FINAL EXAM

Describe extensive and intensive commercial farming and where each would be likely to be done.

Extensive forms of commercial agriculture are those that do not require as much labor but do use a lot of land. Typically these types of farms will be located where land is less expensive because a lot of land is needed. What is being grown on these lands also has a lower market value (it costs less at the store) and, therefore, requires that a lot of it be grown to make a profit. The most common product grown extensively is grains. Wheat, corn, oats, barley as well as soybeans are grown throughout the more developed world in this type of large-scale production. Most of this farming is done by machines and the need for human labor is very small and seasonal. you've every flown across the United States, you've flown over "grain country." You've probably seen the fields of wheat and corn that extend for miles and miles. In the United States winter wheat extends through Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. The spring wheat belt includes the Dakotas, Montana and the southern portions of the Canadian province Saskatchewan. The Palouse region of Washington state is also a major producer of wheat, benefiting from very fertile soil, called loess, made by wind-blown deposits. Much of this wheat is grown for international trade and it is the world's leading export crop. The United States and Canada account for about 25%of the world's wheat exports. Intensive commercial farming refers to production that is more labor or capital intensive, but uses less land. California provides an excellent example of intensive commercial production, specifically a type of farming called Mediterranean agriculture. In this type of farming, fruits and vegetables and flowers (horticulture) are grown in hot-and-dry-summer climates. Typically what is produced on these farms is high-value and fetches higher prices at the supermarket. Often, these products are perishable as well. These factors help us understand where such farms are located. Because what is being grown may be perishable and because it may have higher market value, these farms are typically located closer to the market and, therefore, closer to urban areas, where land costs are higher. California produces tomatoes, grapes (both table and wine), onions, garlic, artichokes, avocados, oranges, lemons, lettuce, strawberries, and many other products. Some of these, such as avocados and artichokes, have very high costs at the supermarket. California is also a leading supplier of fresh flowers and plants for gardening. Think of how much you pay for a package of raspberries or even strawberries and you begin to understand the economic processes at work; raspberries are highly perishable so growing them closer to the market makes sense, but they have to be picked by hand which increases labor costs, and you'll be paying more for the land, all of this adding up to a higher market value for raspberries. In other parts of the world, and in the southeastern United States, the production of fruits and vegetables is called truck farming. The term "truck" does not refer to the way that these goods are moved, but refers to an Middle English word for barter, "truck." Such farms produce apples, asparagus, cherries, lettuce, mushrooms and peaches. Many of these require more humidity and colder temperatures that the vegetables and fruits produced in Mediterranean agriculture. The truck farming in the southeastern U.S. is also producing food not for direct consumption, but often for processing, such as canning or freezing.

Describe the origins and practices of Hinduism.

Hinduism did not begin as a formal religion, but a collection of local practices that were tied loosely together. Eventually these practices became more formalized around 4,000-5,000 years ago in the Indus River Valley of what is today Pakistan (although it is categorized as a Vedic religion with India as its hearth). Even today, Hinduism has a very local flavor with festivals and gods that are unique to specific places. Hinduism spread by migration through Pakistan and into the Indian subcontinent and became the dominant religion of India by about 500 BCE. Today, India is the only country with a predominantly Hindu population and Hinduism has spread only via migrating individuals to other parts of the globe, such as to Chino Hills, where this temple (at right), the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu Temple, is located today. Hinduism is deeply tied to the system of social hierarchy in India called the caste system. The caste system organizes people into a hierarchy of privilege in Indian society. At the top of this hierarchy are the Brahmin caste (the priest caste) and at the bottom are a group not even considered worthy to be part of the caste system, called the dalit, or untouchables. Caste is determined by birth right and is fixed, and unchangeable, even by marriage. One's position in the caste system, though, is deeply connected to one's practice of Hinduism. In Hinduism there are three primary beliefs: atma, karma, and dharma. Atma is the belief in a soul, or "self," that exists beyond physical form. Karma is the belief that when your body dies, your atma will be judged by your karma, or your behaviors. Finally dharma is the set of obligations and responsibilities one carries, determined by one's caste, that should inform one's behaviors, or karma. Hindus believe in reincarnation; upon the death of one's body, the atma will be judged and weighted and its reincarnation journey will be determined by its karma and dharma. If one is in the lower castes, one's obligations will be fewer, but one's only hope is that reincarnation will move one up the social hierarchy.

Compare the following theories as a way to understand the interaction of globalization with culture: homogenization, polarization, glocalization, neo-localism.

Homogenization Theory In the theory known as homogenization theory, the argument is made the globalization is pushing Western, or even American culture, across the globe, creating more "uniform" cultural landscapes while also promoting and expanding American influence and the profits of American corporations. Polarization Theory There are other scholars that argues globalization is causing friction and division between cultural groups. This group of scholars argues that globalization's impacts on culture have created a backlash that has produced an almost tribal desire to protect a local culture or identity, sometimes by violence. The result, these scholars argue, is a global fragmentation and disorder. Some of these critics Links to an external site.might argue that Islamic fundamentalism is a reaction to an Americanizing world and a world with "freedom." Neolocalism As evidence of the resistance to homogenization, some geographers have identified new forms of local identity and culture asserting itself. The term neolocalism is used to describe the phenomenon where globalization triggers greater local awareness and leads to promoting the uniqueness of places. Some examples of neolocalism could be the recent "farm-to-table" movement in restaurants (sourcing their food from local distributors). Another example might be the proliferation of microbreweries that promote local beers using local ingredients. The picture here is another example of neolocalism; it is of a Home Depot (a large corporate entity) that has been required to comply with local building styles in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other cities, like our own Claremont, California, have banned "big-box" stores, or fast-food restaurants entirely in an effort to "preserve the local." Glocalization Perhaps the best way to understand globalization's intersection with culture is through the thesis of glocalization. In this framework processes of globalization are altered by the local; think of the way McDonald's alters its menus to local preferences such as the McDonald's menu in India pictured on the Overview page. McDonald's almost always alters their menu to reflect local customs and preferences; consider the "Double Prosperity Burger" at McDonald's in Singapore (seen below), meant to celebrate the Chinese New Year, or the McLobster, a lobster roll, on the menu of New England McDonald's in the summer months (see below), or the McArabia, on the menu at McDonald's in Morocco. On a recent visit to Spain, I noticed gazpacho on the menu and alcohol on the menu in Portugal! In glocalization theory, the "global" is "localized" and a new, hybrid culture is born.

Describe global warming, what is causing it and what its consequences are. Describe ways in which the international community has come together to address issues of environmental concern

Humans face an existential crisis as the emission of carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases, are increasing global temperatures in a process called global warming. Global warming is causing climate change. As humans have burned fossil fuels (or any carbon-based material, such as trees) intensely since the Industrial Revolution, gases have been added to the Earth's atomsphere that are intensifying its greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is a process by which energy being emitted by the Earth's surface (long-wave radiation) is absorbed by certain gases in the Earth's atmosphere and then returned to the Earth. The greenhouse effect is what has allowed life to exist on the Earth because it keeps temperatures moderate; there are no wild fluctuation between daylight and darkness temperatures, as there would be if the Earth did not have an atmosphere.

Describe the three agricultural hearths and the plants (and animals) domesticated at each. How did these plants diffuse?

Hunters and Gatherers Before humans were engaged in agriculture, they were in hunter-gatherer societies. These societies were, by definition, very mobile. Human groups moved in search of resources. today, less than .005% of the population on earth still survive through hunting and gatherinG Where did agriculture first begin? Today, scientists and researchers agree that humans developed agriculture in multiple centers and at different sites around the world independently. One of the first to advocate for this theory was the U.C. Berkeley geographer, Carl Sauer. In the 1930s Sauer argued that agriculture evolved through independent innovation at three primary hearths or centers. This was counter to previous scholarship that had argued agriculture evolved in one center and then diffused. Sauer said that agricultural innovation began in areas where food was already plentiful and that it did not evolve because of scarcity. He also said that women were most likely the first agriculturalists as they were more likely to be less mobile in their social units and, therefore, have the opportunity to experiment with plants. Sauer proposed three major areas of agricultural innovation: The Fertile Crescent, about 10,000 years ago China, about 7,000 years ago Mesoamerica, about 5,000 years ago The Fertile Crescent As mentioned above, the Fertile Crescent is believed to be the first area in which agricultural evolved. Here, very fertile soils, fed by the floodwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers made the soils very productive for plant production. Along these fertile soils humans domesticated animals such as sheep, goats, cows and pigs as well as grains like wheat, barley, oats and rye and fruits such as apples, grapes and olives. Sauer was clear that most primary centers also had secondary centers where agriculture evolved somewhat parallel to the dominant center. For the Fertile Crescent, that secondary center was East Africa. In East Africa, humans cultivated plants like sorghum, yams, coffee, watermelon and okra. China China was the second oldest center of human's agricultural innovation dating about 7000 years ago. At this center in Northern China, along the Huang He River, humans first cultivated plants such as rice, millet, soybeans, and walnuts. Chickens were also most likely first domesticated in China. The secondary center, southeast Asia, added coconut, mango, taro, sugarcane, bananas and citrus plants. Mesoamerica By far the center with the greatest food diversity and the highest total nutritional value was that of Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica refers to an area of Latin America stretching from southern Mexico through Central America and northern South America. The products first domesticated here include maize (corn), tomatoes, chili peppers, beans, squash, chocolate, vanilla, rubber, tobacco, potatoes, cotton, turkey and llamas. The high nutritional value of these goods made up for the dearth of protein sources for indigenous Americans. Remember that no one in the Americas was consuming any product from cows until Europeans arrived in the 15th century (so that also meant no dairy). The Columbian Exchange Although these plants (and animals) were domesticated in separate and distinctive centers, they did, eventually diffuse and become important in areas outside of their hearth. Asian products and European/Middle Eastern products were exchanged very early on and there was much incorporation of these foods into the diets of peoples in those two regions very early on. However, none of the foods and agricultural goods of the Americas were known to European, Asian or African groups until the Europeans arrived in the 15th Century. This fateful meet-up and the exchange of foods that followed is what the historian Alfred Crosby has called the Columbian exchange. When the Europeans arrived in the Americas, they discovered foods whose nutritional value was higher than all other domesticated plants in Europe and Asia combined and they quickly adopted many of these foods into their diets. Europeans readily adopted tomatoes (think of the Italians), potatoes (think of the Irish, the Germans, well...everyone), peanuts, chocolate and many other foods into their diets and into their commercially produced foods. However, the exchange went both ways and the Europeans brought their own goods to the Americas as well. For the first time, protein sources from animals became readily available to indigenous Americans through cattle such as cows, sheep and pigs. Dairy products were introduced, as well as horses, wheat and many other grains. In addition, these American products were introduced to the Europeans' trading partners and made their way into the diets of Asian and African groups (think of the importance of chili peppers in the cooking of people the world-over today). Unfortunately, as you are probably aware, the Europeans introduced disease as well as new food and protein sources in the Americas. Those diseases led to a demographic collapse of the indigenous population. Crosby's conclusion was that, overall, the Europeans certainly got the better end of the deal in this exchange.

How does language reveal identity? Discuss the ways that languages may be blended and where such languages are likely to be found

Think about the way in which you speak; your speech reveals information about who you are--it may reveal your country of origin, the region you live within that country, your socioeconomic status and perhaps even your ethnicity. Language is also an expression of identity. Consider this—when you open your mouth to speak, you give away a tremendous amount of information about yourself You may reveal, by the way you speak and the words you choose, what country you are from, what region within that country you are from and even your socioeconomic status. Lingua Franca The dynamic nature of language is also illustrated in the blending and sharing that occurs between languages. Often, for purposes of communication, a lingua franca emerges in an area where there are multiple languages spoken. Creolization is another example of the blending of languages. This occurs, though, as a result of colonization. A creolized language, or a creole, merges when a colonizer's language mixes with the indigenous language. The colonized group adopts the language of the dominant group but makes some changes, such as simplifying grammar and adding words from the former language. Examples include French Creole in Haiti, Papiamento (creolized Spanish) in the Netherlands Antilles (West Indies), and Portuguese creole in the Cape Verde islands off the African coast. Today, these creole languages are classified as separate from their colonized languages because they differ substantially from the original introduced by Europeans.What has emerged in areas where the a lingua franca is used but there are other languages also present is a blend of those languages into a from called pidgin language. Sometimes pidgin language is only a simplified form of the lingua franca (such as pidgin in Hawaii), but in other cases, the pidgin language becomes a blend of languages spoken by two or more groups, also blended with the dominant lingua franca. A pidgin language has no native speakers; it is always spoken in addition to one's native language. Pidgin languages were most common in former slave-holding countries. Slaves from Africa brought many language traditions with them and needed to communicate amongst themselves as well as with their slave-owners who spoke European languages, usually French or English. An example of Pidgin can be seen in the signage in the picture above from Papua New Guinea, warning drivers about road work (the sign reads "Work along road. All cars must stop when you see the red sign). Pidgin languages do not have literary traditions, and tend to be passed through oral tradition. Often pidgin evolves into an informal language in which words or phrases from one language and incorporated into another language. A good example is Spanglish, the mix of Spanish and English. In Spanglish, new words have been invented in Spanish that do not exist in English but would be useful if they did. Some examples are textear (texting), or parquiar (for parking a car). Recently, there has been interest in preserving the cultural heritage of pidgin languages and celebrating them as reflective of unique identities, rather than seeing them as simplified or crude forms of the dominant language. Public Radio International recorded some of these activists reading their pidgin versions of the classic English novel by Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. Take a moment to enjoy these readings. Each one reflects the speakers interpretation of this novel through their won cultural-linguistic lens. You don't need to listen to the whole passage but just listen to the first few minutes to gain a sense of the cadence and sounds of these unique pidgin tongues. The first recording is David Copperfield in its standard form. The next is a version in Spanglish, the next is in a Jamacain patois, and the third is in Hawaiian pidgin. You can visit the PRI website Links to an external site.if you'd like to hear more.

globalization

Since the late 20th century, places on the globe have become increasingly interconnected both culturally and economically through a process broadly referred to as globalization.

Identify the origins of Judaism and describe its diffusion. Describe the branches of the faith and how it may be "visible" on the landscape. Where is the religion found today and what conflicts surround its holy sites?

Abrahamic religion However, for Judaism, it's a bit more complicated. The strictest of adherents to Judaism would argue that only those born to a Jewish mother can be Jewish. Judaism's origins lie in the region today known as Israel, Palestine and stretching into the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt to the south and areas of Lebanon to the north. Judaism began about 4,000 years ago distinguishing itself from belief systems of the time by its doctrine of monotheism. The Jewish faith is rooted in its holy text, the Torah, which Christians refer to as the "old testament." Judaism's origins lie in the region today known as Israel, Palestine and stretching into the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt to the south and areas of Lebanon to the north. Judaism began about 4,000 years ago distinguishing itself from belief systems of the time by its doctrine of monotheism. The Jewish faith is rooted in its holy text, the Torah, which Christians refer to as the "old testament." Because of their adherence to a monotheistic faith, Jewish people were persecuted within their homeland and often driven into exile. The Jewish people were driven permanently from their homeland by the Romans in 70 CE with the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The process of being displaced from one's homeland, and being scattered throughout the world is called diaspora. Many Jewish people fled to North Africa and Southern Europe, but Jewish people also fled to remote spots like China and India. Judaism's origins lie in the region today known as Israel, Palestine and stretching into the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt to the south and areas of Lebanon to the north. Judaism began about 4,000 years ago distinguishing itself from belief systems of the time by its doctrine of monotheism. The Jewish faith is rooted in its holy text, the Torah, which Christians refer to as the "old testament." Because of their adherence to a monotheistic faith, Jewish people were persecuted within their homeland and often driven into exile. The Jewish people were driven permanently from their homeland by the Romans in 70 CE with the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The process of being displaced from one's homeland, and being scattered throughout the world is called diaspora. Many Jewish people fled to North Africa and Southern Europe, but Jewish people also fled to remote spots like China and India. At left is the temple wall in Jerusalem, all that remained after the temple's destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. Thus, diffusion for Judaism was a forced process. The global distribution of Jewish people today is the outcome of their forcible relocation. Once in Europe, Jewish people were again expelled in the 13th and 14th centuries during the Catholic crusades. Many Jewish people in Europe were murdered during this period as well. Eventually, Jewish people were granted safe haven by the King of Poland. The Polish King invited Jewish people to his land to live in an area that became known as the Jewish Pale. The result was a large concentration in Eastern Europe of Jewish people, even as far east as Kyiv in present-day Ukraine. Jewish populations were found throughout the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Greece. However, the Jewish populations of Eastern Europe were targeted during World War Two by the Nazis advance and the effort to exterminate all Jewish people in Hitler's "Final Solution." Jewish people found that their neighbors in these Eastern European countries offered little protection against the advance of Hitler's death squads. More than six million Jewish people were murdered by the Germans, and others, during World War Two's holocaust, almost eliminating the Jewish population from Europe. Persecution in Europe, even prior to the holocaust, pushed many Jewish people back to their homeland in Palestine. Prior to 1948, Palestine was a colonial territory of the British, who took it from the Ottoman Turks in the early 1900s. Persecution also pushed many Jewish people from Europe into the Americas--both North America and Latin America--prior to the holocaust and World War Two. As a result, Judaism diffused world-wide. Notable Jewish communities in the Americas today include the United States, Cuba, Mexico and Argentina. There are three recognized branches in Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. The Orthodox branch is the most rigid in its interpretation of Jewish law and takes the most literal approach to keeping the laws of the Torah. Orthodox Judaism is further divided into groups sometimes referred to as the Ultra-Orthodox and small Orthodox sects such as the Hasidism. The only country in the world today that has a predominately Jewish population is Israel. Israel was created at the end of World War Two, in the ashes of the holocaust as a restored homeland for Jewish people. There were many Jewish people already living in the area known as British Palestine at the time that the state of Israel was created, but many more Jewish people immigrated to Israel seeking safety and security. After the United Nations declared Israel a sovereign state in 1948, war was declared by its closest Arab neighbors: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. Israel has consistently defeated its hostile neighbors and has gained territory in the process. The political nature of this conflict will be discussed further in a future chapter. In addition to the political nature of the conflict, the battle over this land is made more problematic because of the religious value ascribed to the land today. All three of the Abrahamic faiths claim sacred spaces in Israel and, specifically, in the city of Jerusalem. The article below, from CNN in 2017, outlines the sites considered most sacred for Christians, Jewish people and Muslims.

How are languages organized? What is the largest language family and what are the theories about its origins?

According to ethnologue.com, one of the most authoritative sources on languages, there are more than 7,000 languages on Earth and 90 of those languages are used by at least 10 million people. That leaves more than 6500 languages, then, that are spoken by 1 million or fewer people. Ethnologue classifies languages into five categories: Institutional Language: used in education, work, mass media, government. There are about 576 institutional languages, including English. Developing language: used daily by people of all ages, such as the language Sama spoken in Southeast Asia by about 250,000 people. Vigorous language: used daily by people of all ages but lacks a literary tradition. There are about 2400 vigorous languages; an example is Tagin, spoken by about 38,000 people in India. Threatened language: used for face-to-face communication, but losing users. There are about 1547 threatened languages, such as Bolinao, a language spoken by about 56,000 people in the Philippines. Dying language: still used, but primarily by older people and is not being transmitted to children. There are about 920 dying languages, some of which are trying to be saved. Language family: collection of languages related through a common ancestral language. The language family with the most users is Indo-European, which includes English. Language branch: collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language. For example, English is part of the Germanic branch of Indo-European languages. Language group: collection of languages within a branch sharing a common origin and similarities in grammar and vocabulary. For example, English is in the West Germanic group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. The largest percent of speakers fall into the Indo-European language family, with nearly 46%. The nomadic warrior theory argues that the earlierst speakers of Indo-European languages were the Kurgan people, dating to about 4300 B.C.E. They lived near the border of present-day Russia and Kazakhstan. These were some of the first people to domesticate horses and to use them to pull chariots. They Kurgans migrated to find grasslands fro their animals and the theory is that this brought them west, into Europe and east into Siberia and south into India and Southwest Asia. They conquered much of Europe and South Asia by 2500 B.C.E. (see map at left). The other theory is one referred to as the sedentary farmer theory. This position has been taken by the archaeologist Colin Renfrew who aruged that the first speakers of Indo-European languages lived 2,000 years before the Kurgans. He believes they lived in the eastern part of what is today Turkey and that their practices diffused into Europe and South Asia not because of conquest, but because their populations grew and became prosperous because of their ability to grow food rather than rely on hunting. (See map at right).

How is land-use change impacting our environment and global warming? Use specific examples to illustrate.

Along with fossil fuel emissions, the removal of natural land-cover is also driving environmental degradation and global warming. This includes the removal of woodlands for agricultural fields, the drainage of wetlands to build shopping malls or homes, the expansion of cities through suburban sprawl, or desertification caused by overgrazing. Hurricanes, such as the massive Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ivan in 2004, impacted the northern half of the Chandeleur barrier islands. It is not uncommon for tropical storms, hurricanes, to drastically reconfigure coastal landscapes. Human activities have also impacted the coastline. Oil and gas production from both on-and off-shore wells are a large part of Louisiana's economy. There are many well sites in the coastal zones that are not accessible by roads so numerous channels have been built through the wetlands to access them

Compare the geography of the consumption of fossil fuels with the geography of where fossil fuel resources are located. How does this impact the United States? What solutions might there be to this dependency?

As discussed on the previous page, fossil fuels have an uneven geography. This uneveness becomes particularly important when we compare the distribution of the resource to the consumption of the resource. Countries, like the United States, that consume large amounts of fossil fuels, are not the places where the largest reserves of these fuels are located which means the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world rely heavily on just a few countries to supply them with these resources. he largest producers of petroleum (calculated as thousands of barrels per day) are not the largest consumers. Saudi Arabia and Russia are two of the largest producers of petroleum in the world; the United States is the largest consumer. The United States consumes about 19 and a half million barrels of petroleum each day, about 930 gallons of petroleum each year, per person! China is second, consuming about 13 million barrels of petroleum each day, and a little less than 140 gallons of petroleum each year, per person. This is a problem for the United States. We are "addicted" to oil because our economy is dependent upon it and because it has been cheap and easy to get. None of us pay the true price of consuming oil (the impact on the environment, road deaths, suburban sprawl, traffic congestion, etc.). As a result, consumption continues to grow and the impacts of the consumption continue to take a toll on public health, public safety and the environment. In addition, it means that the U.S. must maintain relationships politically with countries that are autocratic and dictatorial. Most of these countries do not meet the U.S. standard of democracy and most have very troubling human rights records. In many ways, the United States' political clout in the world is diminished because it is fearful of angering countries like Saudi Arabia.

What are the two types of culture? How are the two connected? What are the two ways that culture is expressed? Use the example of housing to describe folk culture and its relationship with the environment.

Broadly speaking geographers divide culture into two types: folk and popular. Folk culture is practiced by smaller groups that are homogeneous and live in more isolated, rural areas. An example of a folk culture in the United States might be the Amish, a religious group concentrated in parts of Pennsylvania that has rejected modern technology. Below, an Amish farmer works his fields with a horse-drawn plow. Culture can be thought of as being expressed in two ways: what people take care of, or material culture, and what people care about, or non-material culture including things such as values and beliefs. Housing in folk culture is influenced by distinctive environmental and cultural features. For instance, the type of building materials used to construct folk houses is usually in part determined by the resources available in the enviornment. Anything from stone, sod, grass or skins may be used but the two most common building materials are wood and brick.

Describe the origins and practices of Buddhism. What spiritual systems were in place in East Asia when Buddhism arrived there? Describe these.

Buddhism, a universalizing religion, had its origins in the Indian region and is also considered a Vedic religion. The religion is based upon the experiences and teachings of a man, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha during the 5th century BCE, who lived in the area that is today Nepal. Siddhartha was a Hindu Prince who sought to understand the reason for the pain and suffering he observed around him. He gave up his earthly possessions, his wealth and status, and traveled through the wilderness seeking an understanding. Over a period of four different journeys, Siddhartha eventually achieved enlightenment and became the Buddha. What was revealed to him in his journeys was The Four Noble Truths: All life leads to suffering Desire is the cause of suffering Eliminate suffering by ending desire Achieve nirvana, and an end to desire and suffering, through the Eightfold Path The Eightfold Path was a series of resolves meant to make enlightenment achievable including rightness of belief, resolve, speech, action, livelihood, effort, thought and meditation. Today, Buddhist pilgrims re-trace the steps of the Buddha on his journeys. The image at left shows various holy sites along those pilgrimage routes. Buddhism has three branches: Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. Theravada Buddhism is the oldest branch and means "the way of the elders." Believers of this branch feel their approach is closest to the Buddha's original approach. Theravada Buddhism is dominant in parts of South Asia and in Southeast Asian countries, like Thailand. Mahayana Buddhism, or "great vehicle," is dominant in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Mahayanists claim their approach to Buddhism can help more people because it is less demanding than the Theravada form. Vajrayana Buddhism emphasizes rituals and practices known as the Tantras. This form of Buddhism is dominant in Nepal and Tibet. When Buddhism arrived in China, it had great success. The Chinese were very open to these new teachings in part because there was a tradition of non-exclusivity in Chinese spiritual systems and in Buddhism itself. When Buddhism arrived in China and Japan, there were already spiritual systems in place. Buddhism exists today side-by-side with these other spiritual systems.

Describe the recent growth and changes that have come to countries that are "post industrial." How have these changes impacted the success or failure of cities?

Deindustrialization has led to a new type of economy. In the United States it has led to the growth of research and development and a highly-skilled workforce, much of it centered on what is called "information technology." In this "new" economy to earn high salaries, workers must possess complex skill sets. On the other hand, workers in these economies who lack these desired skills find themselves in low-wage jobs within the service economy. In the United States, 80% of our GDP is derived from economic activities in the service economy, which is the highest percentage of any country in the world. At a global scale, the percentage of workers in the service economy has nearly doubled since 1970. The growth in the service economy has seen an increase in women workers. Women have joined jobs in the service economy in large numbers, increasing their overall labor force participation worldwide. Developed countries centered on a large service economy are often called postindustrial societies and are recognized as having 5 similar characteristics: They are very urban with almost the entire population living in cities. They are dominated by service economies. They have a large ercentage of high skilled, professional workers. They have infrastructure centered on information and communication technology. They have economies centered on knowledge. Are there losers in this new system? Yes, certainly. Those places that have suffered the most were where workers continued to be engaged in the old Fordist model of production and in places where workers relied on primary sector extraction (such as coal mining). Unfortunately for these workers mechanization and the inevitable decline of economies reliant on fossil fuels means those jobs will continue to shrink. What most scholars agree on is that these workers need to be integrated into the new info-tech economy. What may be most important about Castell's analysis of postindustrial societies is an important structural shift in who/where capital is accumulated. In the "old" system capital was accumulated by countries. In Castell's analysis, cities or urban areas become the center of capital accumulation and these cities are linked across space bypassing traditional country boundaries. This urban areas, sometimes called world cities, are connected economically and socially and are vibrant and dynamic centers of creativity as well as wealth. These are fun places to live and they are highly desirable places to live. Cities and collections of cities like these usually have a concentration of young, smart, highly educated workers and they often have major universities nearby. These cities invest in research and development as well as high-tech manufacturing and are incubators of innovation. Some examples of these technopoles in the U.S. would be Silicon Valley, or the tri-cities of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Other rising technopoles include Denver and Boulder, Colorado. These technopoles exist outside of the U.S., and even outside of the core, as well in places like Bangalore, India or Singapore.

Describe the major renewable energy sources and what is potentially good or bad about each. Describe the geography of their current usage.

Energy can be generated when the wind spins turbines on large windmills. This is is relatively inexpensive energy source. However, to produce significant amounts of energy a large amount of land must be devoted to wind farms. Often this means converting wilderness to wind energy. Another problem with wind is that the turbines themselves are dangers to migratory birds, killing hundreds of thousands Links to an external site.every year. It isn't that this is such a significant number, but that there needs to be a balance in determining where to place these large wind farms with the least disruption to ecosystems. Solar Energy Energy derived from the sun, solar energy, is another renewable resource. Solar energy has great potential to generate energy, but, like wind, requires large amounts of area devoted to its capture. Solar, however, does work well on the small scale; having solar panels on your home may generate enough energy that you will not need to pull from the grid--at least during daylight hours. The problem with solar is that the entire electric grid wasn't designed for it and it often produces too much energy which can overload the grid, and therefore has to be dumped.We also haven't figured out a great way to store this energy yet. If everyone would be okay with a huge battery somewhere in their home, they may be able to generate solar energy, even when the sun sets or the day is cloudy, but the technology for this doesn't really exist yet. Unfortunately, solar farms are also dangerous to birds, vaporizing any that fly too near. What's been mentioned so far is active solar energy. There is also a way to capture energy from the sun passively. In Passive solar energy, the design of a building and its materials are used to capture sunlight. In the northern hemisphere, for example, south-facing windows are advantageous for passive solar collection. Some countries, including the United States, have made strides in increasing the percent of electricity derived from solar. One of the highest percentages is in Spain, where nearly 10% of electricity comes from solar energy and in Australia more than 11% is from solar. Yemen, in the Arabian Peninsula, almost 15% of electricity is derived from solar. Hydropower has great potential as well, but dam construction is disruptive to local ecosystems and can require the relocation of people. Canada and Brazil rely heavily on hydropower today, as do many other Latin American and Central African countries. Hydropower is a carbon-free energy source but can come with heavy environmental and monetary costs.To offset the damaging impacts of dams, some scientists have proposed a new way of developing hydropower, called SHP or small hydropower. SHP is seen as having great possibilities for developing countries who cannot invest in expensive alternative energy sources like nuclear or wind. A SHP would be a facility that generates less than 10 megawatts of electricity and would serve a small community. Potential benefits are the ability to bring electricity to rural areas without generating greenhouse gases. Wikipedia has a pretty decent entry for small hydro Links to an external site.which you can read if you're interested. Here is a 1-minute video produced by a Swiss company that has built SHP in the Swiss Alps. Geothermal Energy Lastly, consider geothermal energy. It's the capture of energy through steam from heat being produced in the Earth's mantle. Much of Iceland is heated as a result of geothermal energy. Geothermal energy is harnessed by drilling deep wells in order to tap into reservoirs of heated groundwater. In addition to capturing the steam from this hot water to generate electricity, the hot water can be piped directly into homes and other buildings. More than 80% of Iceland's residences are heated geothermally with piped hot water. Today most of the existing capacity for geothermal power is in just a handful of countries that have active tectonic zones including the US, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, Italy, Indonesia, Iceland and New Zealand.

What was Mackinder's Heartland Theory? Are there any examples of it at work in today's geopolitics?

Halford Mackinder put forward a theory in the late 19th and early 20th century that was heavily influenced by the environmental determinism of the time. Mackinder argued that situational advantage (where a country was located and what territories it controlled) could lead to world domination. Mackinder's Heartland Theory argued that control of continental Europe offered advantages for world conquest. Mackinder argued that within Eurasia there was a heartland and a rimland (think of this like core and periphery). The heartland, in Mackinder's views, was the interior area away from ice-free seas that protected it from naval attack. He argued that rimland empires (those that were densely populated and along the coastal fringes) were vulnerable to invasion by armies from the heartland that could move overland through diverse natural gateways. Mackinder concluded that a unified heartland power could conquer the maritime countries of the rimland fairly easily and that the unified power was most likely to be located in the plains of eastern Europe (think areas of the former Soviet Union and Russia). Ultimately, Mackinder concluded that Russia was best posed, geographically, to conquer the "rimland," and potentially, the world! Mackinder argued that within Eurasia there was a heartland and a rimland (think of this like core and periphery). The heartland, in Mackinder's views, was the interior area away from ice-free seas that protected it from naval attack. He argued that rimland empires (those that were densely populated and along the coastal fringes) were vulnerable to invasion by armies from the heartland that could move overland through diverse natural gateways. Mackinder concluded that a unified heartland power could conquer the maritime countries of the rimland fairly easily and that the unified power was most likely to be located in the plains of eastern Europe (think areas of the former Soviet Union and Russia). Ultimately, Mackinder concluded that Russia was best posed, geographically, to conquer the "rimland," and potentially, the world! After the communist revolution in Russia in 1917 and the expansion of the Soviet Union into that "eastern European plain," the countries of the rimland, supported by the United States, argued for "containing" the Soviets, in part because of the underlying premise of Mackinder's theory. The ultimate power-play from Mackinder's perspective would be a unified mainland that extended from Russia to China. Together, these powers could control the "rimland" and the "world island." The world island, as Mackinder identified it, was Europe, Asia and Africa combined. Control of the world island would lead to control of world trade, in Mackinder's reasoning. Although the theory seems outlandish in many respects (for one, Russia, and its former self, the USSR, has struggled to maintain control of its own lands let alone expand), there is some evidence to suggest that it is studied carefully by leaders in Russia and China today. Consider not only the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February of 2022 as evidence of Russia's desire to pursue this theory, but also the fact that the Chinese have, in the last several decades, increasingly invested Links to an external site.in coastal areas of Africa, buying up land and ports.

How is multilingualism handled in different countries? Use examples from the module to describe the different ways that multilingualism may exist in a state and how language may be used for political purposes.

In places where more than one language has been spoken historically, there can be several outcomes. In some cases, linguistic diversity is acknowledge and respected, as is the case with Switzerland and Canada. In other cases, there is a tense stand-off between linguistic groups, as in Belgium and Spain. In other cases, bilingualism has been embraced as a way to revive dying languages and to unite a group of people. The examples of Ireland and Israel are instructive in understanding how language can be used to preserve, and assert, a cultural identity. Switzerland has made all four of these languages official: German (about 63% of the population speaks this), French (about 23% speaks it), Italian (8%) and Romansh (1%). Canada has two official languages: French and English. French speakers are about 1/5 of the country's population and are clustered in the eastern province of Québec, where they account for about 75% of the population. The Québec government has made French mandatory in many daily activities and in schools. However, until the late 20th century, Québec was one of the poorest and least developed provinces in Canada and many of the economic and political activities in the province were dominated by English speakers. In the past the somewhat isolated French community had a more confrontational attitude towards English-speaking Canadians and the political party, Parti Québécois even advocated for sovereignty for the province. However, today Canadians have made peace with these differences and acknowledge local linguistic autonomy for the Québécois. Belgium, also divided linguistically, has had far less success in keeping the peace between the two. A language boundary sharply divides the country into two regions. Southern Belgians, the Walloons, speak French and northern Belgians, the Flemings, speak Flemish, a dialect of the Germanic language Dutch. Brussels, the capital, is officially bilingual with signage in both languages. Antagonism between the two regions is aggravated by economic and political differences. The Walloons have historically dominated Belgium's economy (when it had a thriving manufacturing sector) and politics with French language gaining dominance. Flanders, however, has become much more prosperous than Wallonia and the Flemish-speaking northerners say that don't like their taxes spent in the poorer south.

Discuss the origins, diffusion and branches of Islam. Where is Islam found in the world today and how is it "visible" on the landscape?

Islam, is much less diverse than Christianity with only two primary branches: Shia and Sunni. The religion has its origins in the Middle East, specifically in what is today Saudi Arabia. A man, Muhammad is believed to have been visited by an angel of God, the Angel Gabriel, at his home in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 610 CE. Gabriel gave a new holy text to Muhammad to continue in the Abrahamic traditions of the Torah. This book, the Quran, was given to Muhammad in Arabic, making Arabic a holy language to Muslims. The religion of Islam was based on 5 pillars: There is no God, but God, and Muhammad is His prophet Prayer 5 times a day, facing Mecca Fasting during the 30-day period of Ramadan Completing a haj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca Giving charity Merchants and missionaries brought Islam east to Southeast Asia and today the largest Muslim country is Indonesia

What was the Fordist type of production and what were its weaknesses? What has emerged to replace it? What impact has this new form had on the geography of production?

Manufacturing in the U.S. took on a unique form. Influenced by the work of Samuel Taylor in Europe, Henry Ford developed a system of production that maximized efficiency and allowed for mass production. This system became known as Fordism. One of the ways Fordism increased efficiency was by de-skilling labor. Workers no longer thought creatively about how to build something, but were reduced to doing a simple task over and over again on an assembly line. Also unique was that this system was vertically integrated--a company owning all or most of the steps of production. However, the inherent weaknesses in the Fordist model left it vulnerable to changes that came in the latter 20th Century, eventually leading to its dismantling. One weakness was that Fordism was costly. Assembly lines had machinery that needed constant maintenance; if one machine were to break down, the whole line would halt creating unacceptable financial loss. Second, the vertically integrated nature of Fordism meant that inputs for the assembly line needed to be purchased or produced well in advance of production. Then these inputs had to be stored. All of these add to costs. So let's get an idea here of how it worked. At any given time, Ford might have had 4 to 5 months worth of parts for building one car, say a Ford Bronco. These parts had to be stored, and then you had to hope that there were enough consumers to buy all of these Ford Broncos being produced! So let's get an idea here of how it worked. At any given time, Ford might have had 4 to 5 months worth of parts for building one car, say a Ford Bronco. These parts had to be stored, and then you had to hope that there were enough consumers to buy all of these Ford Broncos being produced! This exposes one of Fordism's primary vulnerabilities—it assumed that there would be an endless supply of consumers and that consumers would buy whatever Ford produced. This is known as producer-driven commodity chains. Assembly lines were very inflexible; if demand went down, there was no way to quickly change what was being produced. Plus, what would you do with all those Bronco parts sitting in the warehouse?! Another vulnerability came from the nature of the work itself—it was tedious and boring. How do you keep workers then and prevent them from constantly leaving? Pay them more—yet another added cost of Fordism. The Fordist model began to falter in the 1970s/80s as external events exposed its vulnerabilities and weaknesses. In the early 1970s the cost of oil rose dramatically because of the formation of OPEC and the boycott by OPEC against the U.S. The Arab countries that controlled OPEC decided to punish the U.S. for its support of Israel by refusing to sell oil to us. This not only increased the cost of doing business, but it also changed consumer tastes in cars with many desiring more high-mileage vehicles. Add to this increased labor tensions (strikes being threatened), an increase in environmental regulations (post EPA formation under Pres. Nixon) and the rise of the Japanese manufacturing model, and the U.S. car industry was failing. As Ford dealerships saw Ford Broncos piling up on their lots, the Japanese had introduced cars with excellent gas mileage that were also mechanically reliable and consumers began to pivot towards buying these. These cars were built using a flexible production model that Japan perfected. Japan had created a lean, and "flexible," production style. Flexible Production The Japanese model said forget about stockpiling inputs, instead outsource their production and order only what you needed. So rather than having warehouses brimming with parts to vehicles no one wanted anymore, companies like Toyota had smaller manufacturing firms produce those parts and then only ordered the amount they needed at the moment—no need to store them, no voluminous leftovers. This shift to a consumer-driven commodity chain revolutionized industrialization. In addition, Toyota's assembly lines were flexible—one line could produce several different types of cars and workers were collaborators with managers, offering their own insights into what was working and what was not. This flexible model has become the norm. It is characterized by outsourcing and offshoring (outsourcing to different countries) and a new vertically disintegrated system of production. Now companies create "leaner" production by searching for places that can produce components most competitively. This has been possible, also, through changes in trade policy. The rise of "free trade" has meant that it is much easier for a company like General Electric, or Ford to seek out the most competitive sources for the components it requires for assembly. It also means that other places in the world are able to join the global economy and capitalize on their assets. Just-in-Time Delivery One of the things that has made flexible production possible is just-in-time delivery. This is the shipment of parts and materials to arrive at a factory moments before they are needed. This is especially important for delivery of inputs, such as parts and raw materials, to manufacturers of fabricated products, such as cars and computers. Under a just-in-time system, parts and materials arrive at a factory frequently, in many cases daily or even hourly. Suppliers of the parts and materials are told a few days in advance how much will be needed over the next week or two. To meet a tight timetable, a supplier of parts and materials must locate factories near its customers. Just-in-time alleviates the problem of wasteful inventory. It also reduces the size needed for a warehouse or factory. Some leading computer manufacturers have eliminated inventory altogether. However, as you probably are aware, disruptions to this carefully calibrated system can be disastrous. Typically, three things are considered potential disruptions to this system: natural hazards, traffic and labor unrest. However, not many people had considered a global pandemic and its impact on supply chains. Because of this "lean" system of production and delivery, when the pandemic disrupted consumer habits, first greatly reducing demand and then, later, greatly increasing demand, the just-in-time supply chain has struggled to recover.

Describe the first three stages of European colonialism identifying the time period in which each occurred and major events that defined each period.

Much of our contemporary political landscape was shaped during a four-hundred year period that was dominated by European colonialism. Colonialism by European empires began in the 16th century and continues to today, although most European colonies gained their independence by the mid-twentieth century. What parts of the world were colonized by Europe? Perhaps the better question is what parts were not colonized by Europe! We can point to three countries in the world that were never directly, nor indirectly, colonized by a European power: Ethiopia, Japan and Thailand. Otherwise, every other part of the world was touched by the process of colonialism. Mercantile Stage of Colonialism 1500-1780-The earliest period of European expansion and colonialism is referred to as the Mercantile Stage. This period lasted roughly from the beginning of the 16th century through 1780, and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in England. What prompted European powers to move out, into the world, and take territory? A defining event was the Ottoman Turks (a Muslim empire) conquering the city of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) in 1453, taking it from the Byzantine Empire. When this hostile empire took power in Turkey, the primary land-route for trade, the Silk Route, was blocked for the Europeans. Of course what was "discovered" was the New World, the Americas. The result of the contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples of the Americas changed the course of human history. As the Europeans, primarily Spanish and Portuguese initially, took control of the Americas, they introduced diseases that decimated indigenous populations. The Americas experienced a rapid demographic collapse. Estimates Links to an external site.are that anywhere from 65-90% of the indigenous population of the Americas (this includes North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean) died in the years that followed European contact. While the Americas became emptied of their indigenous human populations, Europeans began to import new human groups to the hemisphere. Africans were captured, sold, and trafficked as slave labor by European slave brokers. The beginnings of the African Slave Trade, during this period of Mercantile Colonialism, was another event that changed the course of human history. The African diaspora that resulted from the trafficking of humans as slaves, introduced new cultural and ethnic groups to the Americas whose influence is an integral part of landscapes throughout the Western Hemisphere today. The import (and export) of humans as slaves created a route of trade known as the Triangular Trade (pictured at left). This route became entrenched during the Mercantile Stage of colonialism and continued even after the United States separated from the British Empire. Industrial Stage of Colonialism 1780-1870 By the late 18th century Great Britain was undergoing rapid transformation as it industrialized. Great Britain became the world's most important empire during this period. The strength of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, on the other hand, waned. Another important country was growing during this period, too--the United States. After its separation from the British Empire, the United States continued with the slave trade and used enslaved peoples to grow its wealth. desire for land and resources intensified during this period. Not only did colonial conquests bring tremendous resources to Great Britain, it also opened markets for manufactured goods. Great Britain began to rely heavily on its colonies (and former colony, the U.S.) for raw materials, such as cotton, which it then processed into manufactured goods (textiles). These textiles were then sold back to its colonies and a relationship of Mother Country-Colony dependency became established. The wealth of Great Britain relied not only on the land and resources of its colonies, but on the growing market for its products within those colonies. Similarly, during this period, the newly independent United States relied heavily on slave labor to build its wealth (in an almost Mother Country-colony-like relationship). Although slaves could not be brought into the U.S. after the early 1800s, American slave owners continued to buy and sell human beings in the southern states to maintain an economic advantage and provide raw materials to an industrializing north. The relationship of dependency between Mother Country and colony was enforced by colonial laws. For example, the British forbade industrialization within their colony of India. They enforced this by condemning and tearing down any locally built factories, or by creating fines and tariffs that made local industrialization efforts impossible. In addition, the British set the terms of trade to their advantage, setting the price for the export of materials like cotton. Rebellions Links to an external site.by Indians were put down using the British military. In this way, Britain was assured that it would not have competition for the production of textiles and that it could import cheap cotton and fuel its industrialization. Classical Stage of Colonialism 1870-1918-By the late 19th century, Europe was becoming a more competitive place. The technologies of the Industrial Revolution had diffused into continental Europe and in the 1880s, Germany became a unified state. Germany's unification added to the heightened competition for territory abroad. Germany felt it was "late" in joining in colonialism and was anxious to gain territory abroad. At this point, 1884, there was really only one part of the world that was not directly colonized and that was the African continent. Europeans turned to the African continent at this point in time and met in Berlin in 1884 to "carve" the continent up between themselves. This event, at the Berlin Conference, has come to be known as the "Scramble for Africa." t is ironic that Africa was the last region on Earth to be directly colonized as parts of ti had been so central to the colonial processes that led to this point in time (through the slave trade). Not a single emissary of any African group, tribe or political organization was invited to the Berlin Conference. Great Britain, as you can see on the map at left, sought to control territory from the very north of the continent to the very south. They had plans to build a railroad that connected Egypt to South Africa. However, they were blocked by the Germans and the Belgians (yes, Belgium, that tiny European empire). The Belgians and Germans took territory known as the "Congo" and eastern Africa in what is today Rwanda and Burundi. The Germans also took territory along the southern coast, today's Namibia (southwest Africa on this map), near the "bulge" of Africa in what is today Cameroon (spelled "Kamerun" on this map), and on the east coast in what is today Tanzania (German East Africa on the map). Italy was another European power "late to the game," and they established control of territory near Ethiopia in what is today Eritrea and Somalia. They also took territory in the north in Libya. France, Great Britain's biggest rival, took almost all of western Africa. The impacts of this period of colonialism are difficult to understate. This period led to the brutal repression of indigenous Africans through European militarizes, the removal of indigenous Africans from their lands, and a re-shaping of the political landscape that continues to reverberate through conflicts through the 21st century.

What is good and bad about nuclear energy as a replacement for fossil fuel dependency?

One alluring alternative to fossil fuel sourced energy is nuclear power. Nuclear is attractive because of the volume of energy it is able to produce without emitting carbon into the atmosphere. It is not technically a renewable energy source because it relies on the mining of uranium to split uranium atoms and generate powerful amounts of energy. There are some serious problems with nuclear power, though. The production of nuclear power produces waste that is radioactive. How to dispose of that waste safely is a challenge. However second-generation nuclear reactors are being built to reprocess some of that radioactive waste. Another problem with nuclear is that it presents an enormous hazard to humans if there is an accident and radiation is emitted into the community surrounding the nuclear plant. This happened, due to human error, in the Ukrainian nuclear plant in Chernobyl (while it was part of the Soviet Union), and at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan after a 7.5 earthquake and tsunami. Large accidents like these are very frightening and make people fearful of nuclear power. However, when you consider how many people have actually been negatively impacted by the production of nuclear energy versus how many people are harmed by the burning of fossil fuels, these incidents seem incidental. Another issue surrounding nuclear is that nuclear technology can be weaponized and used to build nuclear weapons. Finally, nuclear energy is very expensive to develop, leaving it out of reach for most poorer countries. Developed countries have the monopoly on nuclear power for this reason.

What was the final stage of European colonialism and what occurred during that period?

The End of Empires Stage: 1918-1949- World War One hearkened the end of the empires, although they did not completely fall until the end of World War Two. At the end of World War One, there were some significant events that led to a new stage of colonialism. The end of World War One brought the end of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost World War One, defeated by the British, the French and the Americans. As a result, the territories of the "losers" was divided up. In particular, the Ottomans lost all of their territories in the Middle East when France and Great Britain divided them up between themselves. Great Britain took most of the Ottoman territory in the Middle East: Trans Jordan (today the West Bank and Jordan), Iraq, and Palestine (now Israel and Palestine). In addition, the British put a new leader into power in the Arabian Peninsula, in the hopes that this "king" would be friendly to them (that "king" was a self-named monarch, King Ibn Al-Saud, who named the country after himself, Saudi Arabia). France took the territories of Lebanon and Syria. The most problematic of the former Ottoman territories was that of Palestine. While under Ottoman rule, this territory was multi-ethnic with some Jewish people, some Arabs, and other groups (such as However, once the Ottomans were removed from the region, political desires amongst Jewish people and Arabs began to emerge. What both Jewish people and Arabs in the region agreed upon, however, was that they wanted the British gone. Groups of Jewish and Arab militias fought to destabilize British rule during this inter-war period. Much of this was complicated by an agreement Great Britain made with Jewish leaders in 1917, called the Balfour Agreement, in which they promised to create a Jewish Homeland in the territory of Palestine. However, when Great Britain finally left the territory, after its own empire-destroying experience in World War Two, it turned to the United Nation to negotiate a solution for the territory. In 1948-49 the United Nations partitioned the territory of Palestine into two states: a Jewish state, Israel, and an Arab state, Palestine. Given the experience of genocide the Jewish people of Europe had just experienced and their strong desire for a safe haven, Jewish leaders quickly agreed to this two-state solution. However, Arab leaders in Palestine argued that the territory should belong only to them and refused to accept the agreement and proclaimed that the state of Israel was entirely illegitimate. The day after Israel was declared a sovereign state, the neighboring Arab states of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon declared war on the state of Israel. President Jimmy Carter was able to broker peace between Israel and Egypt in the landmark Camp David Accords, after 11 grueling days of negotiation. In these Accords, Israel agreed to give the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt, but refused to give up its control of Jerusalem. With Egypt and Israel now at peace with each other, there was no longer Arab leadership to continue the fight with Israel and relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors have been peaceful, although some times tense, since. The remaining conflict for Israel is with the Palestinian state. The conflict centers around several issues. First, the Palestinian state continues to refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of the state of Israel. The second issue is related to the area known as the "West Bank". For years, the Israeli government sanctioned Jewish "settlements" in this region. These settlements were Jewish communities established in Palestinian territory, largely by very extreme, ultra-religious, Orthodox Jewish groups. These extremists see it as their mission to re-establish Jewish control over the territories of the West Bank. This has become one of the most destabilizing issues in the region today. When you hear about the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, it is this conflict over settlements in the West Bank, captured by Israel during the Arab-initiated 1967 war, that is being referred to. It is clear that the legacies of colonialism continue to haunt the world today and play a role in contemporary conflict.

Describe the activities that are part of the secondary sector (industry). Where did this begin and what areas did it diffuse to? What was its geography in North America and what are its current geographies?

The secondary sector (industry) are activities that assemble, process or convert raw materials into semiprocessesd materials or into fuels, or into finished goods. This is an important sector of countries' economies because value is added in the act of processing raw materials. Some examples of secondary industries would be the processing of oil into petroleum, or iron ore into steel, or cotton into t-shirts. This is the sector in which manufacturing occurs. Secondary industries assemble, process or manufacture the raw materials extracted as staple goods into useful products, fuels or finished goods. As mentioned before, this is also the sector of economic activity in which value is added; consider what has more value, a bale of cotton, or a box of t-shirts? There are two types of manufacturing done in the secondary industry sector: light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. Heavy manufacturing refers to making items such as steel, nuclear fuel, chemical prpoducts, or petroleum or durable goods such as refrigerators and cars and machines. Light manufacturing refers to making clothing or small appliances (such as a food processor or blow dryer), as well as the manufacture of food, beverages or medical supplies. It was innovations in technology that led to the Industrial Revolution. These technologies fundamentally changed the way in which human made things. New technologies and new systems of production were first introduced in England in the late 18th century (late 1700s). There were two important developments helped to spur the Industrial Revolution in England. The first was that the English had more access to capital generated by the British Empire's colonial holdings and control over global trade. The second factor was a series of technological innovations that improved agricultural production and increased outputs of food and made it faster and more efficient to process raw materials. For example the spinning jenny was a device that twisted cotton fibers into thread, developed in 1764. Another important innovation was the steam engine by James Watt in 1769 in Glasgow, Scotland (part of Great Britain). The first industry to benefit from Watt's steam engine was the iron tool industry. The usefulness of iron had been known for centuries but it was difficult to produce because ovens had to be constantly heated, which was difficult before the steam engine. Geographies of Industrialization In the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, resources like coal and iron ore determined where factories were located in England. People left the rural countryside and moved to cities where factories had been built. Many of these rural people had been displaced by the mechanization of agriculture and now comprised work forces for industrial activity in cities. Transportation innovation also played an imortant role in the diffusion of the Industrial Revolution as well.irst canals, then railroads enabled factories to attract large numbers of workers and bring in bulky raw materials like iron ore and coal and then ship the finished goods to consumers. As railroads were built in the United Kingdom, and then on the European continent, the Industrial Revolution diffused. Political problems in Europe slowed the diffusion of the railroad because cooperation between neighboring countries was essential to creating an efficient rail network.

Describe intensive and extensive subsistence agriculture. Where is each type of subsistence agriculture likely to be done?

The production of food through agriculture can be seen as occurring on a continuum. At one end of the continuum is what is called subsistence agriculture and at the other end of the continuum is commercial agriculture. Most of the world's farmers today are engaged in subsistence agriculture but most of the world's food is grown using commercial agriculture. Subsistence farming or agriculture refers to farming that is done to support one's family or one's kinship or village. It is distinctive in that what is being produced is being consumed on the farm. Typically, this is the type of farming that dominates in countries that are considered less developed. In these situations, there is less advanced technology being used to produce food and more human and animal labor. Yields are much smaller than in commercial production. Subsistence agriculture can be further divided into intensive and extensive forms. Intensive subsistence agriculture is labor intensive and requires less land than extensive forms. This type of subsistence agriculture is usually done in tropical and subtropical regions where population densities are high--East and Southeast Asia. Rice is a particularly labor-intensive crop requiring transplanting of seedlings into flooded fields, called sawah, by hand (seen in image at right) that is commonly grown in intensive subsistence farming. In many parts of Asia, rice is cultivated through intensive subsistence production and is called wet-rice farming. Along rivers and in river deltas, rice is cultivated by working small plots of land very intensively. Extensive subsistence farming generally requires more land but is less labor intensive. One form of this type of farming is slash-and-burn, swidden or shifting cultivation (these terms all refer to the same type of farming). This is practiced in tropical and sub-tropical areas where population densities are lower, largely Latin America and Central Africa. The technique in this type of farming is to clear a forested area and burn the material to add important nutrients to the soils so they can support production for about 3-5 years. After that time the soil's nutrients are depleted and the agriculturalist moves on to a new plot of land. In many regions, the most productive harvest comes in the second year after burning. Rapid weed growth also contributes to the abandonment of a swidden after a few years. The types of crops grown in extensive subsistence depend on the location but can include manioc, millet, sorghum, yams and sugarcane. One swidden may contain a large variety of intermingling crops.

Using the "tree" of Christianity discussed in the module, identify the origins, diffusion and branches of Christianity. What distinct forms has Christianity taken in America?

The very large and diverse religion loosely referred to as "Christianity," had its origins about 2,000 years ago in what is today Israel and Palestine. It's difficult to separate the diffusion of Christianity from a discussion of its many branches, so both topics are being covered below. In addition to mainstream Protestant Christian churches (like those mentioned above) a new, uniquely American, version of Christianity arose in the mid-19th century in the United States. The four distinctly American Christian churches are the Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, sometimes also called "LDS") Jehovah's Witnesses Seventh Day Adventists Church of Christ, Scientist (also called Christian Scientists; please note: this is not Scientology the celebrity cult with offices on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood). Today, many of the mainline Protestant churches, and even groups such as the Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists and Christian Scientists, are losing numbers as their membership ages. Younger Americans are drawn to new forms of Christianity, often a form called renewalism. Renewalist churches often emphasize interacting with and being "filled with" the Holy Spirit in large arenas. They are also distinct in their use of modern technology, often streaming their services on the Internet for people to watch from home. Such churches often draw people through outreach and entertainment as well.

What are each of the primary fossil fuels, where are they found, how much of each is available in reserves and how is each extracted?

There are primarily three forms of fossil fuels: coal, petroleum and natural gas. There are several ways that these fossil fuels can be extracted from the Earth. Oil may be extracted through drilling or pumping. If the petroleum is sweet crude, a thinner, closer-to-the-surface petroleum, it is relatively easy to extract with drilling and pumping. When petroleum is held in oil sands it is much more difficult, and expensive to extract. Oil sands are found in Alberta, Canada, Venezuela and Russia. Oil sands are saturated with thick petroleum commonly called tar because of its dark color and strong smell. Canada is thought to have about 10% of the world's petroleum prove reserves. Natural gas is another important fossil fuel. World reserves of natural gas are approximately 7.000 trillion cubic meters and at current demand, proven natural gas reserves will last about 54 years. Iran, Russia and Qatar (a Persian Gulf state) combined have about 50% of the world's proven natural gas reserves. The map below shows areas of proven natural gas reserves.One way that natural gas is extracted is through a process called hydraulic fracturing. Rocks break apart naturally and gas can fill the spaces between the rocks. Hydraulic fracturing, usually called fracking, involves pumping water at high pressure to break up the rocks more and release more gas that can then be captured and extracted. The U.S. has extensive natural gas fields, some of which are being exploited through fracking. The primary natural gas fields in the U.S. are in Texas, Oklahoma and the Appalachian Mountains. There are concerns about the environmental consequences of fracking. Often along with water, chemicals are injected into the Earth to break up rocks which can seep into water systems. The powerful pressurized water can also create fractures in the Earth's crust, leading to earthquakes. The process also requires enormous amounts of water in a time when water resources are already strained. Coal is the most abundant and the most geographically widespread of the fossil fuels. The countries with the most sizable proved coal reserves are the United States, Russia, China and Australia. Combined, these countries have 70% of the world's proven coal reserves. World reserves of coal are approximately 1 quadrillion metric tons (!) and will last about 110 years at the current rate of consumption. Forecasts indicate that global coal reserves will last 112 years at the current rate of production. The interactive map below offers insight into the distribution of coal reserves. Coal is often extracted using a controversial method called mountaintop removal. This method may produce vast tonnages of coal but it also leads to massive landscape change and it alters local and regional watersheds. The process is to first remove all vegetation from the area to be mined. Then explosives loosen thick rock above the coal (called overburden) and enormous draglines scoop the overburden into large trucks. Next, the trucks haul all of the overburden material and dump it somewhere (usually a nearby valley). These valley fills are unstable, slide-prone, and can leach toxic materials into streams and later drainage patterns. These changes not only affect the environment but also can have serious consequences for the people who live in the area. Large front loaders scoop coal from the exposed seam (pictured at right), pouring it into trucks that haul it to loading docks where the coal is transferred to rail cars or river barges. Efforts are then made to "repair" the scar. Often former mining sites are sown with hydroseed which is a watery mixture of seeds, fertilizer and mulch. The hope is that vegetation will take hold and erosion will be mitigated.

Describe the Balkanization of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s by identifying the centrifugal forces that led to the conflict. What was the outcome of the conflict?

What holds a state, or a nation-state together and prevents it from fragmenting or falling apart? Processes that promote unity and cohesion in a country are called centripetal forces in political geography. It's especially important in a multi-ethnic state to have centripetal forces. In the United States, we do not share ethnicity, but we do share a nationality. Again, nationality is identity associated with a country of citizenship. Although states may have sovereignty and may be internationally recognized, challenges to their boundaries occur. Often the challenges to the state come from groups that see themselves as nations and desire sovereignty for their people and their identified homeland. When ethnic identity destabilizes a sovereign state, it is considered a centrifugal force in political geography. One of the most extreme and bloody examples of a state's devolution and ultimate breakdown, came in the early 1990s with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The region of the former Yugoslavia, located in southeastern Europe, is part of a territory known as The Balkans. The term "balkan" is a Turkish word for mountain. The Ottoman Turks noted the mountainous terrain when they occupied portions of this territory and the name has remained since. The Balkans is an area divided ethnically. Some have argued that the mountainous terrain allowed for the isolation of groups and the evolution of many distinctive cultures. Some point to the division of this region by the Great Schism in 1054 in which one-half became Roman Catholic and the other Eastern Orthodox Christian. Others point to the arrival of Islam by the Ottoman Empire and the conversion of Slavs in the region to Islam as another moment that created division in the territory. The Ottoman Empire fell at the end of World War One, a war that began in the Balkans. On June 28, 1914, the Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were making their way in a motorcade through the streets of Sarajevo (in what is today Bosnia-Herzegovina), and a member of the Serbian Nationalist group, the Black Hand, leapt out of the crowds and shot them both dead. This led to a full-scale conflict in Europe that eventually involved the United States and resulted in a re-drawing of political boundaries in Europe. World War Two When new boundaries were drawn in 1924, ethnicity and the desire for nation-state was taken into consideration. New countries were established including Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania (also known as the Baltic states), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania. This also led to the establishment of Yugoslavia, or Kingdom of the Southern Slavs. Not long after the end of World War One came World War Two. Yugoslavia was invaded by the German Nazis from the west and many Croatians decided to work with the Nazis. The Nazis promised the Croatians their own nation-state, Croatia, feeding nationalist sentiment. Croatians, then, fought their countrymen, the Serbians during World War Two and the Serbians took heavy casualties. The Serbians were supported by the Russians, and, ultimately, were part of the Allied forces. At the end of World War Two, Yugoslavia fell behind the Iron Curtain and became a communist country led by a partisan war hero, Josep Braz Tito. Tito declared an end to all ethnic associations in the country. He re-named streets and significant sites to take away any former ethnic associations. He declared that there were no longer Serbs, Croats or Bosnians, but now all were Yugoslavians. The period under Tito was a period of rapid economic growth and peace for Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia began to open its borders to trade with the West and even exported its state-produced car, the Yugo, to the United States. Civil War Unfortunately not even ten years after the construction of that brand-new arena, in 1991, the rink was being used as a make-shift morgue to hold the bodies that were piling up as civil war took hold and Yugoslavia descended into chaos. What led to this dramatic turn of events for Yugoslavia? In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. The fall of the Berlin Wall, a physical barrier between the free West Berlin and the communist East Berlin, symbolized the fall of communism throughout Europe. One-by-one communist governments fell across eastern Europe, eventually taking down the entire Soviet Union. As communist governments crumbled across Europe, the U.S. government rejoiced and President George H.W. Bush declared, "The tide of history has turned, and we look to a future Europe whole and free What happened in Yugoslavia as the communist regime fell, was a battle over territory driven by ethnicity and nationalist desires. What had been suppressed for decades under Tito came quickly to the surface again and drove a civil war that fragmented the Balkans. The first nation to declare its independence from Yugoslavia was Slovenia. Because Slovenia is fairly uniform ethnically, they separated and left Yugoslavia in 1991 without conflict. However, the next territory to declare its independence was Croatia. When Croatia declared its independence in 1991, it raised a new flag over its new capital of Zagreb--the Nazi fascist flag of Croatia during WWII. This provocative act, along with the fact that there were Serbs living in the eastern region of Croatia, led to war between Serbia (what remained of Yugoslavia) and Croatia over that eastern territory. The battle between Croatia and Serbia was brutal. Serbians carried out war crimes by clearing villages and killing all residents in acts of ethnic cleansing. The best known massacre was in the Croatian city of Vukovar Links to an external site.where prisoners of war were turned over to the Yugoslav Army only to be gunned down and placed in mass graves. Acts of atrocities were also committed by Croatian paramilitary groups Links to an external site.against Serbians Balkanization and Extreme Nationalism The term Balkanization is now used to describe the type of breakdown in which a state breaks apart into smaller nation-states. The former Yugoslavia, a state, became the nation-states of Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and, eventually, Kosovo. This breakdown was driven by an extreme nationalism; a devotion to the idea of the nation as an organic or "natural" institution and a desire to restore that "nation" to its former glory. Often extreme nationalism calls for the removal of groups that are seen as different, or "corrosive," to the supposed cohesion of the nation. Extreme nationalism and fascism, rely heavily on a myth-making narrative that hearkens back to an imagined past when a country was "great." This narrative argues the country has fallen and must be restored to its former glory. Usually groups are identified as having been responsible from this "fall," and the argument is made that these groups must be "removed." Other than the Balkans, you may be reminded of the example of Nazi Germany and the near annihilation of Jewish people in Europe as the Third Reich attempted to restore its greatness by purging (murdering) those it labeled as "outsiders." (Note: Jewish people were not outsiders; they had lived in Europe for centuries, often intermarrying and they considered themselves German, or Polish, or Greek or whatever state they lived in. Note the parallels between the construction of the Jewish people as "other" and the use of this "othering" by the Serbs to justify murdering Bosnian Muslims). Unfortunately, there are no shortages of other examples: the slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi in 1994 and the more recent massacre of Rohingya Links to an external site.muslims in Burma (Myanmar). This rhetoric may sound familiar as it has been used often to justify aggression and violence in the name of restoring a "rightful" nation-state. However, it's important to remember that all political institutions are constructed by people! There is no "state" or "nation" without the construction of that idea by the people themselves. Today, peace in the Balkans is fragile. The blood-soaked Serbian leader, Slobodan Milošević was never held accountable for his war crimes; he died while being held for trial at the Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. Efforts were made to try many of his fellow leaders. In a stunning act of defiance, one of these leaders, Slobodan Praljak, smuggled potassium cyanide into the courtroom of the International Court and committed suicide Links to an external site.on live television. He preferred this gruesome end to that of standing accountable for the ethnic cleansing he perpetrated. Bosnia today is led by a coalition government, with one elected Serbian, one elected Croatian and one elected Bosnian. However, as the maps below indicate, the country itself is more divided spatially with less neighborhood and village mixing between the groups..

Explain staple theory and commodity dependency. What were the conclusions of the scholars Mackintosh and Innis about staples and a country's ability to develop? Does Seattle illustrate either man's theory?

When economic value is assigned to these products, and they are traded in local or global markets, they become commodities. Innis, however, argued that a reliance on staple goods prevented economic growth and created a situation of commodity dependency. Many developing countries relied heavily on staples for the economies until the late 20th century. Their relatively weak economic positions support Innis' theory. Commodity dependence is problematic for three reasons: Commodity prices are very volatile and fluctuate a great deal over time. As an example the price of oil rose above $100 a barrel in April of 2022, having bottomed out at $18 a barrel two years earlier, in April of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. When compared to the value and price of manufactured goods, commodity prices do not rise as rapidly over the long term. Heavy reliance on commodities is often associated with a lack of economic diversification, making a country's economy vulnerable to larger global economic (or other, like a pandemic) forces. ommodity-dependent developing countries (CDDC) refers to those countries that have a heavy reliance on the export of primary commodities. Commodity-dependency is assessed in a few ways. One way to assess dependency is by looking at what percentage the commodity export makes up a country's GDP. Another way is to compare the value of the commodity exports to the value of merchandise exports from a country, as shown in the map below. Take a moment to study the map below and consider the following: Which countries are most dependent on the export of petroleum oils? Which countries are most dependent on the export of copper? Which countries might be most vulnerable to a drop in commodity prices? What do many of the countries with high dependence on agricultural products also have in common? The area surrounding Seattle was covered with old-growth temperate rainforest. The extraction of this wood became a primary activity that fed economic growth in the region. In fact the term "skid row" first originated in Seattle; it was the area of town where logs were sent skidding down the hillside towards the port to be loaded onto ships. Seattle's economy also reflected the forward linkages of the timber industry, with the dominant Weyerhaeuser company and its paper mills in nearby Tacoma. The impact of commodities on the economic development of a country or a region was explored by two Canadian scholars, W.A. Mackintosh and Harold Innis in the 1920s. Their work led to a collection of ideas referred to as staple theory. A staple is a primary product that dominates the exports of an economy. Staple theory proposes that the resource geography (what resources are found in a particular place) shapes the economic system that evolves in that place through linkages. Linkages are the other economic activities that emerge in conjunction with the specific primary industry. The impact of commodities on the economic development of a country or a region was explored by two Canadian scholars, W.A. Mackintosh and Harold Innis in the 1920s. Their work led to a collection of ideas referred to as staple theory. A staple is a primary product that dominates the exports of an economy. Staple theory proposes that the resource geography (what resources are found in a particular place) shapes the economic system that evolves in that place through linkages. Linkages are the other economic activities that emerge in conjunction with the specific primary industry.

How did the Cold War define geopolitics and what has come to define our post-Cold War world?

With the end of World War Two, we have entered a post-empire era. Many of the geopolitical arrangements that have emerged since the end of the war have been in an effort to avoid future wars, or at least to avoid future world-wars. The Cold War For fifty years after the end of the war, geopolitics was bipolar. Two super-powers emerged during this period: the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). These were not two empires pitted against each other; instead what defined their differences were ideologies. The United States maintained its ideological support of democracies and capitalism, while the Soviet Union came to represent authoritarianism and communism. While these two nuclear-powers never fought a war against each other, numerous wars were carried out, across the world, by proxy. Examples include Afghanistan during the 1980s (the U.S. supported rebels that fought against the Soviet-backed government); Nicaragua; El Salvador; Vietnam, and the list goes on. In one particularly "hot" confrontation, the Soviets began building missile-launching sites in their benefactor state, Cuba, with missiles pointed directly at the United States, less than 90 miles away. The Cuban Missile Crisis was, luckily, defused before conflict broke out. POST: To avoid large-scale confrontation, supranational organizations arose in the 20th century. A supranational organization is one that crosses international boundaries in which members agree to cooperate for mutual political, economic or even cultural gain. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the United Nations, formed in 1945 as the World War Two was ending. The UN has been tasked with diffusing international conflicts and mediating disputes. There are 193 members of the United Nations today and there are 2 "nonmember observers"--Vatican City and Palestine. Palestine's membership in the United Nations has been blocked by Great Britain, the U.S. and France (all three are members of the security council). These members have argued that until Palestine recognizes the state of Israel and resolves its disputes with Israel, it cannot have full membership. This, however, is controversiaL European Union In the post-World War Two era, consensus thinking has been that a world that trades together is less likely to kill each other. At the end of the war, the Bretton Woods Agreement was the beginning of the establishment of international trade and stability in financial markets. It established two international institutions for lending money and promoting economic development: The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). war. The EU has 27 members today (it was 28 until Great Britain left the EU in 2016). The goal of the union was to open borders for the free movement of goods, services, capital and people and thus promote international trade. In 2004, many of the former Soviet states of eastern Europe joined the EU. One underlying motivation behind the EU's expansion has been to weaken the power of its member countries to the point that they would never again wage war against one another. Another goal was to create an economy and market on a scale large enough to compete globally with the United States and China. In sacrificing some autonomy, members of the EU have a single monetary currency (the euro), have opened their borders completely, requiring no passport to travel throughout the region. Even within supranational organizations there are centripetal and centrifugal forces. Some forces (centrifugal) have threatened the stability of the EU; in 2016 a referendum in Great Britain (Brexit) led to their withdrawal from the EU. Those that supported Brexit argued that English culture was at risk of dilution, particularly because EU membership allowed for immigrants from "other" parts of Europe to more easily move to Great Britain. Strong nativist and nationalist sentiments dominated the Brexit rhetoric.

Define the political geography terms state, nation and nation-state and provide examples of each. What is Palestine? What is Taiwan? (

state- In political geography the term state has very specific meaning. A state is a sovereign territory (meaning self-governing with no higher authority it answers to) with recognized borders and a multi-ethnic population. Usually, and importantly, the population of a state does not claim to be the first peoples of that territory and do not see it as an ethnic homeland. Today, states are the most common type of political territory and include countries such as the United States, China, Australia, India, and Mexico. The largest ever state was the former Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), shown in the map below. nation- First, a nation is a group of people with a shared culture and a shared identity (ethnicity) that connects them to a particular territory on the Earth that they identify as their "homeland." While the boundaries of this homeland, or nation, may be clear and easily identified by the people identifying with that territory, they are not recognized internationally and a nation does not have sovereignty. nation state- When a group that shares a cultural identity, and identification with a particular homeland, gain sovereignty over that territory, a nation-state is formed. There are some countries today that clearly meet the definition of a nation-state. These include Japan, Sweden and Denmark. Using this criteria we can eliminate some groups from the definition of nation. The Taiwanese are not a nation by this definition. Taiwan is a unique case. The people of Taiwan today are ethnically Chinese and they cannot claim Taiwan as the only homeland of the Chinese people. Many Taiwanese are descendants of the Nationalists (led by Chiang Kai-shek) who fled China after the communist revolution in 1949. Taiwan, calling itself the Republic of China, refuses to acknowledge the sovereignty of the People's Republic of China (communist China). China, (the People's Republic of China or PRC) still claims sovereign control over Taiwan. However, Taiwan elects its own government and functions entirely separately from China. It is a precarious balance. China claims Taiwan as its own and all maps produced in China show Taiwan as part of the PRC. Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, but its government is unofficially acknowledged by many governments around the world, including the U.S. However, if the U.S. were to formally acknowledge Taiwan's government a more serious conflict could ensue. Likewise, if China decided to invade Taiwan and "take it" back, how the United States would respond is also difficult to say. Palenstine This is another territory that students often raise as an example of a nation. Palestine is not a nation because it is a territory with sovereignty. If anything, one could argue that Palestine is a nation-state. However, being Palestinian is not an ethnicity but a nationality (identity associated with political institutions). Palestinians are all ethnically Arab and share an ethnic identity, through language and other cultural customs, with Arabs throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Palestine has an elected government and it participates in the United Nations as a nonmember, observer state. However, the Palestinian people are divided into two territories and is what is called a fragmented state. Palestine is divided between an area called the West Bank and an area to the south and west of that called the Gaza Strip. These two territories elect their own, separate governments. The Gaza Strip has been ruled by a group called Hamas for more than a decade and Hamas has a very tense relationship with the elected government of the West Bank, the Palestinian National Authority