Chapter 8: Political Geography 247

Most current colonies are islands in the Pacific Ocean orCaribbean Sea. The most populous is Puerto Rico, a Common-wealth of the United States, with 4 million residents on anisland of 8,870 square kilometers (3,500 square miles). PuertoRicans are citizens of the United States, but do not participatein U.S. elections, nor have a voting member of Congress.

One of the world’s least populated colonies is PitcairnIsland, a 47-square-kilometer (18-square-mile) possession ofthe United Kingdom. The island in the South Pacific was set-tled in 1790 by British mutineers from the ship Bounty, com-manded by Captain William Bligh. Its 48 islanders survive byselling fish, as well as postage stamps to collectors.

The State Department list does not include several inhabitedislands considered by other sources to be colonies, includingAustralia’s Lord Howe Island, Britain’s Ascension Island, andChile’s Easter Island. On the other hand, the State Departmentlist includes several entities that others do not classify ascolonies, including Greenland, Hong Kong, and Macao. Green-land regards the Queen of Denmark as its head of state. But ithas a high degree of autonomy and self-rule and makes evenforeign policy decisions independently of Denmark. HongKong and Macao, attached to the mainland of China, werecolonies of the United Kingdom and Portugal, respectively. TheBritish returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 and the Por-tuguese returned Macao to China 2 years later. These two areasare classified as Special Administrative Regions with autonomyfrom the rest of China in economic matters but not in foreignand military affairs.

KEY ISSUE 2

Why Do BoundariesBetween States CauseProblems?

■ Shapes of States■ Types of Boundaries■ Boundaries Inside States

A state is separated from its neighbors by a boundary, aninvisible line marking the extent of a state’s territory. Bound-aries completely surround an individual state to mark theouter limits of its territorial control and to give it a distinc-tive shape. Boundaries interest geographers because theprocess of selecting their location is frequently difficult. ■

Shapes of StatesThe shape of a state controls the length of its boundaries withother states. The shape therefore affects the potential for com-munication and conflict with neighbors. The shape also, as inthe outline of the United States or Canada, is part of its uniqueidentity. Beyond its value as a centripetal force, the shape of a

state can influence the ease or difficulty of internal administra-tion and can affect social unity.

Five Basic ShapesCountries have one of five basic shapes—compact, prorupted,elongated, fragmented, or perforated—examples of each can beseen in southern Africa (Figure 8-10). Each shape displays dis-tinctive characteristics and challenges.

COMPACT STATES: EFFICIENT. In a compact state,the distance from the center to any boundary does not varysignificantly. The ideal theoretical compact state would beshaped like a circle, with the capital at the center and with theshortest possible boundaries to defend.

Compactness can be a beneficial characteristic for smallerstates, because good communications can be more easily estab-lished to all regions, especially if the capital is located near thecenter. However, compactness does not necessarily meanpeacefulness, as compact states are just as likely as others toexperience civil wars and ethnic rivalries.

ELONGATED STATES: POTENTIAL ISOLATION. Ahandful of elongated states have a long and narrow shape.Examples include:

• Malawi, which measures about 850 kilometers (530 miles)north–south but only 100 kilometers (60 miles) east–west(refer to Figure 8–9).

• Chile, which stretches north–south for more than 4,000kilometers (2,500 miles) but rarely exceeds an east–westdistance of 150 kilometers (90 miles); Chile is wedgedbetween the Pacific Coast of South America and the ruggedAndes Mountains, which rise more than 6,700 meters(20,000 feet).

• Italy, which extends more than 1,100 kilometers (700 miles)from northwest to southeast but is only approximately 200kilometers (120 miles) wide in most places.

• Gambia, which extends along the banks of the GambiaRiver about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east–west but isonly about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north–south.

Elongated states may suffer from poor internal communica-tions. A region located at an extreme end of the elongationmight be isolated from the capital, which is usually placed nearthe center.

PRORUPTED STATES: ACCESS OR DISRUPTION.An otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension isa prorupted state. Proruptions are created for two principalreasons:

1. To provide a state with access to a resource, such aswater. For example, in southern Africa, Congo has a500-kilometer (300-mile) proruption to the west alongthe Zaire (Congo) River. The Belgians created the prorup-tion to give their colony access to the Atlantic.

2. To separate two states that otherwise would share aboundary. For example, in southern Africa, Namibiahas a 500-kilometer (300-mile) proruption to the east

248 The Cultural Landscape

Equator0°

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Guernsey (U.K.)Pop. 65,870Area 78

Jersey (U.K.)Pop. 91,626

Area 116

Gibraltar (U.K.)Pop. 28,034

Area 6

Pop. 48,856Area 1,393

Faeroe Is.(DENMARK)

Western Sahara(MOROCCO)Pop. 405,210Area 266,000

Pop. 223,765Area 374

Mayotte (FRANCE)

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Pop. 7,637Area 308

Tristan da Cunha Is. (U.K.)Pop. 269Area 207

Pop. 940Area 91

British Indian OceanTerritory (U.K.)Pop 1,200Area 104

Akrotiri andDhekelia (U.K.)Pop. 15,700Area 254

FIGURE 8-9 Colonial possessions, 2006. Most remaining colonies are tinyspecks in the Pacific Ocean or the Caribbean Sea, too small to appear on the map.Svalbard, which belongs to Norway, is the only remaining colony with a land areagreater than 10,000 square kilometers.

called the Caprivi Strip. When Namibia was a colony ofGermany, the proruption disrupted communicationsamong the British colonies of southern Africa. It also pro-vided the Germans with access to the Zambezi, one ofAfrica’s most important rivers.

Elsewhere in the world, the otherwise compact state ofAfghanistan has a proruption approximately 300 kilometers(200 miles) long and as narrow as 20 kilometers (12 miles)wide. The British created the proruption to prevent Russia fromsharing a border with Pakistan (refer ahead to Figure 8-25 laterin this chapter).

PERFORATED STATES: SOUTH AFRICA. A state thatcompletely surrounds another one is a perforated state. The onegood example of a perforated state is South Africa, whichcompletely surrounds the state of Lesotho. Lesotho must dependalmost entirely on South Africa for the import and export ofgoods. Dependency on South Africa was especially difficult forLesotho when South Africa had a government controlled bywhites who discriminated against the black majority population.

Gambia, described above as an elongated state, is completelysurrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline along theAtlantic Ocean. The shapes of Gambia and Senegal are a legacyof competition among European countries to establish coloniesduring the nineteenth century. Gambia became a British colony,whereas Senegal was French. The border between the twocountries divided families and ethnic groups but was never pre-cisely delineated, so people trade and move across the borderwith little concern for its location.

FRAGMENTED STATES: PROBLEMATIC. A fragmentedstate includes several discontinuous pieces of territory. Techni-cally, all states that have offshore islands as part of their territoryare fragmented. However, fragmentation is particularly significantfor some states. There are two kinds of fragmented states:

1. Fragmented states separated by water. Examplesinclude:• Tanzania, which was created in 1964 as a union of the

island of Zanzibar with the mainland territory ofTanganyika. Although home to different ethnic groups,the two entities agreed to join together because theyshared common development goals and politicalpriorities.

• Indonesia, which comprises 13,677 islands that extendmore than 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) between theIndian Ocean and Pacific oceans. Although more than80 percent of the country’s population live on two of theislands—Java and Sumatra—the fragmentation hinderscommunications and makes integration of people livingon remote islands nearly impossible. To foster nationalintegration, the Indonesian government has encouragedmigration from the more densely populated islands tosome of the sparsely inhabited ones.

Not all of the fragments joined Indonesia voluntarily. A fewdays after Timor-Leste (East Timor) gained its independencefrom Portugal in 1975, Indonesia invaded. A long struggle

against Indonesia culminated in independence in 2002. WestPapua, another fragment of Indonesia (the western portion ofthe island shared with Papua New Guinea), also claims that itshould be an independent country. However, West Papua’sattempt to break away from Indonesia gained less support fromthe international community.

2. Fragmented states separated by an intervening state.Examples include:• Angola, which is divided into two fragments by the

Congo proruption described above. An independencemovement is trying to detach Cabinda as a separatestate from Angola, with the justification that its popula-tion belongs to distinct ethnic groups.

• Russia, which has a fragment called Kaliningrad(Konigsberg), a 16,000-square-kilometer (6,000-square-mile) entity 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of theremainder of Russia, separated by the states of Lithuaniaand Belarus (refer to Figure 7–17). The area was part of

Chapter 8: Political Geography 249

Tropic of Cancer

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Pitcairn Is. (U.K.) Easter I. (CHILE)Pop. 48Area 47

Pop. 3,791Area 164

Northern Mariana Is. (U.S.)Pop. 88,662Area 464

Guam (U.S.)

Cocos(Keeling) Is.(AUSTRALIA)Pop. 596Area 14

New Caledonia(FRANCE)Pop. 227,436Area 18,575

Pop. 217,559Area 1,420,970

Tokelau(NEW ZEALAND)

Pop. 1,416Area 12

Wallis and Futuna(FRANCE)Pop. 15,289

Area 142French Polynesia (FRANCE)Pop. 287,032Area 3,827

Christmas I.(AUSTRALIA)Pop. 1,402Area 135

Hong Kong (CHINA)Pop. 7,055,071Area 1,054

Macau (CHINA)Pop. 559,846

Area 28

Falkland Is. (Islas Malvinas) (U.K.)

South Georgia and South Sandwich Is. (U.K.)

Pop. 3,140Area 12,173

Pop. 20Area 3,903

Pop. 7,051Area 242

St. Pierre and Miquelon (FRANCE)

Pop. 57,600 Area 2,166,086

Greenland (DENMARK)

British Virgin Is. (U.K.)Pop. 24,491Area 151

U.S.Virgin Is. (U.S.)Pop. 109,825Area 346

Pop. 22,942Area 948

Turks and Caicos Is. (U.K.)

Pop. 3,971,020Area 8,870

Puerto Rico (U.S.)

Pop. 67,837Area 54

Bermuda (U.K.)

Pop. 49,035Area 264

Cayman Islands (U.K.)

Montserrat (U.K.)Pop. 5,097Area 102

Netherlands Antilles(NETHERLANDS)

Pop. 227,049Area 800

Pop. 103,065Area 180

Aruba (NETHERLANDS)

Anguilla (U.K.)Pop. 14,436Area 91

Pop. 29,820Area 54

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Germany until the end of World War II when the SovietUnion seized it after the German defeat. The Germanpopulation fled westward after the war, and virtually allof the area’s 430,000 residents are Russians. Russiawants Kaliningrad because it has the country’s largestnaval base on the Baltic Sea.

• Panama, which was a fragmented state for most of thetwentieth century, divided in two parts by the canal,built in 1914 by the United States. After the UnitedStates withdrew from the Canal Zone in 1999, Panamabecame an elongated state, 700 kilometers (450 miles)long and 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide.

• India’s Tin Bigha corridor, which is a tiny strip of landonly 178 meters (about 600 feet) by 85 meters (about300 feet). It fragments Dahagram and Angarpota fromthe rest of Bangladesh (Figure 8-11). It is a legacy of thelate 1940s when the British divided the region accordingto religion, allocating predominantly Hindu enclaves toIndia and predominantly Muslim ones to Bangladesh(see Figure 7-26).

India and Bangladesh reached a novel agreementthat opens the Tin Bigha to citizens of both countriesevery day between dawn and dusk. Bangladeshis may

travel between Dahagram and Angarpota and the rest ofBangladesh, and Indians may travel between CoochBeha-r and the rest of India without submitting to pass-port inspection, customs declarations, and other inter-national border controls.

Landlocked StatesA landlocked state lacks a direct outlet to the sea because it iscompletely surrounded by several other countries (only onecountry in the case of Lesotho). Landlocked states are mostcommon in Africa, where 14 of the continent’s 54 states have nodirect ocean access. The prevalence of landlocked states inAfrica is a remnant of the colonial era, when Britain and Francecontrolled extensive regions. The European powers built rail-roads, mostly in the early twentieth century, to connect the inte-rior of Africa with the sea. Railroads moved minerals frominterior mines to seaports, and in the opposite direction, raillines carried mining equipment and supplies from seaports tothe interior.

Now that the British and French empires are gone, and for-mer colonies have become independent states, some impor-tant colonial railroad lines pass through several independent

250 The Cultural Landscape

countries. This has created new landlocked states, which mustcooperate with neighboring states that have seaports. Directaccess to an ocean is critical to states because it facilitatesinternational trade. Bulky goods, such as petroleum, grain,ore, and vehicles, are normally transported long distances byship. This means that a country needs a seaport where goodscan be transferred between land and sea. To send and receivegoods by sea, a landlocked state must arrange to use anothercountry’s seaport.

Types of BoundariesBoundaries are of two types:

• Physical boundaries coincide with significant features of thenatural landscape.

• Cultural boundaries follow the distribution of culturalcharacteristics.

Neither type of boundary is better or more “natural,” andmany boundaries are a combination of both types.

Boundary locations can generate conflict, both within acountry and with its neighbors. The boundary line, which mustbe shared by more than one state, is the only location wheredirect physical contact must take place between two neighbor-ing states. Therefore, the boundary has the potential to becomethe focal point of conflict between them. The best boundariesare those to which all affected states agree, regardless of therationale used to draw the line.

Physical BoundariesImportant physical features on Earth’s surface can make goodboundaries because they are easily seen, both on a map and onthe ground. Three types of physical elements serve as bound-aries between states—deserts, mountains, and water.

DESERT BOUNDARIES. A boundary drawn in a desertcan effectively divide two states. Like mountains, deserts arehard to cross and sparsely inhabited. Desert boundaries arecommon in Africa and Asia. In North Africa, the Sahara hasgenerally proved to be a stable boundary separating Algeria,Libya, and Egypt on the north from Mauritania, Mali, Niger,Chad, and the Sudan on the south.

MOUNTAIN BOUNDARIES. Mountains can be effectiveboundaries if they are difficult to cross (Figure 8-12). Contactbetween nationalities living on opposite sides may be limited,or completely impossible if passes are closed by winter storms.Mountains are also useful boundaries because they are ratherpermanent and are usually sparsely inhabited.

Mountains do not always provide for the amicable separa-tion of neighbors. Argentina and Chile agreed to be divided bythe crest of the Andes Mountains but could not decide on theprecise location of the crest. Was the crest a jagged line, con-necting mountain peak to mountain peak? Or was it a curvingline following the continental divide (the continuous ridgethat divides rainfall and snowmelt between flow toward the

INDIA

INDIA

BANGLADESH

ANGARPOTA

DAHAGRAM

COOCH BEHAR DISTRICT

STATE OF WEST BENGAL

Tin Bighacorridor

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INDIA

NEPAL

BHUTAN

BANGLADESH

Tin BighaCorridor

Calcutta

STATE OFWEST BENGAL

BAY OFBENGAL

FIGURE 8-11 The Tin Bigha corridor. Less than 300 meters (900 feet), the TinBigha corridor is a part of India that fragments Dahagram and Angarpota fromthe rest of Bangladesh.

LakeVictoria

Lake Albert

LakeTanganyika

LakeMwera Lake

Nyasa

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Harare

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MaputoPretoria

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COLONIAL POSSESSIONS,1914

FIGURE 8-10 Shapes of states in Southern Africa. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, andUganda are examples of compact states. Malawi and Mozambique are elongatedstates. Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are prorupted states. Angolaand Tanzania are fragmented states. South Africa is a perforated state. Also shown arelandlocked African states, which must import and export goods by land-basedtransportation, primarily rail lines, to reach ocean ports in cooperating neighborstates. Colors show the European colonial rulers in 1914.

Chapter 8: Political Geography 251

Atlantic or Pacific)? The two countries almost fought a warover the boundary line. But with the help of U.S. mediators,they finally decided on the line connecting adjacent mountainpeaks.

WATER BOUNDARIES. Rivers, lakes, and oceans arethe physical features most commonly used as boundaries. Waterboundaries are readily visible on maps and aerial imagery.Historically, water boundaries offered good protection againstattack from another state, because an invading state had totransport its troops by air or ship and secure a landing spot in thecountry being attacked. The state being invaded couldconcentrate its defense at the landing point.

Water boundaries are especially common in East Africa:

• The boundary between Democratic Republic of the Congoand Uganda runs through Lake Albert.

• The boundary separating Kenya, Tanzania, and Ugandaruns through Lake Victoria (Figure 8-13).

• The boundary separating Burundi, Democratic Republic ofCongo, Tanzania, and Zambia runs through Lake Tanganyika.

• The boundary between Democratic Republic of Congo andZambia runs through Lake Mwera.

• The boundary between Malawi and Mozambique runsthrough Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa).

Water boundaries may seem to be set permanently, but theprecise position of the water may change over time. Rivers, inparticular, can slowly change their course. The Rio Grande, theriver separating the United States and Mexico, has frequentlymeandered from its previous course since it became part of theboundary in 1848. Land that had once been on the U.S. side ofthe boundary came to be on the Mexican side, and vice versa.The United States and Mexico have concluded treaties thatrestore land affected by the shifting course of the river to thecountry in control at the time of the original nineteenth-century delineation. The International Boundary and WaterCommission, jointly staffed by the United States and Mexico,oversees the border treaties and settles differences.

Ocean boundaries also cause problems because states gen-erally claim that the boundary lies not at the coastline but outat sea. The reasons are for defense and for control of valuablefishing industries. Beginning in the late eighteenth century,some states recognized a boundary, known as the territoriallimit, which extended 3 nautical miles (about 5.5 kilometersor 3.5 land miles) from the shore into the ocean. Some statesclaimed more extensive territorial limits, and others identifieda contiguous zone of influence that extended beyond the terri-torial limits.

The Law of the Sea, signed by 158 countries, has standard-ized the territorial limits for most countries at 12 nautical miles(about 22 kilometers or 14 land miles). Under the Law of theSea, states also have exclusive rights to the fish and othermarine life within 200 miles (320 kilometers). Countries sepa-rated by less than 400 miles of sea must negotiate the locationof the boundary between exclusive fishing rights. Disputes canbe taken to a Tribunal for the Law of the Sea or to the Interna-tional Court of Justice.

Cultural BoundariesTwo types of cultural boundaries are common—geometric andethnic. Geometric boundaries are simply straight lines drawnon a map. Other boundaries between states coincide with dif-ferences in ethnicity, especially language and religion.

GEOMETRIC BOUNDARIES. Part of the northern U.S.boundary with Canada is a 2,100-kilometer (1,300-mile)straight line (more precisely, an arc) along 49° north latitude,running from Lake of the Woods between Minnesota andManitoba to the Strait of Georgia between Washington State andBritish Columbia. This boundary was established in 1846 bya treaty between the United States and Great Britain, whichstill controlled Canada. The two countries share an additional1,100-kilometer (700-mile) geometric boundary between Alaskaand the Yukon Territory along the north–south arc of 141° westlongitude.

FIGURE 8-12 Mountain boundary: Andes Mountains. The Andes serve as theboundary between Chile and Argentina.

252 The Cultural Landscape

The 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) boundary between Chadand Libya is a straight line drawn across the desert in 1899 bythe French and British to set the northern limit of Frenchcolonies in Africa (Figure 8-14). Libya claimed that thestraight line should be 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the south.Citing an agreement between France and Italy in 1935, Libyaseized the territory in 1973. In 1987, Chad expelled theLibyan army with the help of French forces and regained con-trol of the strip.

RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES. Bound-aries between countries have been placedwhere possible to separate speakers ofdifferent languages or followers of differ-ent religions. Religious differences oftencoincide with boundaries between states,but in only a few cases has religion beenused to select the actual boundary line.

The most notable example was inSouth Asia, when the British partitionedIndia into two states on the basis ofreligion. The predominantly Muslim por-tions were allocated to Pakistan, whereasthe predominantly Hindu portionsbecame the independent state of India(see Figure 7-26). Religion was also usedto some extent to draw the boundarybetween two states on the island of Eire(Ireland). Most of the island became anindependent country, but the northeast—now known as Northern Ireland—remained part of the United Kingdom.Roman Catholics comprise approxi-mately 95 percent of the population inthe 26 counties that joined the Republic

of Ireland, whereas Protestants constitute the majority in the sixcounties of Northern Ireland (see Figure 6-23).

LANGUAGE BOUNDARIES. Language is an importantcultural characteristic for drawing boundaries, especially inEurope. England, France, Portugal, and Spain are examples ofEuropean states that coalesced around distinctive languagesbefore the nineteenth century. Germany and Italy emerged inthe nineteenth century as states unified by language.

The movement to identify nationalities on the basis of lan-guage spread elsewhere in Europe during the twentieth century.After World War I, leaders of the victorious countries met at theVersailles Peace Conference to redraw the map of Europe. Oneof the chief advisers to President Woodrow Wilson, the geog-rapher Isaiah Bowman, played a major role in the decisions.Language was the most important criterion the allied leadersused to create new states in Europe and to adjust the boundariesof existing ones.

The Versailles conference was particularly concerned withEastern and Southern Europe, regions long troubled by politi-cal instability and conflict. Boundaries were drawn around thestates of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania to conformclosely to the distribution of Bulgarian, Hungarian (Magyar),Polish, and Romanian speakers. Speakers of several similarSouth Slavic languages were placed together in the new coun-try of Yugoslavia. Czechoslovakia was created by combiningthe speakers of Czech and Slovak, mutually intelligible WestSlavic languages (refer to Figure 7-30).

The nation-states created by the Versailles conference on thebasis of language lasted with minor adjustment through most ofthe twentieth century. As discussed in Chapter 7, a nation-stateexists when the boundaries of a state match the boundaries of

FIGURE 8-13 Water boundary: Lake Victoria. The boundary between Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda runsthrough Lake Victoria.

LIBYA

NIGER

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Aozou

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FIGURE 8-14 Geometric boundary: Aozou Strip. The boundary betweenLibya and Chad is a straight line, drawn by European countries early in thetwentieth century when the area comprised a series of colonies. Libya, however,claims that the boundary should be located 100 kilometers to the south and thatit should have sovereignty over the Aozou Strip.

Chapter 8: Political Geography 253

the territory inhabited by an ethnic group. Problems exist whenthe boundaries do not match. However, during the 1990s, theboundaries on the map of Europe drawn at Versailles in 1919collapsed. Despite speaking similar languages, Czechs and Slo-vaks found that they could no longer live together peacefully inthe same state. Croats, Macedonians, Serbs, and Slovenes real-ized the same.

Cyprus’s “Green Line” BoundaryCyprus, the third-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea,contains two nationalities—Greek and Turkish (Figure 8-15).Although the island is physically closer to Turkey, Turks com-prise only 18 percent of the country’s population, whereasGreeks account for 78 percent. When Cyprus gained inde-pendence from Britain in 1960, its constitution guaranteedthe Turkish minority a substantial share of elected offices andcontrol over its own education, religion, and culture. ButCyprus has never peacefully integrated the Greek and Turkishnationalities.

Several Greek Cypriot military officers who favored unifica-tion of Cyprus with Greece seized control of the governmentin 1974. Shortly after the coup, Turkey invaded Cyprus to pro-tect the Turkish Cypriot minority. The Greek coup leaderswere removed within a few months, and an elected govern-ment was restored, but the Turkish army remained on Cyprus.The northern 36 percent of the island controlled by Turkeydeclared itself the independent Turkish Republic of NorthernCyprus in 1983, but only Turkey recognizes it as a separatestate.

A wall was constructed between the two areas, and a bufferzone patrolled by the United Nations was delineated across theentire island. Traditionally, the Greek and Turkish Cypriots hadmingled, but after the wall and buffer zone were established,the two nationalities became geographically isolated. Thenorthern part of the island is now overwhelmingly Turkish,whereas the southern part is overwhelmingly Greek. Approxi-mately one-third of the island’s Greeks were forced to movefrom the region controlled by the Turkish army, whereas nearlyone-fourth of the Turks moved from the region now consideredto be the Greek side.

The two sides have been brought closer in recent years. Aportion of the wall was demolished, and after three decades thetwo nationalities could again cross to the other side. The Euro-pean Union accepted the entire island of Cyprus as a memberin 2004. A UN Peace Plan for reunification was accepted by theTurkish side but rejected by the Greek side.

FrontiersHistorically, frontiers rather than boundaries separated states(Figure 8-16). A frontier is a zone where no state exercisescomplete political control. It is a tangible geographic area,whereas a boundary is an infinitely thin, invisible, imaginaryline. A frontier provides an area of separation, often kilometersin width, but a boundary brings two neighboring states intodirect contact, increasing the potential for violent face-to-facemeetings. A frontier area is either uninhabited or sparsely

Larnaca

Nicosia

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34°33°

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Turkish Area

Greek Area

Mediterranean

Sea

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IRAQIRAN

GREECE

British military bases

FIGURE 8-15 Cultural boundary: Cyprus. Since 1974, Cyprus has beendivided into Greek and Turkish areas, separated by a United Nations Buffer Zone.The photo shows a crossing between the Greek side (foreground) and Turkishside (background), through the UN Buffer Zone (middle).

254 The Cultural Landscape

settled by a few isolated pioneers seeking to live outside organ-ized society.

Almost universally, frontiers between states have beenreplaced by boundaries. Modern communications systemspermit countries to monitor and guard boundaries effectively,even in previously inaccessible locations. Once-remote frontierregions have become more attractive for agriculture and mining.Most of the borders between Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, forexample, remained frontiers until recently. Saudi Arabia wasseparated from Kuwait by a diamond-shaped frontier called aNeutral Zone until 1965, and another diamond-shaped NeutralZone separated Saudi Arabia from Iraq until 1981. Saudi Arabiaconverted its frontiers with Oman to boundaries in 1990, andwith Yemen in 2000. In all three cases, Saudi Arabia agreed withits neighbors to share the former frontier regions’ resources,such as water, oil, and grazing land, and to permit nomads towander freely in the frontier.

Boundaries Inside StatesWithin countries, local government boundaries are some-times drawn to separate different nationalities or ethnicities.They are also drawn sometimes to provide advantage to apolitical party.

Unitary and Federal StatesIn the face of increasing demands by ethnicities for more self-determination, states have restructured their governments totransfer some authority from the national government to localgovernment units. An ethnicity that is not sufficiently numerous

to gain control of the national government may be content withcontrol of a regional or local unit of government.

The governments of states are organized according to one oftwo approaches—the unitary system or the federal system. Theunitary state places most power in the hands of central gov-ernment officials, whereas the federal state allocates strongpower to units of local government within the country.

A country’s cultural and physical characteristics influence theevolution of its governmental system. In principle, the unitarygovernment system works best in nation-states characterized byfew internal cultural differences and a strong sense of nationalunity. Because the unitary system requires effective communica-tions with all regions of the country, smaller states are morelikely to adopt it (Figure 8-17). Unitary states are especiallycommon in Europe.

In a federal state, such as the United States, local governmentspossess more authority to adopt their own laws. Multinationalstates may adopt a federal system of government to empower dif-ferent nationalities, especially if they live in separate regions ofthe country. Under a federal system, local government bound-aries can be drawn to correspond with regions inhabited by dif-ferent ethnicities.

The federal system is also more suitable for very large statesbecause the national capital may be too remote to provide effec-tive control over isolated regions. Most of the world’s largeststates are federal, including Russia, Canada, the United States,Brazil, and India. However, the size of the state is not always anaccurate predictor of the form of government: Tiny Belgium is afederal state (to accommodate the two main cultural groups, theFlemish and the Waloons, as discussed in Chapter 5), whereasChina is a unitary state (to promote Communist values).

Some multinational states have adopted unitary systems, sothat the values of one nationality can be imposed on others. InKenya and Rwanda, for instance, the mechanisms of a unitarystate have enabled one ethnic group to extend dominance overweaker groups.

Trend Toward Federal GovernmentIn recent years there has been a strong global trend toward fed-eral government. Unitary systems have been sharply curtailedin a number of countries and scrapped altogether in others.

FRANCE: CURBING A UNITARY GOVERNMENT. Agood example of a nation-state, France has a long tradition ofunitary government in which a very strong national governmentdominates local government decisions. Their basic local gov-ernment unit is the département (department). Each of the 96departments has an elected general council, but its administrativehead is a powerful préfet appointed by the national governmentrather than directly elected by the people.

A second tier of local government in France is the commune.Each of the 36,686 communes has a locally elected mayor andcouncil, but the mayor can be a member of the national parlia-ment at the same time. Further, the median size of a communeis 380 inhabitants, too small to govern effectively, with thepossible exception of the largest ones, such as those in Paris,Lyon, Lille, and Marseille.

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FIGURE 8-16 Frontiers in the Arabian Peninsula. Frontiers rather thanboundaries separated Saudi Arabia from its neighbors. In the late twentiethcentury, most of these frontiers were converted to boundaries, but frontiersremain between Saudi Arabia and Yemen and UAE.

Chapter 8: Political Geography 255

The French government has granted additional legal powersto the departments and communes in recent years. Local gov-ernments can borrow money freely to finance new projectswithout explicit national government approval, which was for-merly required. The national government gives a block of fundsto localities with no strings attached. In addition, 22 regionalcouncils that previously held minimal authority have been con-verted into full-fledged local government units, with electedcouncils and the power to levy taxes.

POLAND: A NEW FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Polandswitched from a unitary to a federal system after control of thenational government was wrested from the Communists. Thefederal system was adopted to dismantle legal structures bywhich Communists had maintained unchallenged power formore than 40 years. Under the Communists’ unitary system, localgovernments held no legal authority. The national governmentappointed local officials and owned public property. This systemled to deteriorated buildings, roads, and water systems, becausethe national government did not allocate sufficient funds tomaintain property and no one had clear responsibility for keepingproperty in good condition. In 1999, Poland adopted a three-tiersystem of local government. The country was divided into 16województwa (provinces). Each województwo was divided intobetween 12 and 42 powiats (counties), and each powiat wasdivided into between 3 and 19 gmina (municipalities).

The transition to a federal system of government proved diffi-cult in Poland and other Eastern European countries. Given theabsence of local government for a half century, elected officialshad no experience in governing a community. The first task formany newly elected councilors was to attend a training course inhow to govern. To compound the problem of adopting a federalsystem, Poland’s newly elected local government officials had tofind thousands of qualified people to fill appointed positions,

such as directors of education, publicworks, and planning.

Electoral GeographyThe boundaries separating legislative dis-tricts within the United States and othercountries are redrawn periodically toensure that each district has approxi-mately the same population. Boundariesmust be redrawn because migrationinevitably results in some districtsgaining population, whereas others arelosing. The districts of the U.S. Houseof Representatives are redrawn every10 years following the release of officialpopulation figures by the Census Bureau.

The job of redrawing boundaries inmost European countries is entrusted toindependent commissions. Commis-sions typically try to create compacthomogeneous districts without regardfor voting preferences or incumbents. Acouple of U.S. states, including Iowa and

Washington, also use independent or bipartisan commissions,but in most U.S. states the job of redrawing boundaries isentrusted to the state legislature. The political party in control ofthe state legislature naturally attempts to redraw boundaries toimprove the chances of its supporters to win seats. The process ofredrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting theparty in power is called gerrymandering.

The term gerrymandering was named for Elbridge Gerry(1744–1814), governor of Massachusetts (1810–1812) and vicepresident of the United States (1813–1814). As governor, Gerrysigned a bill that redistricted the state to benefit his party. Anopponent observed that an oddly shaped new district lookedlike a “salamander,” whereupon another opponent respondedthat it was a “gerrymander.” A newspaper subsequently printedan editorial cartoon of a monster named “gerrymander” with abody shaped like the district.

Gerrymandering takes three forms (Figure 8-18). “Wastedvote” spreads opposition supporters across many districts but inthe minority. “Excess vote” concentrates opposition supportersinto a few districts. “Stacked vote” links distant areas of like-minded voters through oddly shaped boundaries. “Stacked vote”gerrymandering has been especially attractive for creating dis-tricts inclined to elect ethnic minorities. Because the two largestethnic groups in the United States (African Americans and mostHispanics other than Cubans) tend to vote Democratic—insome elections more than 90 percent of African Americans voteDemocratic—creating a majority African American districtvirtually guarantees election of a Democrat. Republicans sup-port a “stacked” Democratic district because they are better ableto draw boundaries that are favorable to their candidates in therest of the state.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled gerrymandering illegal in 1985but did not require dismantling of existing oddly shaped districts,and a 2001 ruling allowed North Carolina to add another oddly

FIGURE 8-17 Monaco, a unitary microstate. The smallest microstate in the United Nations, Monaco is aprincipality, ruled by a prince.

256 The Cultural Landscape

shaped district that ensured the election of an African AmericanDemocrat (Figure 8-19). Through gerrymandering, only aboutone-tenth of congressional seats are competitive, making a shift ofmore than a few seats unlikely from one election to another in theUnited States except in unusual circumstances.

Party A voter Party B voter District boundaryW

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FIGURE 8-18 Three forms of gerrymandering. In all cases, Party A has 52percent and Party B 48 percent of the overall vote. (top) “Wasted vote” spreadsopposition supporters across many districts as a minority. If Party A controls theredistricting process, it could do a “wasted vote” gerrymander by putting in eachof the five districts 13 of its voters and 12 of Party B voters, thereby giving Party Athe opportunity to win all five districts. (middle) “Excess vote” concentratesopposition supporters into a few districts. If Party B controls the redistrictingprocess, it could do an “excess vote” gerrymander by putting 13 of its voters and12 of Party A voters in four of the five districts and concentrating 17 Party Avoters and only 8 Party B voters in the fifth district, thereby giving Party B thelikelihood of winning four of five districts. (bottom) A “stacked vote” links distantareas of like-minded voters through oddly shaped boundaries. If Party A controlsthe redistricting process, the trend is for state legislatures to create three districtseach with 15 of its voters and 10 of Party B’s voters and two districts both with 10of its voters and 15 of Party B’s voters. That way, all five districts are safely inpossession of one party, with a majority of three for Party A and two for Party B.

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FIGURE 8-19 Gerrymandering examples. (top) Iowa is a state that does nothave gerrymandered congressional districts. Each district is relatively compact,and boundaries coincide with county boundaries. (middle) In North Carolina,Democrats gerrymandered congressional districts to concentrate Republicanvoters. Democrats won 8 of North Carolina’s 13 seats in 2008, although DemocratBarack Obama won North Carolina by only 14,000 votes (0.4 percent). (bottom)Meanwhile in Florida, Republicans gerrymandered congressional districtboundaries to concentrate Democratic voters. Republicans won 15 of Florida’s 25 seats in 2008, although President Obama carried the state by a relativelycomfortable margin of 205,000 votes (2.5 percent).