1. From Revolution to Renaissance A Political Geography and History of “Deep Mexico”

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-74
2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-105
Author(s):  
Natalie Koch

Abstract In 2014 the largest dairy company in the Middle East, Almarai, purchased a farm near Vicksburg, Arizona, to grow alfalfa as feed for cattle in Saudi Arabia. Almarai is headquartered at Al Kharj farms, just outside of Riyadh, where it has a herd of more than 93,000 milk cows. Given that dairy and alfalfa farms both require an immense amount of water to maintain, what explains these developments in the deserts of Arizona and Arabia? The answers are historical and contemporary, demanding an approach to “desert geopolitics” that explains how environmental and political narratives bind experts across space and time. As a study in political geography and environmental history, this article uncovers a geopolitics of connection that has long linked the US Southwest and the Middle East, as well as the interlocking imperial visions advanced in their deserts. To understand these arid entanglements, I show how Almarai's purchase of the Vicksburg farm is part of a genealogy of exchanges between Saudi Arabia and Arizona that dates to the early 1940s. The history of Al Kharj and the decades-long agricultural connections between Arizona and Saudi Arabia sheds light on how specific actors imagine the “desert” as a naturalized site of scarcity, but also of opportunity to build politically and economically useful bridges between the two regions.


1883 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Henry Elliot Malden

History and Geography, if we would study either thoroughly and intelligently, can never be completely dissevered. The continual influence exercised, from generation to generation, by climate, food, and necessary pursuits upon a people, combined with the influences of the political geography of the surrounding countries, the presence of strong or weak, civilised or barbarous neighbours, all these exercise the strongest pressure upon the original character, and mould the course of the history of every nation. And, therefore, to appreciate the full meaning of that history, a study of the theatre in which the action was played is of importance.


1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel G. Julien

A model of late pre-Inka political geography of the region surrounding Cajamarca, in the north highlands of Peru, is presented. This model, based on ethnohistoric data and archaeological research, can be projected back through time to help delineate the culture history of the Cajamarca ethnic group. Several chiefdoms emerged during the Late Intermediate period, following a time of sociopolitical disintegration. The region that became the Inka province of Cajamarca had been occupied by five or six chiefdoms during the latter part of the Late Intermediate period. The data are equivocal on the subject of whether political centralization had developed in the region before the Inka conquest, but suggest that at least some form of confederation existed. Comparison with other regions of the Peruvian Highlands reveals that the Cajamarca ethnic group was modest in population, but controlled a very large area. Other groups, such as the Wanka and Lupaqa, appear to have been undergoing a similar process of sociopolitical centralization. The Inka reorganized the region upon its incorporation into the empire, creating an economic and religious center for several surrounding provinces.


2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Giordano

The creation of the Schengen area has modified the political geography of migration with important implications from a variety of perspectives, all of which affect the migration management policies of EU member States as well as those of third countries. On the one hand, the Schengen area established the first supranational border in the history of Europe; on the other hand, it obliged a small group of countries (those bordering non-EU States) to monitor the new border, manage refugee flows and repatriate illegal migrants from third countries, despite often being unprepared to tackle the migration phenomenon. The policies implemented in both the Mediterranean and continental countries have revealed a lack of long-term vision in dealing with several migration related issues. Currently, the absence of a single EU migration policy, the egocentric approach of some non-Mediterranean European countries and the re-emergence of border walls characterize the context. Nevertheless, migration flows and terrorism in Europe represent significant opportunities to strengthen the common European area, rather than weakening it. Moreover, evidence suggests that such global phenomena are better addressed at a supranational level rather than on a national basis.


Author(s):  
DANIJEL DŽINO

Appian’s Illyrian book (Illyrike) was originally intended to be just an appendix to his Macedonian book and today remains the only extant ancient work dealing with the early history of Illyricum which is preserved in its entirety. In this short work Appian puts together different local and regional histories in order to create a unified historical narrative and determines the historical and mythological coordinates of Illyricum inside the ancient world. This paper will discuss Illyrike in the context of the Roman construction of Illyricum as a provincial space, similar to some other regions in continental Europe such as, for example, Gaul or Britain. They were all firstly created through the needs of Roman political geography and later written into literary knowledge through the works of ancient history and ethnography. This paper will argue that Appian’s Illyrike represented the final stage of the Roman construction of Illyricum from an imaginary to a provincial space, which was the point of its full coming of age as an integral part of the ancient world and the Roman Empire.


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