A World of Words: Political Geography - High School

If political geography is your territory, you'll want to review this list of essential terms. Learn about features of the political landscape such as boundaries, frontiers, and buffer states, as well as powerful forces like colonialism, imperialism, and democratization.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. annex
    take territory as if by conquest
  2. annexation
    the act of acquiring something by conquest or occupation
  3. apartheid
    a social policy of racial segregation
  4. balance of power
    an equilibrium of power between nations
  5. boundary
    a line determining the limits of an area
  6. buffer state
    a neutral country situated between two rival powers
  7. capital
    a seat of government
  8. centrifugal
    tending away from centralization, as of authority
  9. centripetal
    tending to unify
  10. city-state
    an independent nation comprised of a single town
  11. colonialism
    exploitation by a stronger country of a weaker one
  12. colonization
    the act of settling a group of people in a new place
  13. Commonwealth of Independent States
    an alliance made up of states that had been Soviet Socialist Republics in the Soviet Union prior to its dissolution in Dec 1991
  14. confederation
    a union of political organizations
  15. decolonization
    the action of changing from colonial to independent status
  16. delimitation
    a line that indicates a boundary
  17. demarcation
    the boundary of a specific area
  18. demilitarized zone
    a zone from which military forces or operations or installations are prohibited
  19. democratization
    the action of making something democratic
  20. devolution
    the delegation of authority
  21. domino theory
    idea that communist nations will convert neighboring nations
  22. electoral college
    the body that formally selects the United States president
  23. empire
    a group of countries under a single authority
  24. enclave
    an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct
  25. European Union
    an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members
  26. federalism
    government divided between central and regional powers
  27. frontier
    an international boundary or the area immediately inside it
  28. geopolitics
    influence of location, demographics, etc. on foreign policy
  29. gerrymander
    dividing a voting area to give a party an unfair advantage
  30. globalization
    growth to a worldwide scale
  31. heartland
    the central region of a country or continent
  32. imperialism
    a policy of extending your rule over foreign countries
  33. international waters
    the open seas of the world outside the territorial waters of any nation
  34. irredenta
    a region that is related ethnically or historically to one country but is controlled politically by another
  35. irredentism
    the doctrine that irredenta should be controlled by the country to which they are ethnically or historically related
  36. landlocked
    surrounded entirely or almost entirely by land
  37. lebensraum
    new territory thought to be necessary for a nation
  38. manifest destiny
    a policy of imperialist expansion said to be inevitable
  39. mercantilism
    a system of increasing wealth through colonization and trade
  40. multinational
    involving or operating in several countries
  41. NAFTA
    an agreement for free trade between the United States and Canada and Mexico; became effective in 1994 for ten years
  42. NATO
    an international organization created in 1949 by the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security
  43. neocolonialism
    control by a powerful country of less developed countries
  44. OPEC
    an organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the production and sale of petroleum
  45. regionalism
    political policy that focuses on particular geographic areas
  46. reunification
    the act of coming together again
  47. self-determination
    government by a country's own people rather than by an outside power
  48. sovereignty
    government free from external control
  49. state
    a politically organized body under a single government
  50. states' rights
    the rights conceded to the states by the United States constitution
  51. supranational
    transcending established national boundaries or spheres of interest
  52. territory
    a region marked off for administrative or other purposes
  53. terrorism
    the use of violence against civilians for ideological goals
  54. theocracy
    the belief in government by divine guidance
  55. United Nations
    an organization of independent states formed in 1945 to promote international peace and security
Created on Thu Jan 12 13:33:21 EST 2017 (updated Tue Apr 11 16:15:52 EDT 2017)

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