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| Balance of power- a condition of roughly equal strength between opposing alliances |
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| Boundary- an invisible line marking the extent of a state’s territory |
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| City-state- a sovereign state that comprises a town and the surrounding countryside |
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| Colonialism- the effort by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles on such territory |
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| Colony- a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent |
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| Compact state- the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly |
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| Elongated state- a state with a long, narrow shape |
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| Federal state- allocates strong power to units of local government within the country |
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| Fragmented state- includes several discontinuous pieces of territory |
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| Frontier- a zone where no state exercises complete political control |
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| Gerrymandering- the process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power |
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| Imperialism- control of territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous society, whereas colonialism is control of previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land |
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| Landlocked state- lacks a direct outlet to the sea because it is completely surrounded by several other countries |
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| Microstate- which are states with very small land areas |
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| Perforated state- the state that completely surrounds another |
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| Prorupted state- an otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension |
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| Sovereignty- independence from control of its internal affairs by other states |
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| State- an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs |
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| Unitary state- places most power in the hands of central government officials |
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