a little differently and city, county, and state governments work differently as well. Just remember, the basic terms you have learned all work in almost any case!

What is your city?

What is your county?

What is your state?

What is your country?

Ok, give it a try. Can you answer these questions based on where

you live?

United States

Oklahoma

Ohio

Texas

All of the other 251

Texas counties

Utah

Mississippi

California

And the 44 other states I am not

going to list

Dallas County

Tarrant County

City of Dallas

Fannin County

City of Garland

All of the other 30 cities in Dallas County

‘s do an Abbreviated Brace Map to make sure one last time we understand the structure.

Although it is not exactly true, people often use the term “federal government” instead of “national government”.

The whole government system of the state and national government together is actually the federal government.

However, most of the time when someone says “federal government” and someone else says “national government” they are talking about the same thing.

For most countries, including the United States, the national

government is sovereign. What do you think that means?