Geography 151: Human Geography

Multinational States and Ethnic Competition

02 March 2011

Today
• Where are we?
o Officially halfway though Spring 2011
o Exam I is graded
o BB #4 is graded
o Points total so far?
 250 points
• BB #1 – 4 : 30 points/each (120)
• Core Focus #1: 30 points
• Exam #1: 100 points
o Today we finish Chapter 7

Caucasus Region
• Region is about the size of Colorado
o Located between the Black and Caspian Seas
 Named after the mountain range that separates Russia from Azerbaijan and
Georgia
o Many ethnicities in this small region
 Azeris
 Armenians
 Georgians
 Chechens
 Ingush
 Kurds
• When this entire region was under Soviet control communism was embraced and disputes
were settled
o With the break-up of the Soviet Union the region divided into several independent
countries
 Long-standing disputes between ethnicities have resulted in armed conflict
• From a political geography viewpoint every ethnicity in the region
wants the same thing
• Some ethnicities have been successful in carving out their own state,
but their boundaries still do not include the entire ethnicity and
includes others

Clashing Ethnicities
• Ethnicities do not always live peacefully
o Some ethnicities conduct civil wars in an attempt to dominate the national identity
o Conflicts also arise when ethnicities are divided among more than one state
 Sub-Saharan Africa is a region especially troubled with ethnicities fighting for
dominance within various countries
• Horn of Africa
 • Central Africa

Horn of Africa Competition

• Ethiopia and Eritrea
o Eritrea
 Located on the Red Sea
 Became an Italian colony in 1890
o Ethiopia
 Independent country for over 2000 years
 Captured by Italy in 1930s
• After WWII, Ethiopia regained its independence
• UN gave Eritrea to Ethiopia
o Expected Eritrea to run its own affairs
o Ethiopia dissolved their legislature and banned the use of their
major language
• Eritreans rebelled against Ethiopia
o 30yr. fight for independence (1961 – 1991)
 During this time an estimated 665,000 Eritreans fled to Sudan
 Eritrea its own sovereign state in 1993
 1998, border disputes resulted in more fighting
• In 2000 Ethiopia gained control of disputed border areas

Sudan
• A civil war has been ongoing since the 1980s
o Black Christian and animist rebels in the southern provinces
o Arab-Muslim-dominated government forces in the north
 Have been attempting to convert the country from a multi-ethnic society to a
single nationality tied to Islamic traditions
• All schools are single sex
• Barriers erected to separate sexes at gatherings
• Sporting events with women held in private
o Females not allowed to wear tight-fitting clothes
• Women working in restaurants can’t wear perfume or jewelry
• Women shopping after dark must be with a male relative
• More than 2 million Sudanese have died in the civil war
 5% of the population of Sudan
 Another 1 million have been forced to migrate from the south to the north or
into Ethiopia
 Autonomy for the southern Christians called for in 2005
• Many desire full independence from Sudan
• As the religious-war quelled, an ethnic war erupted in the western-most portion of Sudan
• Darfur
• Western-most region of Sudan
 o Mostly comprised of settled farmers
o Resent discrimination and neglect from the national government
o Launched a rebellion in 2003
o Arab marauders in-turn, and with support of the Sudanese government, have
crushed the inhabitants of Darfur
 An estimated 450,000 have been killed
 2.5 million reside in squalor in refugee camps

Divided Ethnicities
• Britain ended their colonial rule of India in 1947
o Divided the country into two nations
 India and Pakistan
• Pakistan was made of two areas 1000 miles apart and separated by
India
o West Pakistan
o East Pakistan
 Became Bangladesh in 1971
• Pakistan was divided due to ethnicity
o Those in India primarily Hindu; Pakistan mostly Muslim
 Historic fighting between the two in northern India
o Division forced the migration of 17 million
 Some migrants were killed by rival religion
• Trains were halted to massacre passengers
• Small groups travelling on ground attacked by extremists

Kashmir
• Pakistan and India never agreed on the boundary separating their nations in the northern
area of Kashmir
o Since 1972 the nations maintain a “line of control” through the region
o India blames Pakistan for unrest and vows to retain its portions of Kashmir
o Pakistan argues that Kashmiris should choose their future
 Confident the Muslim majority there would break away from India

Ethnic Cleansing
• Ethnic groups have been forced to flee from other ethnic groups’ more powerful armies
throughout history
o Largest level of forced migration during WWII (1939 – 1945)
 Most infamous being the Nazi’s deportation of millions of Jews, gypsies, and
other groups to concentration camps
 After WWII ended, ethnic Germans, Poles, and Russians were forced to
migrate due to boundary changes
o A forced migration of this magnitude has not occurred again, but in the 1990s a new
term was created
 Ethnic cleansing
• Process in which a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less-
powerful one to create an ethnically homogeneous region
 • Cleansing not to defeat an enemy like in traditional wars
o Unlike a clash between armies of male soldiers, ethnic cleansing involves the
removal of every member of the less-powerful ethnicity
 Particularly prominent in portions of former Yugoslavia
• Especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo
• Part of a complex pattern of ethnic diversity in the Balkan Peninsula
o Region about the sixe of Texas
 Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and several countries
once in former Yugoslavia

Creation of Yugoslavia
• The Balkan Peninsula has had a long history of instability
o Northern areas incorporated into the Austria-Hungary Empire, southern areas ruled
by the Ottoman Empire
 1878 Austria-Hungary Empire extends control south into areas of
predominantly Islamic Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 1914 the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in
Sarajevo by a Serb who wanted independence for Bosnia
o Started WWI
 After WWI, Yugoslavia created to unite several Balkan
ethnicities that spoke similar South Slavic languages
• “Yugo” comes from the Slavic word “south”
• Yugoslavia was governed by Josip Broz Tito from 1953 until his death in 1980
o Old ethnic animosities submerged and younger people identified themselves as
Yugoslavs, not Serbs, Croats, or Montenegrens
o Differences resurfaced after Tito’s death, which led to the ultimate breakup of the
country
 Fighting emerged to redefine the boundaries
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
o Cleansing of Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs was especially
severe
 Bosnian Serbs separated from Serbia by areas of Bosnian
Muslim majorities
• By removing Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Serbs
created a continuous area of Bosnian Serb
domination
• Accords in 1996 divided Bosnia and Herzegovina
into three regions combined into a federation with
some cooperation

To Finish Chapter 7
• South African Apartheid
• Somalia
• Sri Lanka divisions
• Kosovo
• Central Africa
• Blackboard #5
o Quiz covering the last two chapters
o Should be up by end of business
 Open until Sunday night
 Three attempts
 Highest score remains
• Bonus assignment looming
o Will tie into Core Focus II
o Maybe we can have a survey too for a few more bonus points…STAY TUNED