POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY: HISTORY, WHAT IT STUDIES, CONCEPTS - GEOGRAPHY - 2025

Political geography is part of human geography and focuses on the study of the spatial distribution of the State and its territory. This area is inherently linked to other approaches to human geography that encompass cultural, social, historical, and economic issues.

The studies of politics include the analysis of the relationship of a State with the inhabitants of a territory, the relations between governments and even the interaction between national and international political entities.

Political geography studies the distribution according to the States and their territories on the earth's surface. Image by Mabel Amber, still incognito… from Pixabay

There are political processes such as local, regional or national government elections, which produce effects on the territory. From here other subdivisions can be derived such as electoral geography, which studies voting patterns and the disposition of electoral districts.

The main objective is to study political institutions and their structure in terms of spatial distribution. For example, States, regional and local governments, establish different divisions over a territory, which differ from other types of spatial delimitations that focus on cultural or religious aspects.

History

Friedrich Ratzel works

Political geography has as a direct antecedent the development of human geography. The works of Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), a German geographer, are the basis for the introduction of the human factor into geography.

In his work Anthropogeography, he establishes as an object of study the relationship between the territory, the environment and the human being. In addition, it places special emphasis on the diversity of societies and the natural environment.

Among his works, Politische Geographie, published in 1897, also stands out. This publication could be considered as the beginning of the political geography of contemporaneity.

In this study, the idea of ​​the close relationship that can exist between a State and the territory emerged, since it considers that this last element represents political power and the expression of a society. Considering the State as a living organism, Ratzel proposes some laws of the development of a territory based on the State.

- Culture determines the size and growth of the state

- The growth of the State suggests other types of growth manifested in its people.

- The growth of the State is a consequence of the annexation of smaller parts. This produces the rapprochement between people and their land.

Today there are questions about Ratzel's study, partly because his vision seems to merge politics with the State as one.

Contribution from Halford Mackinder

Halford Mackinder, an English geographer, was another of the characters who made contributions regarding the relationship between politics and geography. One of its focuses was to establish the relationship between external political pressure and how it affects the internal politics of a territory.

Mackinder worked on the concept of "Heartland", as an area whose domain represented the power of the world and that the rest would be organized around its periphery. Part of Mackinder's ideas served geopolitics and geostrategy in everything that relates to political power.

What do you study?

As an independent discipline, political geography focuses on the relationship between politics and territory, including all systems that can be derived and combined. For example, border politics and administration, states and groups of states, national and international political organizations, local and central governments, and more.

Political geography clarifies the link between political activity and social development at the geographical level. Some relevant elements for the discipline are population structures, levels and forms of life, identity, cultural beliefs and all the changing aspects of space and time.

For example, the boundaries between territories, although they are imaginary, can be seen as a cultural factor of people associated with their identity and political consciousness.

Contemporary political geography considers a wide variety of settings. Take into account the ways in which a state organizes itself into regional groups.

The influence of political power within a geographical area is also relevant. He even studies the influence of modern media on the way politics unfolds, such as social media or television.

Current Political Geography has detached itself from the approaches of earlier times considered deterministic. At present, he is in charge of the strategic analyzes necessary to understand where the world is today.

Some issues that stand out are globalization, globalization of the economy and other entities at administrative levels; the formation of collective identities, the division in the economic development of areas, the role of social and political agents and above all environmental problems, also known as green or ecological policies.

Related concepts

There are different concepts that are linked to the study of political geography and that have had to do with its development and influence today.

Human geography

Human geography is the branch from which political geography is derived. Pays special attention to the processes of human interaction within a space. Analyzes the relationship of people with the environment and their organization, considering cultural, economic, historical, social and political aspects.

Electoral geography

Electoral processes are one of the facts taken into account in the study of the political geography of a region. Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

It is a small branch of political geography that focuses on the behavior of the population in electoral events. Look at voting patterns, the transition from voting to the occupation of legislative office by an elected leader, and how electoral zones are defined in a territory.

Geopolitics

It is responsible for the study of all the effects that geography can generate on politics and relations between international entities. It usually covers both the analysis of relations between countries, the relationship between independent or federated states.

Geopolitics uses geographical studies to explain and try to predict political behavior. Data such as demographics, a region's natural resources, climate, and so on, are usually evaluated.

References

1. Human Geography. Institute of geography. Heidelberg University. Recovered from geog.uni-heidelberg.de
2. (2018). Introduction and origins of the (sub) discipline of political geography. Baripedia. Recovered from baripedia.org
3. Kolossov, V. Political Geography. Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. GEOGRAPHY - Vol. II. Recovered from eolss.net
4. Political geography. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
5. Johnston, R. (2018). Human geography. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Recovered from Britannica.com
6. Dittmer, J (2013). Political Geography. Oxford Bibliographies. Recovered from oxfordbibliographies.com
7. Castree, N., Kitchin, R., & Rogers, A. (2013). "Political geography." In A Dictionary of Human Geography. Oxford University Press. Recovered from researchguides.dartmouth.edu
8. Geopolitics. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org