Deck 8: Political Geography

Question 1

This was the last European country to grant women the right to vote.

A) Denmark
B) Switzerland
C) Poland
D) France
E) Spain

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power is called:

A) gerrymandering
B) redlining
C) redistricting
D) ballot stuffing
E) picketing

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The UN's 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea allows coastal states, including island nations, to claim up to ________ nautical miles of the ocean off their shores as an Exclusive Economic Zone.

A) 12
B) 20
C) 100
D) 200
E) 320

Answer 3

D

Question 4

A(n) ________ gerrymander links distant areas of like-minded voters through oddly shaped boundaries.

A) polled
B) stacked
C) excess
D) wasted
E) partisan

Question 5

Which of the following pairs are two types of cultural boundaries described in the textbook?

A) Ethnic and Nationality boundaries
B) Geometric and Nationality boundaries
C) Natural and Political boundaries
D) Political and Geographic boundaries
E) Geometric and Ethnic boundaries

Question 6

A(n) ________ is a country that is run according to the interests of the ruler rather than the people.

A) democracy
B) kleptocracy
C) autocracy
D) anocracy
E) plutocracy

Question 7

Under a(n) ________, strong powers are allocated to local governments.

A) unitary system
B) federal system
C) constitutional system
D) parliamentary system
E) autocratic system

Question 8

The Republic of ________ declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, following ethnic cleansing and war crimes by some Serb leaders.

A) Cyprus
B) Greece
C) Yugoslavia
D) Mauricius
E) Kosovo

Question 9

________ is the only large landmass in the world that is not part of a sovereign state.

A) Antarctica
B) Greenland
C) The Arctic Circle
D) The Amazon Forest
E) The Himalaya Mountains

Question 10

Independent, non-partisan commissions typically try to create ________ without regard for voting preferences or incumbents.

A) gerrymandering districts
B) fifty-fifty electorate zones
C) compact, homogeneous districts
D) ethnically marginalizing districts
E) politically active districts

Question 11

Cyprus, the third-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, contains two nationalities. These are:

A) Italian and Spanish
B) French and Greek
C) Greek and Turkish
D) Turkish and Portuguese
E) Turkish and Arabic

Question 12

As recently as the 1940s, the world contained only about ________ states, but by 2011 there were ________ members of the United Nations.

A) 30; 70
B) 40; 121
C) 50; 193
D) 60; 169
E) 70; 108

Question 13

Which of the following countries is a perforated state?

A) Nigeria
B) Kosovo
C) Italy
D) Germany
E) Canada

Question 14

A ________ is an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs.

A) nation
B) state
C) province
D) territory
E) continent

Question 15

When a state has ________, it is presumed to control its internal affairs without interference by other states.

A) currency
B) sovereignty
C) a government
D) an army
E) alliances

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT one of the five basic state shapes?

A) compact
B) pointed
C) elongated
D) fragmented
E) perforated

Question 17

A ________, an area often many kilometers wide that is either uninhabited or sparsely settled, is a zone where no state exercises complete political control.

A) frontier
B) boundary land (BYL)
C) demarcation region (DMR)
D) delineation
E) demilitarized zone (DMZ)

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT a legitimate physical boundary?

A) Desert
B) River
C) Ocean
D) Mountain
E) Latitude

Question 19

A(n) ________ is a country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic, but rather displays a mix of the two types.

A) democracy
B) kleptocracy
C) autocracy
D) anocracy
E) plutocracy

Question 20

The physical space claimed by a sovereign state comprises its:

A) territory
B) population
C) mandate
D) morphology
E) sovereignty

Question 21

The United States led an attack against Iraq in 2003 and deposed that country's longtime President:

A) Mahmoud Ahmedinajad
B) Saddam Hussein
C) Ayatollah Khomeini
D) Bashir al-Asad
E) Hamid Karzai

Question 22

Which of the following ethnicities is prominent in Afghanistan?

A) Armenian
B) Chinese Han
C) Berber
D) Quetchua
E) Pashtun

Question 23

Most governments in the world today consider China (officially, the People's Republic of China) and Taiwan (officially, the Republic of China) as one and the same sovereign state.

Question 24

________ is the process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities.

A) Balkanization
B) Ethnic cleansing
C) Centripetalism
D) Irredentism
E) Shatterbelting

Question 25

Which of the following terrorist groups is implicated in most of the recent anti-U.S. terrorism?

A) Islamic Jihad
B) Hamas
C) Al-Qaeda
D) The Taliban
E) The Tamil Tigers

Question 26

This is a process in which a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region.

A) Irredentism
B) Ethnic cleansing
C) Nationalism
D) Jihad
E) Centrifugalism

Question 27

Which of the following nationalities did not gain independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991?

A) Armenian
B) Azerbaijani
C) Ukrainian
D) Georgian
E) Turkish

Question 28

In Canada, ________ are clearly distinct from other Canadians in language, religion, and other cultural traditions.

A) Québécois
B) Cajuns
C) Albertans
D) Westerners
E) Manitobans

Question 29

In ________ in 1994, Hutus were involved in the genocide of Tutsis

A) Rwanda
B) Yugoslavia
C) Mali
D) Sudan
E) South Africa

Question 30

The term country is a synonym for state.

Question 31

Azeris are ________ who speak an Altaic language, but Armenians are Christians who speak an Indo-European language.

A) Serbs
B) Muslims
C) Baptists
D) animists
E) Hindus

Question 32

In the United States, the term ________ refers to groups with supposedly distinct ancestry and cultural traditions, such as African Americans, Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, German Americans, and Polish Americans.

A) race
B) ethnicity
C) nationality
D) tribe
E) country of origin

Question 33

Genocide is the:

A) mass killing of a group of people in an attempt to eliminate the entire group
B) process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities
C) favoring of one nationality over another in the hiring of government workers
D) forced labor of one ethnic group by another
E) forced expulsion and migration of one nationality by another

Question 34

Which of the following are attitudes that tend to unify people and enhance support for a state?

A) Centrifugal forces
B) Centripetal forces
C) Nationalistic aspects
D) Irredentist tendencies
E) Forward capital

Question 35

This is the systematic use of violence by a group in order to intimidate a population or coerce a government into granting its demands:

A) Genocide
B) Terrorism
C) Balkanization
D) Jihad
E) Nationalism

Question 36

________ is identity with (or inclusion with) a group of people who share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a particular country, rather than merely sharing cultural affinity.

A) Ethnicity
B) Country of origin
C) Nationality
D) Race
E) Regionalism

Question 37

Which of the following was not one of the five most numerous ethnicities in Yugoslavia?

A) Croats
B) Montenegrins
C) Serbs
D) Slovenes
E) Georgians

Question 38

This country was created after World War I to unite several Balkan ethnicities that spoke similar South Slavic languages.

A) Ukraine
B) Yugoslavia
C) Slovenia
D) Slovakia
E) Serbia and Montenegro

Question 39

Which leader of al-Qaeda was killed by U.S. special forces in 2011?

A) Muhamed Atef
B) Saddam Hussein
C) Mullah Omar
D) Osama bin Laden
E) Muammar el-Qaddafi

Question 40

Angola is a classic example of an elongated state.

Question 41

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines the High Seas as those parts of the oceans or seas including territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones.

Question 42

Figure 8.5.1
The U.S. government's use of the term nationality identifies citizens of the United States of America who were born in the country but excludes those who immigrated and later became citizens.

Question 43

An autocracy is a country that displays a mix of democratic and anocratic characteristics.

Question 44

Figure 8.5.1
Looking at Figure 8.5.1, China is depicted as having an anocratic government.

Question 45

Figure 8.5.1
The term gerrymandering was named for Michael Gerry, governor of Wisconsin and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Question 46

Figure 8.5.1
Looking at Figure 8.5.1, it is evident that no country in Africa is fully democratic.

Question 47

Figure 8.5.1
Looking at Figure 8.5.1, Mexico is depicted as having a fully democratic government.

Question 48

Historically, frontiers rather than boundaries separated many states.

Question 49

In principle, the unitary government system works best in nation-states characterized by few internal cultural differences and a strong sense of national unity.

Question 50

The part of the northern U.S. boundary with Canada that forms a 1,300-mile (2,100-km) line along 49° north latitude, from Lake of the Woods to the Strait of Georgia, is an example of a physical boundary.

Question 51

Many of the boundaries between countries are called ethnic boundaries.

Question 52

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea allows coastal states, including island nations, to claim up to 400 nautical miles of the ocean off their shores as an Exclusive Economic Zone.

Question 53

Persians constitute the world's largest ethnic group that adheres to Shiite Islam.

Question 54

Nationalism is an important example of a centrifugal force, which is an attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state.

Question 55

In Canada, the Québécois are distinct from most other Canadians in terms of language, religion, and other cultural traditions.

Question 56

Physical boundaries do not coincide with significant features of the natural landscape.

Question 57

Armenians and Azeris have clashed several times over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave within Azerbaijan inhabited primarily by Armenians.

Question 58

Figure 8.5.1
The boundaries separating legislative districts within the United States and other countries are redrawn periodically to ensure that each district has approximately the same population.

Question 59

Armenian is a nationality but not an ethnicity.

Question 60

Fragmented states have other state territories within them.

Question 61

What are the origins of gerrymandering and what are the three forms of it?

Question 62

What is terrorism and what are the different types?

Question 63

Saddam Hussein, the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, was killed by a U.S. SEAL team in Pakistan.

Question 64

What is al-Qaeda and what are their expressed reasons for their actions?

Question 65

Until its breakup in 1992, Yugoslavia comprised six so-called republics, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, plus the two so-called autonomous regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina.

Question 66

Discuss the sovereignty of Kosovo, Taiwan, and Western Sahara.

Question 67

The al-Qaeda terrorist network has been implicated in several anti-U.S. terrorist attacks since 2003.

Question 68

The population of Kosovo is more than 90 percent ethnic Serbian, but Albania claims it as part of its territory.

Question 69

Explain centripetal forces with special reference to nationalism.

Question 70

Briefly explain the conflict in Kosovo and the competing claims for the territory.

Question 71

Resenting discrimination and neglect by the national government, groups in Darfur launched a rebellion in 2003 against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.

Question 72

Discuss the conflict between the different ethnicities in Central Africa and how that has led to genocide.

Question 73

What international treaties govern Antarctica and Outer Space?

Question 74

How are ethnicity and nationality similar and different?

Question 75

The conflict between Hutus and Tutsis (in Rwanda and Burundi) spilled into neighboring countries, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Question 76

What are the two main types of boundaries and their subtypes?