GEO EXAM STUDY!

Northeast Region of Brazil

(States of Maranhao, Piaui, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, and Bahia): Poverty is entrenched in the northeast, and is worst in the droughts, yet remains during wet years. There are about forty million people living in what Brazilian officials call the drought polygon.

Central-West Region of Brazil

(States of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goias, Distrito Federal): This region is developing rapidly. There are old centers of gold mining but recent growth for soybean production and ranching. This region is home to Pantanal wetland where ecological change is occurring due to irrigation.

Southeast Region of Brazil

(States of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo): the wealthiest and has the best social indicators in the country. Remains center of industrial activity and is most populous in Brazil. Produces most of the coffee in Brazil. Iron ore production.

Northern Region of Brazil

(States of Rondonia, Acre, Amazonas, Roraima, Para, Amapa, and Tocantins): region in par of some of hemisphere's poorest countries. Acounting for 30 percent of Brazil's population, it generates 15 percent of the gross national product and infant mortality rates are higher than national average.

Southern Region of Brazil

(states of Parana, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul): corresponds with the subtropical and temperate climatic regions of the country. The social indicators, longevity, education, and literacy are highest in Brazil. Greatest rates of reduction in inequality are in the sur (southern) region. Agrarian land use in the southern region ranges from coffee plantings to family-sized farms. Rio Grande do Sul State of the region is covered with large cattle ranches in the Pampa grasslands.

What are the three major zones of the Regions of Mexico?

1) Independent North 2) Central Mexico 3) Southern Poverty Belt

1. What are the common geographical characteristics of the Caribbean Islands?

1. The island nature of the Caribbean is significant. Living on islands with limited refuge areas, indigenous populations were vulnerable to demographic destruction by Europeans through warfare, enslavement, labor practices, deportation, and diseases. Native Americans were virtually eradicated. The Caribbean landscapes were changed as native forests were cleared for tropical agriculture, especially sugar cane. The Caribbean Islands lie in the maritime tropical air masses, although the Bahamas and northern areas of the Greater Antilles can experience incursions of cold air from the North American landmass in winter. Precipitation varies from island to island. Low-lying islands receive little rainfall because the moisture-laden northeast trades do not rise high enough to cool and produce precipitation. The flat Netherlands Antillles of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, for example, have a semiarid climate with about 20 inches of rain per year. Conversely, islands such as the Dominica in the Lesser Antilles with high volcanic peaks, receive over 100 inches of rain and support tropical rain forest. Every year the Caribbean experiences hurricanes from off West Africa and sweep across between June and November with winds blowing over 74 miles per hour moving in a counter-clockwise direction. The northeast trade winds modify the tropical heat year-round and produce most precipitation.

2. Describe the migration patterns of the Caribbean.

2. Population pressure, unemployment, and poverty are relieved with out-migration on the Caribbean. Emigrants send money and goods to relatives on the islands. Large numbers of Caribbean people have migrated in response to economic and political forces. Destinations and rates of emigration are affected by job possibilities and government regulations in receiving countries. Migrants have had three main destinations: Circum-Caribbean (including Central America), Europe, and North America. There has long-been circum-Caribbean circulation on a daily, seasonal and permanent basis. People have moved to cut cane, pick bananas, build the Panama Canal, and work in the regional petroleum industry. After World War II, many migrated to Europe to fill a labor vacuum. Today as EU citizens, French and Dutch Antilleans move to Europe for education and jobs. Since 1965, by far the largest numbers of migrants have moved to the U.S. Whre more than five million people of Caribbean origin reside. Cubans have migrated to the U.S. In waves, the largest number of about one million migrating to the U.S. Since Castro's 1959 Revolution, claiming political asylum. Now, only 20,000 Cubans per year can migrate to the U.S. Although recent reports of human smuggling suggest larger numbers.

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Tourism in the Caribbean?

3. New tourism is usually the major sector of the Caribbean economies with islands competing for tourists mostly from the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Some islands such as the bahamas, promote cheap package holidays. Others offer expensive resorts and water sports likke St. Barts. Most island governments promote tourism to provide jobs in hotels, restaurants, retailing, construction, transportation, and to pay local taxes. The industry can, however, present problems: 1) It relies on economic situation in the source areas. Recesssion in the U.S. For example has a big impact on tourism to the Caribbean. 2) It is sensitive to local factors such as adverse weather, like hurricanes. 3) Employment in tourist industries is seasonal, with most visitors arriving in the northern hemisphere winter months. 4) Wages are generally low for locals. Tourists are usally affluent, accentuating the contrast between rich and poor nations. 5) Environmental costs can be high. Small islands especially experience difficulty with water demands and garbage problems. Beach erosion and marine pollution are common. 6) Tourism is capital intensive (usually foreign capital) and foreign corporations often repatriate profits. 7) Foreign exchange frequently "leaks". It goes to buy imported merchandise, including food served in tourist hotels. 8) Tourism is subject to changes in fashion. A prime destination can quickly lose its appeal.

How has tourism changed the Yucatan Peninsula?

3. The northern Yucatan has lost its isolation as, beginning in 1970, the government developed tourism in a coastal zone from Isla Mujeres to Isla Cozumel. Rapid growth occurred in Merida when the government decided to allow maquiladoras in areas beyond the northern border. Isolated Southern Yucatan is part of the southern poverty belt and lightly populated with subsistence farmers.

4. What is the makeup of the economies and economic problems of the Caribbean?

4. Before 1960, most Caribbean economies relied on agriculture. Sugar cane and bananas were the major export crops, but Caribbean producers now find it increasingly difficult to compete in the global marketplace. Tourism is a major sector of the Caribbean economies with islands competing tourists. Cuba hast he most diversified mineral respurces such as nickel. Nickel, silver, and gold are mined in the Dominican Republic. Buaxite is mined in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Trinidad has petroleum and natural gas in exportable quantities. Industry and Manufacturing-Many islands have small plants to serve local needs. Large plants are associated with refining of buaxite to alumina (Jamaica) and sugar cane. The Caribbean region refines and ships oil to the U.S. Informal Sector is used for the economy. Trade and Economic Integration-Caribbean Islands are heavily trade-dependent and Cuba excepted, the U.S. Is a significant partner.

The climates and landforms of Mexico

4. North America is considered to end at Guatemala's Motagua Valley. Mexico's proximity to the boundaries of three crustal planes creates landform diversity. South of the U.S. Border, a block of the earth's crust, an extension of the Basin and Range country, thrusts upward to form the Mexican plateau, an elevated platform comprising the Mesa del Norte and Mesa Central. Ranging from 4,000 feet on the border at El Paso to 7,347 feet at Mexico City, the plateau contains flat-floored basins. Some basins are drained by rivers flowing to the ocean such as the Lerma River that crosses the Mesa Central to Lake Chapala. In turn, the lake is drained by the Rio Grande de Santiago which cuts a gorge north of Tepic to the Pacific. Many other basins such as the Valley of Mexico, have no outlet to the sea and contain shallow lakes or dry salt pans. Two mountain chains border the plateau: the Sierra Madre Occidental which drops to a narrow plain along the Pacific and the Sierra Madre Oriental which grades to a wider Gulf coast plain. An east-west volcanic ridge, the Transverse Volcanic Axis defines the southern border of the plateau and inclueds Mt. Orizaba, Mexico's highest peak. South of the volcanic axis, a structural depression is drained by the Balsas River to the Pacific. South of the Balsas lies the southern highlands of Oaxaca and Guerrero (has thin soils and easily eroded). Continuing south, the Chiapas highlands which are composed of parallel ridges, extend into Guatemala. The Yucatan Peninsula is a limestone platform thinly covered with fertile soils but few surface streams. The North American and Caribbean plates converge with the Cocos plate underlying the Pacific, creating oceanic trenches offshore and fault zones that spawn earthquakes. The Baja California peninsula is a thin mountain spine fringed with dry, sandy shores. It is the only part of Mexico within the Pacific plate. At its junction with North American Plate, a rift valley has flooded to form the Gulf of California. North across the border, it becomes California's Imperial Valley. Mexico's climate variations are derived from four influences: 1) Pacific, subtropical high pressure area, strongest in the northwest of Mexico, bringing dry desert air to Baja California and the Gulf of California coastal lowlands but also influencing two-thirds of Mexico. 2) The northeast trade winds that blow off the Gulf and bring most of the country's rainfall. 3) Altitude, which modifies temperatures and creates ecologic zones up the mountain sides. 4) Rain shadows on slopes of the Mexican plateau and Pacific that face away from the northeast trades.

How many regions of Brazil are there?

5

What are the challenges to modernity?

5. The Human Development Index looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being. The HDI combines life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment, and personal income. Mexico ranks around 50 among 177 countries, exceeded in mainland Latin America by Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. Mexico has made strides towards modernity in the twenty-first century, but some nation-wide problems hold it back. Economic Factors: 1) The North-South divide 2) Transport infrastructure. Social Factors: 1) The threat of civil unrest. 2) The status of women. 3) Levels of Education.

How many regions are known in Mexico?

9

Describe South Mexico

A Southern Poverty Belt where incomes are well below national averages, subsistence farming is widespread, and extensive areas are occupied by indigenous, non-speaking, inhabitants. The states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and the interior Yucatan Peninsula are the poorest in Mexico. The southern poverty belt is overwhelmingly rural and its landscapes show less evidence of modernization than other parts of Mexico. Holding the region back is its remoteness from centers of political and economic power, lack of resources, and a large poorly-educated indigenous population. Based on physical geography, the poverty belt has three distinct parts: 1) The Southern Mountains 2) Chiapas 3) Yucatan

What are the main regions of Mexico?

Arid Northwest, Borderland,Independent North, Southern Mountains, Central Metropolitan Axis, Humid Gulf Lowlands, Chiapas Upland, Southern Poverty Belt, Yucatan

Discuss industrial economy of Brazil.

Brazil entered the change from import substitution industrialization to export-oriented industrialization. Iron-ore deposits are a major part of Brazil's economy. CVRD Companhia Vale do Rio Doce grew to be a major world steel producer and exporter of iron ore. The automobile and truck industry used to be Brazil's largest until the iron and steel industry surpassed it. Petrobras which is a national oil monopoly (Petrolios Brasileiros) was created in 1953 to import and refine oil in Brazil. Embraer is State-run in Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo State, manufactures airplanes, and exports to many countries like the U.S. Electrobras is the government enterprise responsible for development and transmission of hydroelectric energy which provides 90 percent of electricity.

How did sugar and coffee affect Brazil's population demographics?

Brazil is a major world exporter of coffee and sugar which helps keep the economy stable. Sugar and slavery came hand in hand. Coffee plantations in the southern part of Brazil became the region of the most coffee being exported. The southern region is the most populous with wealth with the help of coffee as a major export. Europeans immigrants would come to Brazil to work on coffee plantations.

Discuss agricultural economy of Brazil.

Cerrados which are in the Brazilian Highlands: Southward in the zone of tropical wet-and-dry climates, the dry season is longer and trees are stunted and more widely spaced consisting of soybeans, a major export. Soybeans, beef, orange juice, sugar are the major exports of Brazil, and coffee surprisingly counts for only 10% of the agricultural exports. There are two sectors in this economy which are: 1) minifundia, small holdings with subsistence element that grow most of the food crops and additional farming methods. 2) latifundia which are large-scale holdings consisting of export crops such as soybeans and sugar.

Describe all regions of Mexico

Nine main regions: Arid Northwest, Borderland,Independent North, Southern Mountains, Central Metropolitan Axis, Humid Gulf Lowlands, Chiapas Upland, Southern Poverty Belt, Yucatan The regions of Mexico are delineated largely in terms of climate and topography. The Borderland, the Tourist Fringe,and the Central Metropolitan Axis, around Mexico City are identified on a functional basis. If we stand back from the nine regions, we can recognize three major zones with distinctive economic characteristics. 1) The Independent North with above average wealth and growth potential and an Hispanic character. 2) Central Mexico, which is Mestizo and contains major cities, including Mexico City. 3) A Southern Poverty Belt where incomes are well below national averages, subsistence farming is widespread, and extensive areas are occupied by indigenous non-Spanish speaking, inhabitants.

Describe North Mexico

The independent North consists of plateaus broadening, arid increase, and has frontier feel of the American West of wide vistas, dispersed settlements, mining, cattle ranching, and grain farming. Northern Mexico has a reputation for political independence and conservatism. Lying north of the Chichimec frontier, the region was lightly populated with nomadic Indians at the time of European contact, and cultural influences are more strongly Hispanic than the mestizo-Indian mix of central and southern Mexico. Wheat an barley, rather than maize, are the predominant commercial grains. Encouraged by the government's neoliberal market policies, multinational firms including auto manufacturers have located in major northern cities. Above average wealth and growth potential and an Hispanic character