Chapter 1-5
What did the Township and Range system of the US Land Ordinance of 1785 establish?
Divided land in US west of the Appalachian mountains into square mile (640 acres) parcels.
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French traders established Quebec City because of its strategic location (site) on a bluff overlooking the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.
Both the United States and Canada have distinct cultural pockets.
French-speaking Catholic Canada, Indigenous (Inuit) northern Canada in Nunavut, the Hispanic southwest, the Black south, and so forth.
What is geography and why is it important?
Geography literally means, "describing the earth." It is physical features(climate, landforms, crops) and human features(language, religion, politics). Understand economy better. Improve decision making. Improve your own image. What we do in one country, affects other countries.
Climate terms and locations
Humid Continental(Canada area), Humid Subtropical(Eastern US), Tropical Rainforest(North Latin America), Tropical Savanna(South east area of Latin America), Desert Steppe(North Africa), Mediterranean(Europe area), Marine West Coast(above Mediterranean), Tundra, and Subarctic
What environmental challenge afflicts the South?
Hurricanes
In North America, the inner city tends to be poorer and the suburbs more prosperous
In Latin America they tend to have an elite sector around the Central Business District where the upper-class citizens live, while poor newcomers gather in slums and squatter settlements on the outskirts of town.
The Andes Mountains affect rainfall
In Lima, on the west side (leeward) of the Andes, there is almost no rainfall. In Iquitos, on the east side (windward), there is over one 100 inches a year.
Tectonic plates are always in motion in some way or another. In subduction, one plate moves downward, forcing the other plate up to form mountains and volcanoes.
In the case of Latin America, the Nazca plate is gradually moving under the South American Plate, forming the Andes Mountains.
What is Lacostacian View?
Internal factors such as corruption can have just as much or more long term problems in a country
What can explain the growth of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?
It is located in the coal-rich Appalachia region of the United States and sits where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to form the Ohio River, which means coal and manufactured goods can easily be shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Two soil types
Laterization: (occurs in rainforests, poor soil decomposes too quickly and minerals leached out) Podzolization: (occurs in northern climates, soil becomes acidic due to decaying pine matter, though the cold prevents it from quickly decaying)
What are large-scale properties held by corporations or wealthy descendants of European colonialists called?
Latifundias Their owners mostly use the land to grow cash crops.
In most regions and cities, people of the same religion and ethnic background tend to what?
Live in the same areas
What are the sub-disciplines of geography?
Location(Absolute-Site: is it defensible,neutral, access to power or fall lines,and productive. Relative-Situation: Trade, Break in Bulk or bulk cargo ships from ocean, Hinterlands or basic service like church, school, and stores.) Place(Identify physical and human characteristics) Movement(people, goods, ideas) Regions(divide into similar human and physical characteristics ex: Latin America,Sub Saharan Africa, North Africa/Southeast Asia, South Asia)
Explain why some areas of the world are more developed.
Location(Site and Situation), Environment, Human Factors(educating women, belief of working hard,accidents of history) and Population
List and define the 5 themes of geography?
Location, Place, Movement, Human/Environment Interaction, Regions
Latin America
Many indigenous tribes, with unique languages, still dominate certain areas of the region
In most Latin American countries this type of people is the dominant group.
Mestizo refers to people who are a blend of European and Native ancestry.
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To minimize the adverse effects of acid rain, a "superstack" (much taller than the original smokestack, on the right) was built in 1972 to release the sulfur and other pollutants higher up into the atmosphere, which then allows prevailing winds to scatter the sulfuric acid over a much broader area
Many toponyms (place names) in Latin America reflect some of the common characteristics that help to identify Latin America as a distinct region which are:
colonization, Catholicism, climate, native culture, or riches the colonizers hoped to find.
Colonizers brought this religion to Latin America
colonizers brought the Catholic religion, which is now the dominant religion of the region.
Crops that can grow in each zone:
tierra caliente: bananas, cocoa, rubber, rice, date palms tierra templada: Manioc coffee, rice, tobacco, agave(tequila) tierra fria: barley, beans, orchard crops, peas, apples, plantain, wheat, corn, potatoes tierra helada: grazing, broad beans
The zone where the Incas and other indigenous peoples lived is?
tierra fria zone
Why do immigrants want to come to the US?
traditions of freedom and opportunity
San Diego and San Francisco have what in common?
was settled by the Spanish and provided safe anchorage for ships.
What are the categories of physical geography?
water availability, climate(determined by precipitation and temperature), vegetation, soils, landforms, and resources
The Appalachian Mountains were a limiting barrier to westward migration. Why?
few east-to-west corridors in the long mountain chain. One of the few breaks is at Harper's Ferry, where the Potomac River carves an east-to-west route through the mountains.
What affects the population density?
greater population is found in areas that are easily accessible such as coasts and rivers. Rural areas have low density.
To the west of the Rocky Mountain range is a geological region that extends from the Wasatch Range of Utah on the east to the Sierra Nevadas of California on the west.
known as Basin and Range.
Why is Detroit, Michigan also known as motor city or "motown?"
located along the great navigation corridor of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. This allows for the easy transportation of two key resources necessary to make cars: coal, primarily from Appalachia, and iron ore from Minnesota and Michigan.
What is a periphery country?
many are dependent on their relationship with world powers or their former colonial occupants.
What kind of people can be found in Latin America?
mix of indigenous, European, and Mestizo peoples who make up much of the population of Latin America.
The French Quarter in Louisina
one of the areas flooded in New Orleans when levees broke during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
In Chicago, a high-income sector is called?
the Gold Coast
Where would you find bilingual road signs in English and French (instead of Spanish)?
the Great White North(Quebec)
Zion National Park in southern Utah was carved by what river?
the Virgin River
What determines a bioregion?
the dominant form of vegetation
In Chicago, the poorest parts of the South Side are?
the high-rise "projects."
What is globalization?
the world has become smaller as countries become more interconnected and dependent upon one another. Migration is an important factor of globalization.
A more recent attempt to model typical urban geography is the Multiple Nuclei Model.
there are wealthy sectors, poor sectors, industrial areas, and business areas.
In Latin America, there is a phenomenon known as altitudinal zonation. There are four general zones of climate based on elevation:
tierra caliente (hot earth) tierra templada (temperate earth) tierra fria (cold earth) tierra helada (frozen earth)
What is Continentality?
A climate effect of interior continents like North America and Asia, are far removed from large bodies of water. Therefore experience extremes in temperatures(water takes a long time to heat or cool, so large bodies of water keep the land cool).
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A significant resource of the Northwest is timber. The logging industry is an important part of the local economy
Why is the south part of Latin America poorer?
Partly because of its less-educated indigenous population living in isolated mountainous villages.
Why are the states iclosest to the US border in Latin America more wealthy?
Partly because of the many maquiladora manufacturing plants that provide jobs
What card game practices grain trading in the Chicago Board of Trade?
Pit
Chicago has several different immigrant groups:
Polish, Russian, Jewish, Asian, even Ukranian. Each live in certain sections of the city.
New Orleans
Situated by Mississippi river makes it a great trading city and also a target for hurricanes.
Why the differences in staple foods and nutritional quality?
Some of the reasons include diffusion of foods, soil types, climate, elevation, culture, and economics.
What crop in the Midwest is rotated with corn?
Soybeans
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Spanish colonizers laid out their cities in grid patterns with a central plaza and cathedral at the center of town.
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The Canadian Shield extends in an broad arc around the southern half of Hudson Bay.
In 1981, Joel Garreau identified nine nations in North America, each with distinct cultures and economies
The Empty Quarter, The Bread Basket, The Islands, The Foundry, Ecotopia, MexAmerica, Dixie, New England, and Quebec
The South struggles with land-man challenges. What does that mean?
The Everglades (which means "Sea of Grass") in south Florida are slowly shrinking as more and more water is channeled to the coast for urban and agricultural use.
The Great Basin also includes what Lake?
The Great Salt Lake. It has no outlet to the sea. The only escape for the river water that flows into the Great Salt Lake is evaporation, which leaves behind salts and other minerals.
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The Mexican city of Puebla was a primary colonial town. Colonists in Latin America often preferred to establish towns in the tierra fria or tierra templada
Ottawa is the compromise capital of Canada.
The capital kept shifting from English-speaking Toronto to French-speaking Quebec. Finally, a compromise was reached and the neutral site of Ottawa
What two port cities share a large, protected harbor with two entrances?
The city of Duluth, Minnesota, and its sister city Superior, Wisconsin, at the western tip of Lake Superior, have excellent site and situation.
Cities like Los Angeles and Chicago tend to what kind of urban georgraphy pattern?
The city's neighborhoods are more often than not inhabited by residents with common socio-economic status and ethnicity.
Urban morphology (layout). One early model called the Concentric Zone Model is based on realities in the city of Chicago nearly one hundred years ago.
The farther out you go from the Central Business District, the more wealthy the neighborhoods.
One of the main geographic divisions in the Middle America subregion is between the mainland and the rimland.
The rimland is characterized by a past of plantation farming, worked by slaves due to the near-total removal of the natives by violence and disease. The mainland had an hacienda farming/ranching system and to this day has a more indigenous and Spanish influence.
Steel Mill on Monongahela River in Pittsburgh
The threat of it being bombed led to Geneva Steel mill being established
Canadian Shield:
This region was heavily glaciated and, as such, is not well-suited for agriculture. It is an area of exposed bedrock (due to scouring by glaciers), pine forests, and thousands of lakes (whose lake beds were carved out by glaciers). This region is sparsely populated. Its main industries are logging, mineral extraction, and recreation
What is a core country?
Those that tend to be prosperous and may take advantage of the poorer less developed countries.
What is a glacial cirque?
an amphitheater-shaped valley at the head of a glacier that is formed by erosion
The Appalachian Mountains
are an old, weathered mountain range and are rich in coal. The Appalachia region generally suffers more economically than other regions of the United States
Immigrants coming to US because:
- Irish potato famine - survived the horrors of the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge
Canada was settled by British and French settlers.
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Ecuador is one of the world's main suppliers of bananas.
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The mining town of Sudbury is located in the Canadian Shield.
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A natural divided in North America is what?
100 west longitude To the east: (humid)low plains, tall grass, a humid climate, rain-fed agriculture, and crops like corn and soybeans. To the west:(arid) high plains, short grass, an arid/steppe climate, irrigated agriculture, and crops like wheat and alfalfa, as well as grazing.
What are some of the largest groups of immigrants in Michigan?
Arabs from the Middle East
Why do the countries of the southern cone of South America have such high nutritional quality of life?
Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Southern Brazil are part of the agriculturally rich pampas region which is known for its flat plains, fertile mollisols, and humid subtropical climate, which is great for growing wheat and grazing cattle.
Staple Foods of Latin America:
Argentina: beef, wheat, onions, carrots,squash, citrus, bananas, grapes, apples, rice, milk, yerba mate Dominican Republic: rice, beans, yams, potatoes, bananas, plantains, avocado, limited meat and fish Ecuador: corn, potatoes, brown sugar, legumes, small quantities of meat(guinea pig) Mexico: corn, beans, rice, peppers, squash, tubers, sugar, coffee, pulque
What city,state accommodate the Amish with covered wagon parking?
Arthur, Illinois
Illegal immigrants
As walls were built and patrols increased in urban areas, immigrants were forced to cross in areas like this. Each year dozen of illegal immigrants die of exposure in the summer heat or winter cold of Arizona.
Name the city located at the southern end of the Appalachian mountains.
Atlanta, Georgia Developed as a transportation hub for people and goods heading west around the southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains.
What Mormon imprints do you see in the landscape?
Brigham Young promoted the grid system of city blocks; most towns settled by Mormons have numbered streets. Mormons also built reservoirs (to survive in the arid west) which were then diverted into canals and ditches for irrigation. Another characteristic of Mormon-settled towns are the wide streets.
What is one of the largest cities in US that was also a portage site?
Chicago
The "Corn Belt" includes which states?
Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa
Subregional divisions within the Latin American region that are identified by such characteristics as geography, history, ethnicity, and language.
Middle: Mexico, Caribbean, Central South: Spanish, Portuguese
What is the name for small plots of land used for subsistence farming?
Minifundias
Name the Association and the man who thought other races should be separated or there would be a "racial war."
National Association for the Advancement of White People, founder David Duke promoted the plan, which would turn some choice bits of real estate—Hawaii, Manhattan, the Florida coast—over to Asians, Jews, Cubans, Blacks, Mexicans, and others.
Why does the tectonic situation in Latin America matter?
Native populations now tend to concentrate in mountainous areas, so these landforms help to preserve indigenous cultures. The Andes Mountains, with their orographic precipitation and rain shadow, also have a dramatic effect on the weather systems for the region. In addition, rich resources are available where tectonic processes force mineral-rich molten material to the earth's surface. These plate-collision areas are also where earthquakes tend to center. Volcanism is also a trait of plate boundaries.
What bridge helps travelers traverse deep canyons made of easily eroded sandstone?
Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River (just below Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell)
Another reason for low nutritional quality is:
Often large latifundias dominate the best land in the country, which leaves many poor families with little property for their own food production.
What aquifer is important to the arid west?
Ogallala Aquifer
Why is there higher production of dairy in Wisconsin and New York?
Part of the reason is that these areas were once glaciated; glaciers scoured away much of the fertile soil and deposited it in landscape formations. With limited topsoil, these glaciated areas are better suited for raising dairy cattle than growing grain.
Brazil is in the middle of the list of nutritional quality, but has a very high level of food exportation. Why the difference? Why is so much food being exported while so many people have further nutritional needs?
To pay off the national debt, much of Brazil's land is being used to produce cash crops such as sugar, coffee, soy beans, and oranges for wealthy countries (such as the United States). This leaves less land to grow food for domestic consumption.
San Francisco's deep harbor and coastal location facilitate what?
Trade and immigration
What are the various branches of geography?
Two branches are: Human geography and Physical geography Plus Techniques and Tools to help understand geography
Name a few immigrants of Canada
Ukrainians, Asians
One of the largest remaining temperate rain forests in North America
Washington's Olympic Peninsula
What is a nation-state?
When one nation makes up one state, it is called a nation-state. One geographer said Iceland is the best example of a nation-state. Other good possibilities would include Japan, Korea, and Portugal.
Types of precipitation
Wind patterns(cyclonic), mountains(orographic), evaporation(convection), air pressure(monsoons), and ocean currents
Natural resources in Latin America
World Silver Production: Mexico #1, Peru #2, Chile #6 World Copper Reserves: Chile #1, Peru #3
What is a nation?
a cultural territory made up of communities of individuals who see themselves as 'one people' on the basis of common ancestry, history, society, institutions, ideology, language, territory, and often, religion."
What is a drumlin?
a hill made up of soil and rocks scooped up and deposited by advancing glaciers.
What is a state?
a political entity with territorial boundaries recognized by other countries and internally governed by an organizational structure.