Animals have been integral to human activities for millennia. It could be reasonably argued that humans have never existed independently of animals. Animals have been impacted by human activities (e.g., agriculture, transportation, military power, and ecotourism) and human societies in turn have been changed. Despite this enduring dialectical relationship between humans and animals, there has been a notable lack of attention given to the political significance of animals. Against this backdrop, this dissertation seeks to reevaluate fundamental operations of the state through the lens of animals by asking: how do animals make the state? Specifically, how do whales make the state? Here, I aim to demonstrate how engaging with whales can complicate and reconceptualize existing geographical theories of the state, particularly concerning territory, development, and resources. My analysis centers on exploring the multifaceted historical and geographical intersections of human-whale entanglements in East Asia, with an emphasis on South Korea’s (post)colonial whaling relations with Japan and on the city of Ulsan, which serves as South Korea’s former whaling center and current whale tourism hub. Combining theories and methods from various fields including environmental geopolitics, political ecology, resource geography, and animal geography, I employed a range of qualitative methods, including archival analysis, in-depth interviews, on-site observations, and textual analysis of secondary literature. My findings first indicate that imperial Japan’s whaling industry in colonial Korea (1910-1945) underpinned its maritime territorial expansion in East Asia. This expansion was facilitated by the adoption/transfer of advanced whaling knowledge, technologies, and infrastructure. However, Japan’s whaling endeavor to command marine space and life during colonial rule remained partial and fragmented due to the challenges posed by the agency and materiality of whales. These findings suggest that the production of territory is a recursive process rather than a fixed outcome. Second, I examined how the (industrial) capitalist development of Ulsan configures whale tourism in specific ways, focusing on urban (economic, political, and environmental) processes and practices. As South Korea’s ‘industrial capital’, Ulsan’s growth has been primarily driven by heavy industries such as automobile manufacturing, shipbuilding, and petrochemicals since the 1960s. Despite its industrial character, Ulsan has embraced whale-based city branding and tourism. Both urban industrialism and whale tourism are incorporated into the city’s developmental projects to fix flagging urban investment and declining whale populations. My findings suggest that ecotourism development is not confined to ecologically significant or highly urbanized environments post-industrialization; it can also thrive in active industrial zones. Lastly, I analyzed Ulsan whale tourism’s three interlinked political dimensions: the politics of Bangudae Petroglyphs, the politics of distancing from Japan, and the politics of gray whales. This examination revealed how whales were selectively integrated into shaping the resource and territorial projects of both the Korean state and Ulsan. This research shows that whale tourism serves as a geopolitical tool through which whales actively (re-)shape the state. Whales serve as material and symbolic resources that underpin national resource sovereignty and territorial claims. Ultimately, this project offers a critical platform for reconsidering the role of marine animals in understanding the operation of the state. / Geography