These areas represented either core regions in decline or peripheries attempting to improve their relative position in the world economic system.
They often also served as buffers between the core and the peripheries. As such, semi-peripheries exhibited tensions between the central government and a strong local landed class. Good examples of declining cores that became semi-peripheries during the period under study are Portugal and Spain.
Other semi-peripheries at this time were Italy, southern Germany, and southern France.