Definition of Political Geography

The geography, as well as history, is one of the most important social sciences, although its study is the planet earth, its description, the distribution in space of the elements that compose it and also the phenomena that it houses, in all of them we appear the beings humans that inhabit it and that we are essential to understand some phenomena, and also to be able to explain others so many ...

As it is a vast science, it is divided into various areas that deal with studying a specific part.
In today's case we will focus on the political chapter of geography.

Study the distribution and organization of the planet taking into account the political conjunctures

The Geography Politics, a subdiscipline of Human geography, is the science that deals with study both the distribution and organization of the planet, taking into account the different political positions that it harbors and has harbored through the centuries.

The different political events that take place in the world as well as the influence that the physical environment exerts on the political evolution, are two fundamental themes that almost exclusively capture the attention of Geography Politics.

The political system is fundamental in the design of the territory, its distribution, organization ...

This branch of geography deals with considering the earth's surface from the perspective imposed by the political organization it holds.
This situation will imply that an attempt will be made to provide the causes of the physical composition of a territory in direct relationship to the political movements or situations that in this aspect has gone through and housed.
In other words, the form of government that a certain land area holds will not be indifferent in its conformation, but on the contrary, it will affect it and it is on these issues that the study of geography is focused politics.

It will study the relationships that are established between the countries that make up a given region, their political interaction, economic, cultural, the way in which they solve the conflicts that may arise between them, among others aspects.

In other words, its metier are the power relations that develop in a given geographical space.

Origins, structure and methods

To make the analysis of the phenomena of its study more accessible, Political Geography is structured in three levels; The state assumes the place of central axis of the investigations, meanwhile, above the state international relations appear, which imply studying not only the geostrategic and geoeconomic relationships that are established between nations, but also their expression in physical reality and finally, under the state, we we find the political geography of the populations, which implies the study of the processes, conflicts and strategies that arise within and between the various communities local.

One of the fundamental reasons for its birth has undoubtedly been the prevailing interest that existed since time immemorial in relation to military possibilities and aspirations of the countries and how they could directly affect the positioning, development and growth of a nation.

For proof it is not enough to look back a few centuries and see that many regions became powerful and strong as consequence of their political powers and of the war supremacy that they knew how to develop in order to impress on their nations that power. An emblematic case is undoubtedly that of the Roman Empire.

The birth of this discipline it is closely linked temporally to that of Human Geography itself. It should be noted that the work promoted by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel , in the nineteenth century, were fundamental, since it reached the conclusionthat the cultural evolution of a nation is directly linked to its territorial expansion.

Regarding his methods of investigation, they do not differ much from those used from the beginning: observation, classification, descriptive mapping, because the map Until today it is a fundamental tool, because all that they reflect are the expression of the different processes politicians.

On the other hand, it is also common for geographers to use procedures from other sciences such as Sociology and the Psychologyso interviews and surveys are widely used methods. And also computer tools such as Geographic information system in which a lot of information with spatial reference is stored, they also enjoy a special participation in the investigation of Political Geography.