Countries and organizations cooperate through treaties, laws, and agreements to manage resources, maintain the environment, and mediate disputesĪ. Explain why states in regions of the United States typically have different kinds of boundaries (e.g., the eastern state lines reflect metes and bounds, the Midwest has baselines of latitude and longitude and water boundaries, the use of township and range system in the West).Ģ.Identify and explain the use of defense lines and frontier outposts to control Earth’s surface (e.g., China’s Great Wall, Hadrian’s Wall, Berlin Wall, Maginot Line, Korean Peninsula Demilitarized Zone).Identify and describe examples of disputed borders and explain the reasons for the dispute (e.g., Kashmir border between India and Pakistan, border between Algeria and Morocco, border between El Salvador and Honduras).Describe and explain the use of physical and human characteristics to establish political boundaries (e.g., streets as political boundaries between local units of government, water features as boundaries between countries, watershed divides as boundaries between countries, boundaries delimited by political agreement such as the 49th parallel between the United States and Canada).Explain the types of boundaries based on physical and human characteristics, as exemplified by being able to The types of boundaries used to define territorial divisionĪ. Understanding these themes provides students with the contexts into which to set past, present, and future examples of cooperation and conflict between and among groups of people.ġ. They must appreciate their own roles within a world that is globally interdependent and yet locally controlled. Additionally, they must understand the ways in which divisions generate conflicts or encourage cooperation. Students must understand the evolution, structure, power, and implications of these divisions. Cooperation and conflict will occur in all of these spatial contexts. Traditionally, most territorial disputes have been over the land surface, but with the increasing value of resources in the ocean and control of access to air and outer spaces, these regions have become arenas for international debate. World wars, regional wars, civil wars, terrorist attacks, and urban riots often are manifestations of the fierce intensity of feeling humans hold for the right to own and control parts of Earth according to their particular beliefs and values. Regional alliances among nations for military, political, cultural, or economic reasons constitute examples of human cooperation on Earth's surface.Įvents of the twenty-first century illustrate that the process of seeking to control parts of Earth's surface continues unabated at all scales of human society. The primary political division of Earth is by state sovereignty-a particular government is recognized by others, such as members of the United Nations, as having supreme authority over a carefully delimited territory and the population and resources within that space.

Therefore, Standard 13 contains these themes: Territorial Divisions, Cooperation, and Conflict. Conflicts over trade, human migration and settlement, ideologies and religions, and exploitation of marine and land environments reflect how Earth's surface is divided into fragments controlled by different formal and informal political, economic, and cultural interest groups. Competing for control of areas of Earth's surface, large and small, is a universal trait among societies and has resulted in both productive cooperation and destructive conflict between groups. The geographically informed person must understand how and why different groups of people have divided, organized, and unified areas of Earth's surface.

Metes and bounds human geography