GEO TEST 1

Why does the migration toward cities remain so high today?

Push factors are rural poverty and lack of land reform; reinforcing pull factors are perceived employment opportunities, education, medical care, and a more exciting pace of life.

Altitudinal Zonation

Regions based on elevations

Llanos

Savannah-like grasslands (Venezuela/Colombia)

Archipelago

Set of islands in a chain

What was the central area of the Aztec's empire?

The Aztec state centered in the Valley of Mexico, headquartered at the city of Tenochtitlán

Name the land-use zones of the "Latin" American city model.

The CBD, the commercial spine, the elite residential sector, the zone of maturity, the zone of in situ accretion, the zone of peripheral squatter settlements, & the disamenity sector containing the slums. Layout shown in Fig. 5A-7

How were Spanish NewWorld towns organized?

The focus of the town was the central plaza, where church and government buildings were located. The surrounding streets were arranged in an easily defensible gridiron pattern.

Tierra Helada

The fourth settlement zone in highland South America, extending upward from about 12,000 to 15,000 feet (3600-4500 meters). This altitudinal zone lies above the tree line, and is so cold and barren that it can only support the grazing of hardy livestock and sheep. See Fig. 4A-3, p. 149

What kinds of agriculture were emphasized after the Spanish conquest?

The keeping of livestock, especially cattle and sheep—which competed with the growing of the subsistence crops of the conquered Amerindians

Greater Antilles

The larger islands of the northern Caribbean that encompass Cuba, Hispaniola (containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, and Jamaica

Tierra Nevada

This uppermost zone is above the snow line, which lies at approximately 15,000 feet (4500 meters), and is referred to as the "frozen land." See Fig. 4A-3, p. 149

Transculturation

Two-way cultural borrowing that occurs when different cultures of approximately equal complexity and technological level come into close contact. In acculturation, by contrast, an indigenous society's culture is modified by contact with a technologically more advanced society.

Describe some of the Maya's accomplishments.

Urbanization, pyramids, spectacular palaces, stone carvings and other artwork, mathematics,astronomy, calendrics, advanced agriculture, and a wide trading network.

Which states make up this region? What forces bind them together?

Venezuela, Colombia, and the three Guianas. Common coastal location; the legacy of a tropical plantation culture and economy; large black and Asian minorities. See Fig. 5B-2.

How fast is South American urbanization increasing?

Very rapidly: the realm is 81% urban today; the urban areas have increased annually by 5% since 1950, the rural areas by less than 2%.

Mestizo

White and Amerindian

Name the five altitudinal zones of human settlement in highland Middle and South America.

Tierra caliente (sea level to 2500 feet), tierra templada (2500-6000 feet), tierra fria (6000-12,000 feet), tierra helada (12,000-15,000 feet), and the tierra nevada (15,000 feet and above). See Fig. 4A-3, p. 149.

Why is Middle America more culturally diverse than South America?

African and Asian ancestries prevail beside those of European background; the Amerindiancultural contribution is greater; the Caribbean is a region of especially complex cultural pluralism.

Where is most of Mexico's oil production located?

Along the central and southern Gulf Coast, especially around the city of Villahermosa & thenearby Bay of Campeche.

What basic conflicts divide the population of Central America?

Amerindian and mestizo population clusters often clash; also, there is a huge gulf between the privileged and the poor, causing resentment and violence.

Dry Canal

An overland rail and/or road corridor across an isthmus dedicated to performing the transit functions of a canalized waterway. Best adapted to the movement of containerized cargo, there must be a port at each end to handle the necessary break-of-bulk unloading and reloading

Growth Pole

An urban center with certain attributes that, if augmented by investment support, will stimulate regionwide economic development of its hinterland.

Megacity

City with a population over 10 million

What makes the pattern of South American agriculture unusual?

Commercial and subsistence agriculture exist side by side to a greater degree than in any other realm (see Fig. 5A-5)

Ejido

Communally-owned cooperative farmlands in central and southern Mexico; former hacienda lands.

Land Bridge

Connects two large pieces of land such as Central and south America

Which crops did the Amerindians of Meso-america contribute to the world?

Corn (maize), various kinds of beans, the sweet potato, the tomato, cacao, squash, and tobacco.

Which islands had sizeable influxes of Asian immigration in the 19th century?

Cuba, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Guadeloupe.

Acculturation

Cultural modification resulting from intercultural borrowing. In cultural geography, the term refers to the change that occurs in the culture of indigenous peoples when contact is made with a society that is technologically superior

Who were the Incas?

Descendants of ancient peoples who created a major civilization in the northern Andes around A.D. 1300, centered in Peru's Cuzco Basin.

Informal Sector

Dominated by unlicensed sellers of goods and services, the primitive form of capitalism found in many developing countries that takes place beyond the control of government.

Why is there a large population of Asian peoples in the Caribbean?

During the 19th century, emancipation of slaves and ensuing labor shortages brought immigrants (mostly indentured servants) from distant locations, including China and India

What is the realm's dominant physio-graphic feature?

The Andes Mountains, which form an imposing north-south barrier along South America's entire west coast.

Why do the export crops and the mineral resources of the islands provide so modest an income for the region, and why does wide-spread poverty persist?

These commodities face severe competition from many other disadvantaged countries, and are not established on a scale that could improve local living standards; most islanders therefore live in poverty and eke out a subsistence existence from a small plot of poor land.

What are the five characteristics of Middle American plantations?

They are located in the tropical coastlands and islands; they produce single export crops; foreign ownership and profit outflow dominate; labor is seasonal and has often been imported; "factory in the field" methods are far more efficient than those of the hacienda.

Why did the Portuguese import so many Africans to coastal Brazil?

They opted for a Caribbean-style plantation economy, which required the services of millionsof African slaves.

What is the significance of the Argentine Pampa?

Productive meat-and-grain region which has made the country a major food exporter; gave Buenos Aires a rich hinterland, spurring its growth and success.

Isthmus

Short, narrow land bridge

Mesoamerica

Anthropological label for the Middle American culture hearth

Southern Cone

Argentina Uraguay Paraguay Chile

How did South America's 19th century independence movement spread?

Argentina and Chile, farthest from Peru, began it and Bolivár pushed down from New Granada to the north—by 1824, the Spaniards were driven out.

Mainland-Rimland Framework

Augelli's framework that recognizes a Euro-Amerindian Mainland and a Euro-African Rimland in Middle America

What crucial territory did Bolivia lose to Chile?

Bolivia lost its Pacific outlet in the late 19th century, which leaves the country in a landlocked, disadvantageous situation.

Failed State

A country whose institutions have collapsed and in which anarchy prevails

What is the growth pole concept?

A development plan in which a set of "seed" industries are nurtured, thereafter setting off "ripples" of growth in the surrounding area

What is Brazil's politico-geographical framework?

A federal republic consisting of 26 States, and the federal district of Brasília.

What is the economic situation in Argentina at the beginning of the21st century?

Agriculture and manufacturing sectors experienced huge increases in the 1990s, but a severe recession and economic collapse occurred in the early 21st century.

Plaza

Central market

How strong is the Amerindian imprint on Mexican culture?

Extremely strong: 60 percent of the population ismestizos, 22 percent are predominantly Amerindian, about 8% are fully Amerindian, andonly 10 percent are European.

Commercial Agriculture

For profit agriculture

Where are modern South America's largest population concentrations situated?

In the coastal east and the north of the realm.

Peones

Landless, indebted serfs, who lived in Mexico in the 19th century

List some of the Incas' major achievements.

Most of all, the political integration of Andean South America; a splendid circulation system forgoods and ideas; administration of a complex social and economic system.

What are northern Chile's major minerals?

Nitrates in the Atacama Desert; copper, too, especially in the vicinity of Chuquicamata

Amerindian

Person ethnically linked to the people who inhabited the Americas before Europeans.

What centripetal forcesbind Brazil together?

Successful ethnic mixing, adherence to the Catholic faith, a common language, and a cultural heritage of common music, fashion, and art.

How large is Brazil's relative size?

Territorially, it occupies just under 50% of South America; it ranks fifth in the world after Russia, Canada, the United States, and China

Sertão

The dry inland back-country of northeastern Brazil.

Land Alienation

The process by which Spanish invaders took over Amerindian lands in order to form large haciendas

How has the Brazilian economy fared since 1980?

Ups and downs; the great promise of a "takeoff" has been slowed, in recent years, due to regional economic and social inequities. As of 2011, a more efficient subsidy program began implementation, with significant effects in the poorest States.

Compare and contrastthe territorial shapes of Uruguay and Chile.

Uruguay's is compact, easy to govern and manage; Chile's is severely elongated, causing potential political problems.

In what ways does Paraguay exhibit traits of a regional transition zone?

West and the Southern Cone. About 95% of Paraguay's population is mestizo, with very strong Amerindian influences; Amerindian Guaraní is spoken alongside Spanish. Physiography is non-Andean, and Paraguayan economic geography is reorienting to the south.

Mulatto

White and African

Plural Society

A society in which two or more population groups, each practicing its own culture, live adjacent to one another without mixing inside a single state.

Culture Hearth

A source area or innovation center from which cultural traditions are transmitted

Elongation

A state whose territory is decidedly long (at least six times longer than its width), which often creates external political, internal administrative, and general economic problems. Chile is a classic example

Forward Capital

A capital city located near a sensitive zone with a neighboring state or a frontier that a country wishes to develop; such a statement concerning the push to the empty interior of Brazil was made in the 1950s, when the government decided to relocate its headquarters from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília

Plantation

A large estate for cash crops

What is a land bridge?

A narrow isthmian link between two large landmasses.

Cerrado

A biologically diverse area of savanna in the central-western Brazil subregion, now threatened by expansion of industrial-scale soybean production

El Ñiño

A periodic, large-scale, abnormal warming of the sea surface in the low latitudes of the eastern Pacific Ocean that has global implications, disturbing normal weather patterns in many parts of the world, especially South America

What are the three physiographic/cultural subregions into which Peru is divided?

(1) The desert coast, the European-mestizo region; (2) the Andean Highlands or Sierra, the Amerindian region; (3) the eastern slopes and montaña, the sparsely populated Amerindian-mestizo interior.

What is the difference between Central and Middle America?

Central America is the mainland between Mexico and South America, containing the 7 republics of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Besides all of Central America, Middle Americaalso includes Mexico and the Caribbean Basin.

Did the 1910 Revolutionachieve its goals?

For the most part, yes: the haciendas were redistributed, many into communally-owned ejidos; the Revolution also resurrected the Amerindian cultural contribution to Mexican life

Name the seven republics of Central America

Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

What is the political status of each of the Guianas?

Guyana is independent, with unstable leadership; Suriname is also unstable, is now independent of the Dutch; French Guiana remains an overseas department of France

Antiplanos

High elevation basins and valleys of Peru and coastal northern Chile.

Altiplano

High-elevation plateau or basin between even higher mountain ranges; Andean altiplanos often lie at altitudes in excess of 10,000 feet (3000 m)

How and when did the Spaniards conquer the Incas?

In 1533, Pizarro led a small band of soldiers into Cuzco and deposed the Inca Empire.

How well unified is the South American realm?

In the past, surprisingly little interaction occurredamong the realm's countries, but there are signsof change as a new era of cooperation appears to be opening. Mutually advantageous trade is the catalyst for international cooperation.

Environmentally, whereis most of the region's population concentrated?

In the templada zone of the highlands, toward the Pacific side of the land bridge.

What is unique about where the Maya culture hearth developed?

It is the only one that arose in the lowland tropics.

How does South America's longitudinalposition differ from North America's?

It lies considerably farther to the east, closer to Africa, but facing a much wider Pacific Ocean on the west.

Why is tourism a mixed blessing for the Caribbean?

It provides revenues and jobs in a region of limited options; however, the fabric of local communities is strained by the disparity and contrast of opulence and poverty in the culturallandscape.

What are Venezuela's major economic activities?

Lake Maracaibo oil, and iron ore in the east; oil reserves have also been discovered in the llanos regions of both Venezuela and Colombia

Hacienda

Large estate in a Spanish country

Oriente

Literally "the east," refers to the jungly lowlands of Peru and Ecuador to the east of the Andes that are sparsely populated but contain petroleum deposits.

Pampa

Literally the word means "plain." The physiographic subregion of east-central Argentina that is the country's leading crop-and-livestock-producing region.

What is the spatial extent of this realm?

Mexico and Central America—from the U.S. border to the northern edge of South America—plus all of the Caribbean islands to the east.

Substinence Agriculture

Minimum life sustaining agriculture

What are maquiladoras?

Modern industrial plants in Mexico's northern (U.S.) border zone. These foreign-owned factories assemble imported components and/or raw materials, and then export finished manufactures, mainly to the United States. Most import duties are minimized, bringing jobs to Mexico and the advantages of low wage rates to the foreign entrepreneurs.

Which republic was involved in civil war during most of the 1980s? Which republic contains a coffee growing area called the Valle Central?

Nicaragua; Costa Rica.

Which states make up this region? Which culture dominates? Which group rules?

Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. The Amerind-subsistence cultural sphere is dominant, with a large mestizo population besides the majority Amerindians. Nonetheless, the European elite holds most of the political power.

Insurgent State

Territorial embodiment of a successful guerrilla movement. The establishment by anti-government insurgents of a territorial base in which they exercise full control; thus a state-within-a-state.

How did Spain and Portugal resolve their 15th century disputes over South American territory?

The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, mediated by the pope, gave Spain all land west of the 50th meridian and Portugal all territory to the east.

"Latin" American City Model

The Griffin-Ford model of Middle and South American intraurban spatial structure, discussed on pp. 187-189, and diagrammed on p. 189.

What is the difference between the cultures of Mainland and Rimland Middle America?

The Mainland is dominated by a Euro-Amerindian cultural heritage; the Rimland is dominated by a Euro-African cultural heritage.

What is Mesoamerica?

The Middle American culture hearth that stretched from northern Mexico southeast to central Nicaragua.

What are the geographic differences between Mainland & Rimland?

The Rimland was an area of sugar and banana plantations, high accessibility, seaward exposure, & maximum cultural contact & mixture; the Mainland was removed from these contacts, the region of the hacienda, more self-sufficient, & less dependent on outside markets

What is the current status of the Panama Canal?

The U.S. withdrawal was completed at the end of 1999 and the Canal turned over to Panama.

Tropical Deforestation

The clearing and destruction of tropical rainforests to make way for expanding settlement frontiers and the exploitation of new economic opportunities

Rural to Urban Migration

The dominant migration flow from countryside to city that continues to transform the world's population, most notably in the less advantaged geographic relams

Tierra Caliente

The lowest of five vertical zones into which the settlement of highland Middle and South America is divided according to elevation. The caliente is the hot humid coastal plain and adjacent slopes up to 2500 feet (750 meters) above sea level. The natural vegetation is the dense and luxuriant tropical rainforest; the crops are tropical, including bananas. See Fig. 4A-3, p. 149.

Plaza

The old hub and focus of the Middle and South American city, the open central square flanked by the main church and government buildings.

Urbanization

The process of urbanization involves the movement to, and the clustering of, people in towns and cities

What was the most far-reaching change inthe cultural landscape brought by the Spaniards?

The resettlement of the Amerindians from rural land into villages and towns laid out and controlled by the conquerors; these towns were administrative centers for tax collection and labor recruitment, especially for mining.

Tierra Templada

The second altitudinal zone in highland Middle and South America, between 2500 and 6000 feet (750 and 1850 meters). This is the "temperate" zone, with moderate temperatures compared to the tierra caliente. Crops include tobacco, coffee, corn, and some wheat. See Fig. 4A-3, p. 149.

Lesser Antilles

The smaller-island arc of the eastern Caribbean, stretching southward from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad near the South American coast. Region can also be extended northwestward toward Florida to include the Bahamas island chain

Maquiladora

The term given to modern industrial plants in Mexico's northern (U.S.) border zone. These foreign-owned factories assemble imported components and/or raw materials, and then export finished manufactures, mainly to the United States

What is an insurgent state?

The territorial base in which a guerrilla movement exercises full control; therefore, a state-within-a-state.

Tierra Fría

The third altitudinal zone in highland Middle and South America, from about 6000 feet (1850 meters) up to the tree line at nearly 12,000 feet (3600 meters). Coniferous trees stand here; upward they change into scrub and grassland. There are also important pastures within the fría, and wheat, potatoes, and barley can be cultivated. See Fig. 4A-3, p. 149

Free Trade Area of the Americas

The ultimate goal of supranational economic integration in North, Middle, and South America: the creation of a single trading block that would involve every country in the Western Hemisphere between the Arctic and Cape Horn