GEOG 1410 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Geopolitics

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GEOG 1410 - Lecture 04 Sept. 19, 2017
Empire and the Geopolitical Order
Geopolitics - the relationship between the state and the government, and its territory. The
state’s power to control space or territory and shape international political relations. That its
space and people it claims to govern.
What dominated the world for the longest time has been empires, not states. Mid 1700’s,
ancient roman empires.
Imperialism is the deliberate exercise of military power and/or economic influence by a
powerful state in order to advance its own interests. It isn’t only the state that expands, it’s
also individuals and companies that expanded to trade and claim territories and resources,
these individuals or companies may form armies to defend these resources.
Colonization is when the state decides to claim a political power or authority over a land.
They exercised violence to take control of these territories.
Empire doesn’t expand as a desire to govern all the lands, it is the pursuit of economic
interests to make the seated empire more rich. Economic, not political or social.
People were also seen as a natural resource for the economic system.
Lines on the 1886 map are shipping routes, Britain's longstanding view of their control over
the sea.
There are two forms of colonialism,
Imposition of the state but no large movement of peoples from the country of origin.
Settler Colonialism, where a lot of people do migrate and displace the original population.
A Dominion is a self governing state but it is still part of the mother country
How did we get from empires to this world of nation states?
What is a nation and what is a nation state?
The idea of the nation is one of the most malleable ideas out there, and mythical. Something
completely invented out of thin air. A nation is a very large group of people that believe they
are so distinctly different from others that they should be there own political identity. (ex. Leaf
Nation). We have a sense of incredible loyalty, deep and ancestral. Nations are rooted in
these deep ideas like ancestry, language, other cultural practice, ideas of blood and
belonging. You would be able to fight and die for it. The idea that nations get their state, put
up their borders and nobody leaves again is so mythical.
In Canada, how did those borders come to be where they are? The Hudson’s Bay Company
is one of those companies that claimed a land for resources, and the state backed them.
Boarders come out of these empirical states, there is no poll there is no survey.
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Document Summary

Geopolitics - the relationship between the state and the government, and its territory. The state"s power to control space or territory and shape international political relations. That its space and people it claims to govern. What dominated the world for the longest time has been empires, not states. Imperialism is the deliberate exercise of military power and/or economic influence by a powerful state in order to advance its own interests. It isn"t only the state that expands, it"s also individuals and companies that expanded to trade and claim territories and resources, these individuals or companies may form armies to defend these resources. Colonization is when the state decides to claim a political power or authority over a land. They exercised violence to take control of these territories. Empire doesn"t expand as a desire to govern all the lands, it is the pursuit of economic interests to make the seated empire more rich.

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