Honors World Geography Semester 1 Final

Centrifugal forces

A term employed to designate forces that tend to divide a country--such as internal religious, linguistic, ethnic, or ideological differences.

A climates (Humid Equatorial)

Af: Rainfall arrives in substantial amounts every month (Tropical Rainforest) Am: Arrival of annual wet (monsoon) season marks a sudden enormous increase of precipitation. (Peninsular India, Southeast Asia, portions of West africa Aw: Wider daily and annual temperature ranges. Two wet seasons. Unpredictable inbetween

European Union Headquarters

Brussels, Belgium

Conurbation

General term used to identify a large multimetropolitan complex formed by the coalescence of two or more urban areas.

Middle American Poverty

Greatest in countries that have experienced isolation or conflict. Isolation within the region does not help connections either.

Major Capital Cities

Paris, London, Washington D.C, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Ottawa, Mexico City, Havana.

European Union

Supranational organization constituted by 28 member countries to further their economic interests.

Dry Farming

The process of farming with residual moisture in areas that have strong distinctions between wet and dry seasons. Used in the breadbasket of Russia, Southwestern U.S and Northern Mexico, and the Great Plains of the U.S

Devolutionary Forces

The process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government.

German Reunification

The reunification of Germany after it was split following WW2. Caused significant problems for the west, as they had to support a failing economy in the east.

Population of Mexico City

30 million.

Carrying Capacity

9-10 billion

Channel Tunnel (Chunnel)

A 50.5 kilometer rail line going through the Strait of Dover. Connecting the cities of Folkestone, England with Coquelles, France.

Specific Climate Types

A classification of climate types by letter, encompasses all climates found on earth

Maquiladora

A foreign owned factory on the Mexican-American border that uses cheap labor and transport costs to increase profits.

Entrepot

A place, usually a port city, where goods are imported, stored and transshipped; a break of bulk point.

Irredentism

A policy of cultural extension and potential political expansion by a state aimed at a community of its nationals living in a neighboring state.

Functional Region

A region marked less by its sameness than by its dynamic internal structure; because it usually focuses on a central node, also called the focal region.

Loire River

A river that flows from inside of France out into the Bay of Biscay.

Megalopolis

A synonym for conurbation, one of the large coalescing supercities forming in diverse parts of the world.

International Date Line (Intro)

A theoretical line following approximately the 180th meridian, the regions to the east of which are counted as being one day earlier in their calendar dates than the regions to the west.

Caucus Countries

Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia. Dangerous and war torn. Evidence of Russias strength in the "near abroad."

B climates (Dry Climates)

BW: True desert climate. Enormous temperature range (ex. 122 f-50 f) BS: Semiarid Steppe. More rainfall than BW climate, but not by much.

Ecotourism

Based on the natural attractions of the country's near-pristine environment.

Benelux (Countries)

Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg

C climates (Humid Temperate)

C: Mid-latitude areas. Just beyond the tropics. None of these areas suffers climatic extremes or or severity, but the winters can be cold when away from bodies of water. Southern California, Southwest Australia and Africa, Central Chile, "Mediterranean" Europe. Cf: No dry season Cw: Dry winter Cs: Dry summer a: hot summer b: cool summer c: short cool summer d: very cold winter

Forward Captital

Capital City Positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border. Confirms the state's determination to maintain it's presence in contested region

Baku

Capital city of Azerbaijan, holds oil pipelines on way to Russia.

Major Religions

Christianity: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox Islam: Sunni, Shia Hinduism Buddhism: Tantrayana, Theravada, Mahayana (Chinese or Shintoism) Shamanist and Traditional Judaism Sikhism Mormonism

Middle American Dependencies

Chunks of land still "owned" by the colonial powers. Include France, Netherlands, and Britain.

Climate vs. Weather

Climate=The long term conditions (over at least 30 years) of aggregate weather over a region, summarized by averages and measures of variability; asynthesis of the succession of weather events we have learned to expect at any given location.

Balkan Countries

Component of Europe that has gone through wrenching changes since 1990 and the fall of communist Yugoslavia. Have seen only limited progress. Includes Serbia, Croatia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Albania.

EU Countries

Countries that benefit economically from the European Union. Offered, but not necessitated is joining of the Euro (general currency for EU).

Communist Countries

Countries that operated under communist ideals. Government ended up with all the power. Main country was the Soviet Union. Currently China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam are "communist"

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.

D climates (Humid Cold)

D: Also known as continental climates. Non-existent in southern hemisphere. Cold winters and cool summers. Df: No dry season Dw: Dry winter

Guadeloupe Dependency

Dependency of France

E and H climates (Cold polar and Highland, respectively)

E: Differentiated into true icecap conditions, where permanent ice and snow keep vegetation from gaining a foothold, and the tundra, which have above freezing temperatures for 1/3 of the year. H: High elevations and the complex topography of major mountain systems often produce near arctic climates above the tree line, even in the lowest latitudes such as the Andes of South America.

White Russia

Eastern portion of Belarus

Baltic Countries

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

Mullato

European and African

Mestizo

European and Indigenous American

Complementarity

Exists when two regions, through an exchange of raw materials and /or finished products, can specifically satisfy each other's demands.

Centripetal Forces

Forces that unite and bind a country together--such as a strong national culture, share, shared ideological differences.

Greater Antilles

Four Islands: Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico

Global Climate Change

General term referring to the temperature increase of the Earth's atmosphere over the past century and a half, how humans may be contributing to this warming, and scenarios of future environmental change that could result if this trend continues

GIS

Geographic information sytem: The system of electronic knowledge of the geographic events that allow geographers to have up to the second information.

Core Locations

In Europe, the western portion that encompasses the British Isles, France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Benelux, And portions of Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. In Russia, the Western portion that includes the major cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow. It extends into the Caucasus but stops at the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan. In North America, the core is the Northeastern portion, encompassing the major cities of both Canada and the U.S. Also known as Main Street and the Manufacturing Belt. In Middle America, the core is surrounding Mexico City, and extends into the Yucatan, reaches barely into Guatemala.

EU Members

In alphabetical order: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK

Core Area

In geography, a term with several connotation. Core refers to the center, heart, or focus. The core area of a nation-state is constituted by the national heartland, the largest population cluster, the most productive region, and the part of the country with the greatest centrality and accessibility--probably containing the capital city as well.

Haiti Earthquake

January 12, 2010. Killed more than 300,000. Shows vulnerability to natural disaster. Displaced millions.

Canadian Border States

Literally border states. British Columbia, Yukon, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island

Hinterland Locations

Locations that have been left behind. Surrounding areas that are served by an urban center. That center is the focus of goods and services produced for its hinterland and is its dominant urban influence as well

Danube River

Major river that starts in Germany and moves through Europe until it empties into the Black Sea.

Mental Map

Maps that individuals carry around in their minds that reflect their constantly evolving perception of how geographic space (ranging from their everyday activity space to the entire world) is organized around them.

Mayans and Aztecs

Maya: Rose in the lowland tropics. Massive Cities. Massive land area. Languages still used today. Aztecs: Highlands of Mexico. Teotihuacan was the capital. Much like Romans in the fact that they borrowed technology to gain strength.

Great Lakes States

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York.

Mississippi River States

Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Arkansas, Tennessee, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky.

Nation State Concept

Nation signifies an area that is bonded by ethnic homogeneity rather than citizenship (e.x Native American Nation)

Arctic Circle

One of five major latitudinal circles, surrounds the arctic

Antarctic Circle

One of five major latitudinal circles, surrounds the continent of Antarctica

Hispaniola

One of the Greater Antilles. Includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Indigenous population wiped out by Columbus and diseases.

Benelux (Agreement)

One of the first supranational contracts. Eased flow of resources and products as well as economic assistance.

Canadian Regions

Pacific Hinge, Western Frontier, Continental Interior, Northern Core, French Canada, Maritime Northeast, Northern Frontier

Major Bodies of Water

Pacific Ocean; Atlantic Ocean; Southern Ocean (Antarctica); Arctic Ocean; Indian Ocean

Iberian Peninsula Mountain Range

Part of the western uplands physio-graphic region in Europe. Blocks the Iberian peninsula from the rest of Europe.

Interglacial Periods (Intro)

Period of warmer global temperatures between the end of the previous glaciation and the onset of the next one.

Economic Sectors

Primary: Extracting and harvesting raw materials. Secondary: Processing and manufacturing said materials. Tertiary: Retail sales, service based jobs, and financial services. Quaternary: Knowledge-based sector. Education, and other informative jobs. Only evolves in high income/educated countries.

Forms of Preciptation

Rain, snow, hail, sleet.

Catalonia

Region of Spain. Highly independent, becoming more and more autonomous. Pushing for complete independence. Prime example of devolutionary forces in Europe.

Economic Rankings by Region

Regions and states are ranked in four different ways. High income, Upper middle income, Lower middle income, and Low income. Ranking by region is misleading, as anomalies exist where one state will be miles and miles above the others within it's region.

Elbe River

River flowing from Czech republic to a North Sea delta in Germany.

Major Rivers and their Cities

Seine, Paris; Mississippi, St. Louis etc; Danube, Vienna, Budapest etc;

Collective Farming (Russia)

Soviet planners believed that agriculture could be made more productive by organizing it into huge state-run enterprises. The holdings of large landowners were expropriated, private farms were taken away from their farmers, and the land was consolidated into collective farms. Aimed for maximum efficiency and mechanization. Never worked.

Italy's Economic Core Area

The Po river Valley and Northern Half of the country. Separation marked by the ancient Ancona Line.

Cartography

The art and science of making maps, including data compilation, layout and design. Also concerned with the interpretation of mapped patterns.

Lake Baykal

The deepest lake in the world. Contains its own unique ecosystem. Freezes completely over in the winter and serves as a highway. Suffers from human population.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange between the western and eastern hemispheres beginning with Columbus's exploration of the "New World". Cultural, agricultural, and technologies were traded, as well as European diseases. Said diseases wiped out huge swaths of native peoples.

Karl Marx

The father of communism. Ideas were the basis for Lenin's Russia.

Balkanization

The fragmentation of a region into smaller, often hostile political units. Named after the historically contentious Balkan Peninsula of southeaster Europe.

Globalization

The gradual reduction of regional differences at the world scale, resulting from increasing international cultural, economic, and political exchanges.

Lesser Antilles

The highly broken chain of islands in Middle America. Small isolated islands that suffer economically because of it. Some have developed but most are still lagging behind.

First Nations

The name for native peoples in Canada.

North Sea Oil Reserves

The oil reserves quickly running out in between the UK and the rest of Europe.

Location of First contact

The point at which two cultures who were previously unaware of each others existence meet. History dictates that the technologically advanced country will win in the event of a conflict.

Absolute location

The position or place of a certain item on the surface of the Earth as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude and Longitude.

GreenHouse Effect

The process in which the Suns rays get stuck in Earth's atmosphere and lead to the warming of the Earth.

Continental Drift

The slow movement of continents controlled by the processes associated with plate tectonics.

Green Revolution

The successful recent development of higher-yield, fast growing varieties of rice and other cereals in certain developing countries

Industrial Revolution

The term applied to the social and economic changes in agriculture, commerce, and especially manufacturing and urbanization that resulted form technological innovations and greater specialization in late eighteenth century Europe.

Mesoamerica

The term for ancient Middle-America. Specifically the Mezoamerican culture hearth.

Domestication

The transformation of a wild animal or wild plant into a domesticated animal or a cultivated crop to gain control over food production. A necessary evolutionary step in the development of human kind: the invention of agriculture.

Lines of Tropics

The two lines 23.5 degrees north or south of the Equator.

Lingua Franca

The unofficial global language. Was French. Currently English.

Altitudinal Zonation

Tierra Caliente: Hot land of coastal plains and low-lying interior. Bananas, Sugarcane, Rice, tropical crops Tierra Templada: Cooler temperatures. Supports higher populations. Coffee and corn. Tierra Fria: Cold country of Andes. Supports potatoes, barley, and dairying Tierra Helada: Can only support Sheep and other Livestock Tierra Nevada: Zone of permanent snow and ice on loftiest peaks.

Largest Population Countries

Top Ten: China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, and Japan.

Barter Systems

Trading services and goods for other services and goods. Does not use currency

NATO

U.S led supranational defense pact to shield postwar Europe against the Soviet military threat. Currently expanding it's membership while modifying it's objectives in the post-Soviet era.

Caucasus Mountains

Wall between Russia and the lands beyond. Rugged mountainous terrain. Shelters anti-Russian terrorists. Very high relief.

Ring of Fire

Zone of crustal instability along tectonic plate boundaries, marked by earthquakes and volcanic activity, that ring the Pacific Ocean Basin