Revision resource covering all the case studies in the topic of superpowers. Each case study has key facts and information making them easy to learn from in my experience.
A level Pearson Edexcel Geography year 2 notes (Global Development and Connections) Topic 8: Migration, Identity and Sovereignty.
A level Pearson Edexcel Geography year 2 notes (Human Systems and Geopolitics) Topic 7: Superpowers
A-Level Edexcel Tectonic Summary
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Unit 4 - Human Systems and Geopolitics
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Superpowers – Case Studies Summary
What are superpowers
USA
- 800 military bases globally and expenditure of $508 billion annually
- 320 million residents
- culture: 71% of Americans own a smartphone
Soft power
- Marshall plan: gave $12 billion to help rebuild Western economies to stop them falling to communism in 1948
Hard power
- Germany after Great War and their drive towards war – Rhineland 1936, Sudetenland 1938, Poland 1939
Changing patterns and polarity
British Empire
- in 1920 controlled 24% of the world’s land across all continents
- 22 million emigrants between 1815-1914
- UK conquered land in the Americans, Africa, Asia and built empires that directly controlled territories
British Empire – India
- 1,200 Indian civil servants could not rule 350 million Indians without the assistance of indigenous collaborators
- construction of 61,000km of railways by 1920
- British military personnel, CS emigrated to India to run the Raj
Changing world 1919 to 1939
- US accounts for 37% of global military spending – US became economically and military stronger
- 80% of all financial transactions worldwide are conducted in dollars
- Germany ride to war – 1936: conscription to army (broke terms of Versailles) and invaded the Rhineland
Post-colonial era
US
- Marshall Plan – total aid granted: US$35 billion
- democracy with free elections every 4 years
- economic base – rapid industrialisation, transcontinental rail links and exploitation
USSR
- Russian revolution of 1917 created a massive new federal state: USSR or Soviet Union – by 1941: USSR overtaken UK
as world’s 2nd largest economy
- culture focused on ballet, classical music and art
- single party with no free elections – dictatorship
Emerging powers
EU
- Brexit – UK holds 17% of total GDP, caused a weak economy,
- US and EU account for 46% of the global GDP produced
G20
- accounts for 85% of world trade, 85% of GDP and 65% of population
China
- predicted to be number 1 superpower by 2050 and overtake US as a regional power in Asia by 2030
- aging population – by 2050 330 million Chinese will be over 65 years
- world’s largest population and soon to be world’s largest economy – economic growth 10% each year
- invests in Africa in terms of mineral resources – Kenya’s $4 billion railway – neo-colonial vs developmental relationship
, - 400 million Chinese interact with one another using local social media sites – govt censors internet
- US warheads: 7,200 and China: 260
- financial system lacks credibility: underdeveloped and subject to govt meddling – for example: UBER failed in China
after govt preferences for state owned enterprises gave Chinese rideshare company Di Di a competitive edge
- pays more than 10% of the UN’s total budget – more than any country besides the US which pays 28.5%
Brazil
- 60% are internet users
- ½ of South Africa’s population
- biodiversity includes 13% of all known species but deforestation
- culturally influential with 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics
Russia
- 35% of wealth in hands of 110 people
- difficult relations = didn’t support Ukraine’s application for membership of the EU and NATO
- nuclear power
- 71.3% of population are internet users
India
- youthful population: 50% below the age 25
- English widely spoken: 125 million speak English
- future resource shortages – 200,000 people die every year due to inadequate access to clean water
- 3rd largest emitter of CO2
Development theories
Modernisation theory
- China’s taking point was in 1995
- US at high mass consumption
- Kenya at traditional society
Dependency theory and world systems theory
- periphery = Uganda, Kenya
- semi-periphery = BRICs
- core = UK, US
Impacts of superpowers on the global economy
Free market capitalism/centrally planned economics
- examples of free market capitalism = US, Canada
- examples of centrally planned economics = China, Cuba, former USSR
IGOs
- US controls 17% of voting power at IMF
- in 2016 US controlled 16.8% of World Bank votes
Global economic system 1990 onwards
- close to 400 of the world’s largest TNCs originate from 7 countries
- global trade increased by over 85% in 2000s
- in 2006 6 of the top 10 TNCs were American and in 2015 it was 3
- Walmart that employs 2.3 million produces the same revenue as Sweden, the world’s 22 nd largest economy
SAPs
- Zambian govt spending 35x more on debt than on primary school education between 1990 and 1945
- Nigeria in 1978 borrowed $5 billion but by 2000 had paid $16 billion and owed $31 billion
SAPs in the Ivory Coast
- country located on the south coast of west Africa
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