1- Why was the nation-state ideal seen as the vehicle for stability? Why has this ideal not been realized in the modern era? :
People started to see the nation-state concept as the ultimate form of political-territorial organization, the suitable entity entitled to sovereignty, and the best route to peace. The key issue associated with the nation-state concept is that it implies the existence of separate regions of relatively well-defined, prosperous nations living contiguously. Very few places in the world meet this criterion. Nevertheless, many assumed the expectation could be met in late-eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe.
2- Describe how multinational states devolve - site specific examples:
People living in the former Yugoslav state have never attained a strong sense of Yugoslav nationhood. Millions of people who were Yugoslav citizens had never been Yugoslav nationals. They were identified as Slovenians, Croats, Serbs or members of other nations or ethnic groups. Yugoslavia was a state made up of more than one nation, and eventually collapsed.
3- Name two prominent stateless nations and why they are the source of tension and violence?:
The Palestinians are an example of a country without a Territory. The Palestinian Arabs have taken control of the Gaza Strip and parts of West Bank and Golan Heights Occupied Territories. Such territories could lay the foundations for a future state. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees tracks 5 million Palestinian refugees who have been registered. In Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other Arab states, well over half of these registered refugees continue to live. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are home to over 2 million Palestinians; however, the international community does not fully accept the Palestinian lands as a state.
A much larger stateless nation is the Kurds, a community of 25 to 30 million people living in an area known as Kurdistan which covers parts of six states. Following the Gulf War of 1991, the United Nations set up a Kurdish Security Zone north of Iraq's 36th parallel, and that area continues to have significant autonomy in present-day Iraq. The no-fly zone in northern Iraq's Kurdish region has provided a relatively peaceful place compared with ongoing conflict in southern Iraq. Violent acts still mar the Kurdish north but petrodollars have also brought prosperity to the region. A recent New York Times travel article described new theme parks and gated communities reflecting the affluence in the city of Erbil, Iraq's Kurdish capital. The article also described the 6000-year-old citadel of Erbil as a reminder that the town is "one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities."
4- How did European colonialism lead to the diffusion of the nation-state model?:
Spain and Portugal took advantage of an increasingly well-consolidated internal political structure and accumulated riches during the first wave of colonization in the 16 century to expand their influence to ever more far-flung territories. The first wave of colonialism, which was later joined by Britain, France, the Netherlands and Belgium, established a far-reaching political and economic system. A second wave of colonialism began in the late 1800s, after independence movements in the Americas during the late 1700s and 1800s. Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy were the major colonizers. For the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885 the colonizing parties met and unilaterally mapped out the colonial map of Africa without regard to local cultural or political arrangements.
5- How did colonialism help create an integrated world economy?:
For certain cases the movements of raw materials are as large as they were before the end of the colonial era. For example, in Gabon, Africa today, the railroad goes from the plywood logging inland forest to Libreville, the major port and capital city. South of Libreville is the second largest city, Port Gentil, but the two cities are not directly connected by road or railroad. The cities are 90 miles apart as the crow flies, but if you drive from one to the other the circuitous road takes you 435 miles away. All cities depend on exports. Port Gentil is linked to the global oil industry, with global oil companies responsible for building a large part of the town and its houses and the employment of lots of its people.
5- What is world-systems theory? How does this theory explain the geography of wealth in the world today?:
Global-system theory: Immanuel Wallerstein's theory, illuminated by his three-tiered structure, suggests that social change in the developing world is inextricably linked with the developed world's economic activities. 1. The world economy has a single market, and a global labor division.
2. Although the world has multiple states, in the sense of the world economy, almost everything takes place.
3. The world economy is hierarchical three-tiered.
