The prewar state of yugoslavia referred to its component regions as republics would a political geographer have called them states, nations, or provinces?

Nations

Explanation:

A nation is a group of people that have a cohesive culture: a common language, religion, customs, history. A nation can be a state (a nation-state) or not, and a state can include two or more nations (a multinational state). For example, Japan is a nation-state, but Russia is not.

The Yugoslavian republics were nations. The Slovenes for example are catholics, speak the Slovenian language, and identify themselves a central europeans. The Serbians are orthodox, speak the Serbian langauge, and identify themselves as Slavs, Balkans, and view Russia as an ally.

the causes of the dust bowls were severe droughts,   lands became dry and hard, temperature was higher than usual, hot and dry conditions killed crops, high winds. because of those factors, the winds kicked up dry soil and created clouds of dust.