Evolution of Political Patterns - AP Human Geography

Colonialism is when a more powerful country attempts to assert its power and influence over a weaker country. Self-determination is the process by which a country determines its own statehood and forms its own allegiances and governments. Sovereignty is the authority of a state to govern itself. Diffusion is the spreading of culture from one area to another. Irredentism refers to the belief that territory outside a given state should be made part of the state due to a large amount of people living there of the same ethnicity as live in the state in question or due to the state having historically been in possession of the territory.

Colonialism refers to the process by which one nation exercises near complete control over another country which they have settled and taken over. Often, the governing country uses the colony for its resources, taking what is useful without regard to the original inhabitants. This often leads to mistreatment of the original inhabitants, degradation of the local environment, and introduction of previously unknown diseases.

The correct answer is the opposite of what is typically expected in colonialism. The colony is usually the recipient of colonists from the colonizing country, not the other way around. Typically, there is a mass migration of people from the colonizing country into the colony. This helps to solidify control of the colony.

The term “Neo-colonialism” has emerged in recent years to refer to the continued economic dependence of colonies on their former occupiers. The implication of the term is that, although the colonial powers no longer exert political or militaristic control over the former colonies, they are still able to control the population of these countries to variable degrees through economic and cultural processes.

The Berlin Conference was convened in 1884 with the intention of dividing up the continent of Africa among the various European imperial powers (Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy). It is one of the most significant events during the age of imperialism (circa 1870-1914).

Algeria was once a major colony of France and was under French control until the 1960s. Despite having achieved independence half a century ago the economy of Algeria remains closely tied to the economy of France. Whilst Algeria accounts for a little over one-percent of French trade (making it relatively insignificant to France), France accounts for a quarter of Algerian trade (making it extremely significant to Algeria). This form of economic control over a former colony is known as “Neo-colonialism.”

“Mercantilism” was the prevailing economic theory during the first few centuries of European expansion and colonialism. It emphasized maintaining a favorable balance of trade and the accumulation of precious metals. In practice this meant stripping the colonies of their raw resources, bringing them back to Europe, and either storing them or using them in manufacturing. Mercantilism was eventually replaced by free-market capitalism as the dominant economic theory in Europe and much of the world.

During the last few decades of the nineteenth century, and the early twentieth century, the European imperial powers carved the continent of Africa among themselves. This was done uncooperatively though the so-called “Scramble for Africa” and cooperatively with the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885. Of these countries, all are correctly labeled except Mozambique and Great Britain. Mozambique was under the control of Portugal.

Indochina, often called French Indochina, was a colonial possession of the French Empire until the decolonization period that followed World War II. It was conquered by the Japanese during the war but returned to France following the conclusion of the war. In the 1950s, part of a wider global movement away from imperialism and political colonization, the countries that made up Indochina gained their independence.

The Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between the empires of Spain and Portugal in 1494. It effectively divided the continent of South America between a Spanish-controlled empire and a Portuguese-controlled empire. This distinction remains important to this day, even since independence, because it represents a cultural and linguistic distinction. Those that fell on the Portuguese side of this arbitrary line now live in Brazil and continue to speak Portuguese; those that fell on the Spanish side live in the rest of South America and continue to speak Spanish.

The Warsaw Pact, officially the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, was an alliance founded in 1955 between Eastern European countries to serve as a military and political unit of contiguous communist nations. While the eight signatories—the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Poland, and East Germany—were all communist-led nations, not all communist European nations joined. Notably Yugoslavia, which was led by the iconoclastic Marshal Josip Broz Tito, resisted joining an alliance that was so closely controlled by Soviet authorities. These nations still have close ties economically, despite the fall of communism and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.

The term “Domino Theory” is the idea that if communism is allowed to exist in one country, it will inevitably spread to the neighboring countries until they all fall “like dominoes.” The fear of the spread of communism and attempts to contain it were part of American foreign policy throughout the Cold War era. The term has since been used more liberally to describe the spread of political revolution from one country to the next, such as recently with ISIS in the Middle East.

During the Cold War years the world was divided into two political and economic ideological camps. The western world was capitalist and largely democratic, whereas much of the eastern world (the Soviet Union, China, parts of South Asia) was communist and largely autocratic. In geographic terminology this is referred to as the “East-west divide.”

Turkey, despite being in Eastern Europe and territorially very close to the Soviet Union, was a staunch ally of the United States and NATO throughout the Cold War. American nuclear warheads were kept on Turkish soil for several years, and the Turkish government served as a useful buffer for the United States between the Soviet Union and the other states of the Middle East.

During the Cold War, Europe was divided into two ideological factions. In the West, the vast majority of states were capitalist and democratic and were led by the United States in an alliance known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the East, the majority of states were communist and autocratic and were led by the Soviet Union in an alliance known as the Warsaw Pact.

A country that is nominally independent but is under the influence and sometimes control of another much larger nation is known as a “satellite state.” “Satellite states” were particularly common during the Cold War era as both the Soviet Union and the United States sought to bring as many countries as possible under their spheres of influence.

The term “Iron Curtain” was coined by Winston Churchill in the aftermath of the Second World War. It refers to the “curtain” being pulled over Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union which removed those countries from the global capitalist market and isolated Eastern Europe from Western Europe.

In 1994, the system of Apartheid in South Africa, a legislatively created form of institutional racism that barred black South Africans from governmental and societal participation, was ended due to universal suffrage in a national election. This process, whereby all South Africans could vote, is a classic example of democratization, the movement of a nation's government to full democratic participation.

The "nation-state" refers to the modern notion of a sovereign nation, wherein a unified ethnic and linguistic group, a "nation," is essentially synonymous with a unified political power, a "state." The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the lengthy wars of religion in Western Europe and redrew political boundaries, is one of the key moments in establishing nation-states in a modern viewpoint. From that point forward, nationalism took on the nation-state as a primary goal and motivating force.

A homogenous nation-state is a country with a population that is ethnically, racially, or religiously homogenous. 98% of Japan's population is ethnically Japanese, while the other countries listed are all multi-cultural states.