Borders lab

Draw the history of a border and watch its type appear: drawn before people came (antecedent) or after (subsequent), along a cultural divide (consequent), forced by an outside power (superimposed), a straight line (geometric), or a line that no longer works but leaves traces (relict). Then compare state shapes, sort the forces that pull a state together or apart, and sail out from a coast through the zones of the sea.

How this trainer works

The drawn maps are invented (Country A, Country B and the empire of Corvia), so a type never depends on a disputed fact. Four real boundaries are marked on a world map with their dates; each is described the way textbooks classify it, and one boundary can fit more than one type. State shapes are an older classification that the current course framework does not list; the trainer keeps it because many classes still use it.

In Test yourself, read an invented border's history and say when it was drawn, then which other type it fits; name an outline's shape and its challenge; sort a scene into a centripetal or centrifugal force and name the devolution factor; and place the zones of the sea, say what a coastal state may do at a given distance and work out how much two exclusive economic zones overlap. Every wrong answer says what the slip was.

Notes for this topic: Defining Political Boundaries