AP® Human Geography review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/geo/units/4/4-2)
Unit 4 · Topic 4.2
4.2 Political Processes
Today's political map is the product of centuries of colonial rule, independence movements and the breakup of large states. Sovereignty, the nation-state ideal and self-determination are the ideas that drove those changes.
Key terms
- sovereignty
- self-determination
- colonialism
- imperialism
- independence movement
- devolution
Key ideas
- Sovereignty: a state's authority to govern its own territory without outside interference. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe, is often treated as the start of the modern system of sovereign states.
- Nation-state ideal: the belief that each nation should have its own state. This idea spread in Europe in the 1800s and fueled the unification of Italy and Germany as well as the breakup of multinational empires.
- Self-determination: the right of a people to choose their own government and political status. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson promoted it after World War I, and the UN Charter of 1945 refers to it.
Colonialism and imperialism drew many borders
European powers controlled most of Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific by the early 1900s. Colonial borders were often drawn for the convenience of the colonizers, splitting some ethnic groups and combining rivals. In the Middle East, the secret 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement between Britain and France planned how to divide Ottoman Arab lands, which later became the basis for several modern borders. Many of these lines became the borders of independent states.
Independence movements
Most of Latin America won independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 1800s. After World War II, a wave of decolonization swept Africa and Asia. India and Pakistan became independent in 1947, in a partition that displaced more than 10 million people. Ghana became independent in 1957, and in 1960 alone 17 African countries gained independence. Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a long war. As a result, UN membership grew from 51 countries in 1945 to 193 today.
Devolution along national lines
Large multinational states have also broken apart, often along national lines. The Soviet Union split into 15 independent countries in 1991, each based on one of its republics, such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the three Baltic states. Yugoslavia broke up in the 1990s and 2000s, with wars in Croatia and Bosnia, into Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia; Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence remains disputed. Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Sudan divided in 2011 when South Sudan became independent.
| Process | What happened | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Colonialism | Outside powers took and governed territory | Britain in India; France in West Africa |
| Independence movement | Colonies won self-rule | Ghana, 1957 |
| Devolution along national lines | A multinational state split into states based on nations | The Soviet Union, 1991 |
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Linking colonial borders to later conflict
Explain how colonial-era boundaries in Africa contributed to political challenges after independence.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Cause: European powers drew many African borders to suit their own interests, with little regard for where ethnic and language groups lived.
- Step 2: Process: at independence, most new states kept those borders, so many held rival groups together or split one group across several states.
- Step 3: Effect: competition between groups for power and resources, and claims across borders, contributed to civil wars and secession movements in some states.
- Step 4: Add evidence if you can, such as Nigeria's civil war (1967–1970), when the Igbo-majority southeast tried to secede as Biafra.
Answer: Colonial borders ignored ethnic and cultural divisions, and new states kept them at independence. Many states contained rival groups or split groups across borders, which fed conflicts like Nigeria's 1967–1970 civil war over Biafran secession.
Common mistakes
- Assuming every new state after independence was a nation-state. Most former colonies are multinational.
- Confusing sovereignty with self-determination. Sovereignty is a state's authority; self-determination is a people's right to choose its status.
- Saying the Soviet Union broke into random pieces. It split along the lines of its national republics.
On the exam
- Expect questions asking how colonialism, independence or devolution shaped a particular region's boundaries.
- In causation answers, move step by step from the historical cause to the present-day effect.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
5 questions on 4.2 Political Processes. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Between the late 1940s and the 1970s, dozens of new states gained independence in Africa and Asia. Which of the following best explains this change in the world political map?
Which of the following is the clearest example of a violation of a state's sovereignty?
"X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development."
"XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea . . ."
President Woodrow Wilson, address to Congress (the "Fourteen Points"), January 8, 1918
The two points in the excerpt most directly express which political idea?
Which of the following was a result of the ideas expressed in the excerpt after World War I?
Drawing new borders around 'populations' as described in Point XIII was difficult mainly because
0 of 5 answered