• What is the political division?
• What is the political division for?
• What would happen if there were no political division?
• Maps with political division

We explain what the political division is, what it is for and examples on maps. Also, what if it didn't exist.

The political division draws borders to the interior and the exterior of the country.

What is the political division?

The political division of countries (or also administrative division, territorial subdivision or administrative demarcation) is the way in which a Condition organizes, delimits and compartmentalizes its territory, thus creating more or less autonomous political-administrative units, and also drawing a series of borders inside and outside the country.

In other words, the political-administrative division of a country is the way in which it formally organizes its territory, distinguishing between geographic regions that compose it and the way in which they will be populated, governed, identified, etc.

In the same way, we can speak of the political division of a continent to refer to the way in which the different countries that make it up identify their territory and draw the borders that separate them from each other.

The political-administrative division and the drawing of borders is a way of thinking that accompanies the human being since the invention of nation-states, that is, of what we now call "countries": political-administrative units that are distinguished from each other and serve to administer a portion of the earth's surface (that is, a territory) which belongs to them historically.

Thus, when we think of Mexico, France, China or Mozambique, we are referring not only to a tradition cultural, religious, linguistic and/or ethnic, but to the social and political organization that reserves the supreme authority in said territories, that is, to the State.

Each State divides its territory politically and administratively as it sees fit: in some cases it does so through provinces, cantons and/or governorates, and within them intendancies, municipalities, etc.

This organization is drawn on the Map territorial through borders: imaginary lines that say where one province begins and another ends, for example, or that say how far the territory of the State extends, that is, where the territory of a neighboring State begins and ends.

What is the political division for?

The political-administrative division of the territories has a very clear function: to identify how far the authority political and social of a State, a institution or a ruler, that is, to clearly distinguish between the agreed plots of power, so that there are no ambiguities or conflicts.

Thus, for example, the drawing of the border between two neighboring countries allows them to administer their stocks independently, exploit their resources and take their decisions, without interfering in the territory of the other, knowing what is their own and what is foreign.

The same thing happens within a country: it is necessary to know how far the authority and responsibility of the local delegates of the State reach, that is, where the power of one provincial government ends, for example, and that of the other begins. .

What would happen if there were no political division?

There are many ways to answer this question.A more optimistic view, one that places greater confidence in people's ability to govern themselves peacefully and cooperate, would mean that with the end of political division and the disappearance of borders, people would be able to move freely where they please and live where they please. you like, without worrying about immigration laws or nationalities.

This, however, has something utopian about it. Borders and political-administrative divisions arose in the history for one reason: to put a formal limit on political powers and social mandates, in such a way that there are no conflicts regarding who governs which territory, nor how far the laws of this or that authority.

If these agreements and organizations were to disappear, certain disputes might reappear, wars and conflicts that had been overcome thanks to an organization accepted by both parties.

Maps with political division