Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 14
Where Do You Draw the
Line?
In This Chapter
Dividing the world in different ways
Feeling tension over turf
Asking the question: Does size and shape (of countries, that is) matter?
Rigging an election and getting away with it
Y ou can divide up space and set up different types of boundaries in many ways. In addition to living
in the United States, I live in the State of New York, the City of New York, and the Borough of Man-
hattan (also known as New York County), all of which have separate boundaries. I also live within a
particular school district, police precinct, City Council District, U.S. Congressional District, New York
State Senate District, and New York State Assembly District. They, too, have boundaries, and none are
the same. But that's just me. What about you? How many political lines on the map enclose your res-
idence? And the government isn't the only one that has this “thing” about dividing space. The phone
company has divided the country in area codes. The postal service has done the same, only their lines
have different placements and define different areas — zip codes. Maybe you belong to a church that
divides space into dioceses, presbyteries, or something else. Maybe you work for a company that di-
vides space into sales territories. The bottom line is that Earth is divided by lines of all kinds.
As all of these instances testify,
Homo sapiens
have proven to be a rather territorial species (as
illustrated by the wall in Figure 14-1). Indeed, one of the most profound things we humans do
to our earthly home is divide it up among ourselves, thereby creating regions of sovereignty,
control, or administration. We do this by drawing lines on a map, which begs a rather basic
question: Where do you draw the line? This is a central issue of political geography, which is
concerned with division and control of Earth's surface and is the subject of this chapter. In writ-
ing this chapter, I, too, had to draw the line — that is, make decisions regarding what to include
