Political Geography

In Human Geo today we talked about rules&how ughughughugh they were. Well I mean we actually learned about Political Geography, that was just something we talked about for 10 minutes in the beginning of class. We also talked about what happened near Pittsburgh, and how a taxi driver was shot by his passenger just because he was of the Islamic religion. I find that absolutely insane, the driver made no move on the guy, tried to talk to him, told him how he found the terrorist attacks terrible and how he believed in peace and equality (after being asked about these topics by the passenger). The man then got out of the car and said he would be right back he just had to grab something, and that something ended up being a shotgun, and the driver, panicked, drove away, but the man still managed to shoot through the back car window and into the driver's back between his shoulders. Thank God he's okay, and I hope the passenger gets some kind of punishment too. I hate people so much sometimes. Anyways, we took notes today on Political Geography, and these are the notes I took (sorry my blog is really long today):

How is the World Organized? 
Country

• an identifiable land area

Nation

• a population (group of people) with a common culture

State 

• a population under a single government 
• synonymous with "country" 

Nation-State 

• a single culture under a single government
• a nation which has the same borders as a state 

A Nation

• a group of people with a shared identity 
• think of it as a culture group 
• Nations are culturally homogeneous groups of people, larger than a single tribe or community which share a common language, institutions, religion, and historical experience

An Independent State

• has space or territory which has internationally recognized boundaries (boundary disputes are OK) 
• has people who live there on an ongoing basis
• has economic activity and an organized economy. A country regulates foreign and domestic trade and issues money 
• has the power of social engineering such as education 
• has a transportation system for moving goods and people 
• has a government which provides public service and police power 
• has sovereignty. No other State should have power over the country's territory
• has external recognition. A country has been "voted into the club" by other countries