A

A climates	A Climates: Humid Equatorial / Tropical 36% of the Earth's total surface Coolest month must be warmer than 64.4 degrees F Precipitation exceeds evaporation
Acculturation	Cultural modification resulting from intercultural borrowing. In cultural geography, the term is used to designate the change that occurs in the culture of indigenous peoples when contact is made with a society that is technologically more advanced. A one-way transfer of cultural traits EXAMPLES: The Amerindians of North America (US and Canada) were acculturated into western, European, society. The culture of the colonists replaced that of the Native Americans living here before their arrival. In Sub-Saharan Africa: a process of acculturation occurred in the Islamic areas (Islam completely REPLACED earlier religions).
African National Congress
Afrikaners	Africans of Dutch descent in South Africa.
Agrarian revolution	The Agrarian Revolution was made possible by a sustained population increase during the 17th and 18th centuries, improvements in organization of land ownership, expanded markets and for profit farming rather than substance agriculture. New crops were introduced from Americas. Agriculture changed the economic geography of Europe and lead to changes in spatial patterns.
Altiplano	High elevation plateau, basin, or valley between even higher mountain ranges. In the Andes Mountains of South America altiplanos lie at 10,000 feet (3000 m) and even higher). [map]
Altitudinal zonation	Altitudinal variations (mountains) in tropical areas have a significant impact on the local climate resulting in climatic zones that correspond with elevation. This zonation of climate according to elevation is called Altitudinal zonation. Each zone has its distinctive climate, vegetation, agriculture, and therefore lifestyles.
Amerindian	The Incas were descendents of ancient peoples who came to South America via the Middle American land bridge (possibly following earlier migrations from Asia to North America via the Bering land bridge). Thus for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived in the sixteenth century, indigenous Amerindian communities and societies had been developing in South America.
Amerind-subsistence	[map] De Blij & Muller text, p. 248
Apartheid	Literally "apartness." The Afrikans term given to South Africa's policies of racial separation and the highly segregated socio-geographical patterns they have produced; a system now being dismantled.
APEC	APEC stands for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization which is composed of 18 Pacific Rim countries. It was formed in 1989 to promote free trade and economic integration of member nations.
Andean Group	Formed as the Andean Pact in 1969 but restarted in 1995 as a far more effective customers union with common tariffs for imports, its members are Venezuela, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
Arable	Literally cultivable. Land fit for cultivation by one farming method or another. [map]
Areal Functional Organization	Areal functional organization consists of a set of five inter-related factors that help explain the evolution of regional organization (In Japan and elsewhere). One is that human activity has a spatial focus in that it is concentrated in some locale. Such focal activity is carried on in particular places – every establishment has a location relative to other establishments and activities. Interconnections develop among the various establishments. The farmers send crops to market buying equipment at service centers, while mining companies buy gasoline from oil companies, lumber from saw mills and send ores to refineries. These units of areal organization (regions) evolve as a result of human "creative imagination". People apply their total cultural experience as well as technological know-how when they decide how to organize and rearrange their living space. It is possible to recognize levels of development in areal organization, a ranking or hierarchy based on type, extent and intensity of exchange. These levels of development include: subsistence, transitional and exchange types (Japan is among the latter), and a hierarchy of urban centers ranging from the largest cities to tiniest hamlets.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)	[map]
Atolls	Atolls are low islands made of coral that usually have an irregular ring shape around a central lagoon. See the map of the Palmyra Atoll. The formation of atolls was hypothesized by Charles Darwin ( yes, the evolution guy) to be caused by a coral reef forming around a volcanic island. Later the volcanic island begins to sink as the coral ring continues to grow. Eventually the volcanic island submerges and all that is left is the coral ring.

B

B climates	B Climates: Arid and Semi-Arid 35% of Earth's land surface Evaporation exceeds precipitation
Balkanization	The fragmentation of a region into smaller, often hostile, political units The term comes from the Balkan Peninsula of Europe, a region that has balkanized may time, and is still undergoing balkanization. EXAMPLES: The former Yugoslavia has become five independent countries and the province of Kosovo is currently fighting to break away of what is left of Yugoslavia. The former USSR balkanized into sixteen independent countries with Russia being the largest.
Barrio	Term meaning "Neighborhood" in Spanish. Usually refers to an urban community in a Middle or South American city: also applied to low-income, inner-city concentrations of Hispanics in such western U.S. cities as Los Angeles.
Berbers	The Berbers are the Maghreb region's oldest inhabitants. The Maghreb region is in Africa.
Berlin Conference	In November 1884, the Imperial chancellor and architect of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, convened a conference of 14 powerful states (including the United States) to settle the political partitioning of Africa. For more information see (de Blij & Muller text, p. 340).
Borders
Boundary	Geographic boundaries: Political boundaries defined and delimited (and occasionally demarcated) as straight lines or arcs.
Buffer zone	A set of countries separating ideological or political adversaries. In southern Asia, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Bhutan were parts of a buffer zone between British and Russian-Chinese imperial spheres. Thailand was a buffer state between British and French colonial domains in mainland Southeast Asia.

C

C climates	C Climates: Humid Temperate 27% of Earth's total surface area 55 % of world's population Warmest month > 50 degrees F Coldest month > 32 degrees F but < 64.4 degrees F
C.I.S.	Commonwealth of Independent States. An organization comprised of several of the former republics of the Soviet Union
Capitalism/market economy	Capitalism is an economy where economic resources are privately owned and economic decisions are answered by the marketplace with a limited role for government.
CARICOM	Caribbean Community and Common Market, a 20 year old customers union of former British colonies, which wanted to expand by building ties to nearby Spanish-speaking countries. For more information see de Blij & Mueller text, p. 215).
Caste system	The strict social segregation of people - specifically in India's Hindu society - on the basis of ancestry and occupation.
Central America	Central America is actually a region within Middle America. Central America comprises the republics that occupy the strip of mainland between Mexico and Panama: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. [map]
Central planning / Planned Economy	An economic system where economic resources are owned by the government and the government makes all economic decisions.
Centrifugal force	Forces from within a State that tend to divide it Causes of conflicts within a State Hint: centrifugal = go apart
Centripetal force	Forces from within a State that unite it Forces that keep a country together Hint: centripetal = together
Chiapas	The southernmost state of Mexico. [Chiapas]
Chinese Diaspora	The millions of Chinese who live outside the realm who came from South China. Most of the Chinese Diaspora have settled in the neighboring realm of Southeast Asia.
Club Mex	[map]
Cold war	The post World War II animosity between the United States and the USSR.
Collective farm
Collectivization	Reorganization of a country's agriculture involving political adversaries. I.e. Thailand between British and French colonial domains. Involves the expropriation of private holdings and their incorporation into relatively large-scale units, which are farmed and administered cooperatively by those who live there. This system transformed agriculture in the former Soviet Union, and went beyond the Soviet model in China's program of communization.
Colonialism	The attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its economic and cultural principles in another territory
Command economy	An economic system where economic resources are owned by the government and the government makes all economic decisions.
Commercial farming	for profit farming
Complementarity	Regional Complementary exists when two regions, through an exchange of raw materials and/or finished products, can specifically satisfy each other's demands. (One area has a surplus of a commodity in demand by another region.)
Confucianism	It is a worldview, a social ethic, a political ideology, a scholarly tradition and a way of life.
Consumption per capita	Consumption per person is a good indicator of development. The richer a country is, the more its citizens consume. This map shows the energy consumption patterns for the world. Similar maps could be made for "televisions per capita" , "cars per capita", or "energy consumptyion per capita".
Continental drift	The slow movement of continents controlled by the process associated with plate tectonics.
Convergent boundary	Convergent boundaries -- where crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another. Convergent boundaries explain the location of the world's ocean trenches, some mountain chains like the Andes of South America and the Himalayas of Asia [India], and the location of most of the world's volcanoes [ringfire].
Core	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, the area with greatest centrality and accessibility, probably containing the capital city as well.
Core area	In geography, a term with several connotations. 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, the area with the greatest centrality, and accessibility, probably containing the capital city as well.
Coup d'etat	Change of government by force
Cultural landscape	The forms placed on the physical landscape by human activities How people arrange the physical space around them INCLUDES: buildings, roads, fields, cities, etc. any change to the physical landscape
Culture	" . . . the sum total of the knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by members of a society." " . . . the learned patterns of thought and behavior characteristic of a population or society." " . . . The attitudes, objectives, and technical skills of a society." "Culture" does NOT mean "high culture" or a "cultured person". It is not just the arts, but "culture" includes all learned behavior. Culture can be divided into the following components:  Material Culture Social Institutions Attitudes Toward the Unknown the Arts Language
Culture hearth	Heartland, source area, innovation center, place of origin of a major culture.
Czar	Looking at Russia's history, particularly the days of the tsars, may help to shed some light on recent events. In the ninth century, the important trading centers of the region were Novgorod and Kiev. In 1240, the Mongols invaded Kiev and left the princedom of Moscow in a position to establish control over the region. These early events brought about the reign of the tsars and the expansion of the Russian empire eastward toward the Pacific.

D

D climates	D Climates: Humid Cold Climates 21% of Earth's land surface (7% total surface) warmest month > 50 degrees F coldest month < 32 degrees F great variability in temperature snow climates only in mountains in the southern hemisphere
Darien	A dense swamp/tropical rainforest that forms a barrier between Middle America and South America.
Dark/Middle Ages	Rome’s decline coincided with peoples migrating to (and invading from) central Europe and invasions from Africa and Southwest Asia which commenced the The Dark Ages; a long thousand year period of turmoil and poverty. The Dark Ages ended when Monarchies strengthened at the expense of feudal societies, marking the beginning of nation-states, discovery of new territories in the world, promotion of mercantilism-accumulation of precious metals through trade agreements and colonial conquests and the beginning of the Agricultural, Industrial and Political Revolutions.
Devolution	The process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government In Europe: Regionalism in Europe is heightened by disunifying forces – also known as devolution -as it attempts to unify the realm into a common economic sphere.
Divergent boundary	Divergent boundaries -- where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other. Divergent boundaries explain the volcanoes of Iceland [Iceland] and the rift valleys (deep 60 mile wide trenches) of eastern Africa [Africa Escarp].
Domino theory	The theory that destabilization from any cause in one country can result in the collapse of order in a neighboring country, starting a chain of events that can affect a series of contiguous states in turn. EXAMPLE: Indochina War (1964-1975). North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Like dominoes, one country after another fell to the ravages of war or was threatened. (Textbook, p. 510).
Double cropping	The planting, cultivation, and harvesting of two crops successively within a single year on the same plot of farmland. (Japanese agriculture: climate and precipitation allow for double-cropping in most areas).

E

E climates	E Climates: Polar Climates warmest month below 50 degrees F cold, ice climates tundra and ice cap
Economic development
Economic regions of Japan	The Kanto Plain (1/3 of the Japanese population: Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kawasaki). Japan's leading manufacturing complex, intensive cultivated farmland, natural resources and food for manufacturing must be imported. The Kansai District (Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto). A major seaport, important farming area. Nobi Plain (Between the first two). It is the second largest agriculture district. Their geographic connections are not as great. Tokando megalopolis – rimland along the Seto Inland Sea concentrated near Kitakyushu. [map]
Economic tigers	One of the burgeoning beehive countries of the western Pacific Rim. Using postwar Japan as a model, these countries have experienced significant modernization, industrialization, and Western-style economic growth since 1980. The three leading economic tigers are: Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. (Hong Kong: Xinggang) was a leading economic tiger before its 1997 reunification with China.
Economy	Measures of Economic Development GNP per capita Population Growth Occupational Structure of the Labor Force Urbanization Consumption per capita Infrastructure Social Conditions literacy rate life expectancy health care caloric intake infant mortality other
Ecumene	Ecumene is the habitable or settled portions of the earth's surface. [Where] As we discussed in an earlier lecture, a useful set of physical criteria which describe where people live would include the following: near coasts along rivers / near fresh water flat terrain temperate (C) climates (55% of pop.) fertile soil (river valleys, volcanic soils, other)
Ejido	A communially owned farm in Mexico. The result of a government sponsored land redistribuytion program where large haciendas were given back to the Amerindians.
Embargo	A restriction imposed by a government on another country to prevent certain resources and/or products from being imported or exported.
Enclave	A piece of territory that is surrounded by another political unit of which it is not a part.
Escarpment	Most of Africa is well above 3000 feet. If fact, within just a 100 or so mile of the coast of the southern third of the continent, the land rises steeply to this elevation. These long, steep, almost cliff like or mountain like, changes in relief are called "escarpments" [Escarp]. We will study the cause of these escarpments later.
European Union	The European Union today consists of: France Belgium Germany The Netherlands Italy Luxembourg United Kingdom Austria Spain Portugal Sweden Finland Ireland Denmark Greece
Exclave	A bounded (non-island) piece of territory that is part of a particular state but lies separated from it by the territory of another state. [Angola/Cabinda]
Export oriented industrialization
Extraterritoriality	Politico-geographical concept suggesting that the property of one state lying within the boundaries of another actually forms an extension of the first state.

F

Federation	(Federal state). A political framework wherein a central government represents the various entities within a nation-state where they have common interests-defense, foreign affairs, and the like, yet allows these various entities to retain their own identities, and to have their own laws, policies, and customs in certain spheres.
First world
Five nations of Mexico	Five nations of Mexico
Forward capital	Capital city positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border, it confirms the state's determination to maintain its presence in the region in contention.
Fragmented State	A state whose territory consists of several separated parts, not a contiguous whole. The individual parts may be isolated from each other by the land area of other states or by international waters. [Philippines]
Free trade area	A form of economic integration, usually consisting of two or more states. In which partners agree to remove tariffs on trade among themselves. Usually accompanied but a customs union that establishes common tariffs on imports from outside the trade zone.
FTAA	Free Trade Area of the Americas - The goal of a single market of more than 800 million consumers that would extend from the Arctic shores of Alaska and Canada to Chile's southernmost Cape Horn. (de Blij & Mueller, p.249).

G

Geography	The study of the locations and distributions of features on the Earth's surface. (WHERE? WHY THERE? WHY DO WE CARE?)
Geometric boundaries	Political boundaries defined and delimited (and occasionally demarcated) as straight lines or arcs. [US/Canada border]
Glasnost	Glasnost means openness. It was part of the Soviet Union's attempt to modernize communism under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbechev.
GNP (GDP)	GNP is the total market value of all-final goods and services produced by a country in one year. It is a measure of economic activity, or how much is produced in a country. The more that a country produces per person , the more "developed" it is assumed to be.
GNP per capita	To calculate GNP per capita (or income per person) we divide the GNP by the population. The GNP per capita of Switzerland is $40,630 and the GNP per capita of India is $ 340. Remember, always use GNP PER CAPITA when comparing the economic conditions of different countries. [map]
Great escarpment	The Great Escarpment is pronounced edge of the African plateau that forms a steep cliff which is hundreds of miles long. It stretches from southern South Africa to Tanzania on the east coast and as far as The Congo on the Atlantic coast.
Greater Antilles	Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico [map]
Green revolution	Modern technology has not yet had a significant impact on African agriculture. In many poor regions of the world the green revolution has significantly increased agricultural output. The green revolution is a series of technological discoveries that created high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat. Hence, where these crops are grown food production has increased significantly. Unfortunately, very little rice and wheat is grown in Sub-Saharan Africa. the primary food crops in Africa are maize (corn), sorghum, millet in drier areas and root crops like yams and cassava, as well as plantains, in wetter areas. Scientists are currently working with these crops and there are signs of hope. But Sub-Saharan Africa remains poor and nutritionally deficient.
Growth pole	An urban center with certain attributes that if augmented by a measure of investment support, will stimulate regional economic development in its hinterland.

H

Hacienda	Literally, a large estate in a Spanish-speaking country. Sometimes equated with the plantation, but there are important differences between these two types of agricultural enterprise (see pp. 209).
Han Chinese	92% of Chinese population [map] The Han Chinese today form the most important group. Their field of expansion extends over nearly fifteen million square kilometers (six million square miles).
HDI	Human Development Index: GNP per capita is the most used indicator of development yet there are some significant problems with it. Therefore, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) computes a Human Development Index for each country each year. The human development index (HDI), composed of three indicators: life expectancy, education (adult literacy and combined secondary and tertiary school enrollment) and real GDP per capita. (Note: for our purposes, GNP and GDP mean the same thing and they are synonymous with income.)
Hegemony	The political dominance of a country , or region, by another. Vietnam's control of Cambodia after the Vietnamese ousted the Cambodian Kymer Rough govermnent in 1979 would be an example. also, the soviet Union's political control of Eastern Europe.
Highland climates	H Climates: Undifferentiated Highland climates Climates of mountainous areas
Historical geography	The study of how a region evolves and continues to change is the domain of historical geography.
History analogy	History and Geography are quite similar. When historians study a topic they focus on the WHEN. Hence you can have subjects like the: history of war, the history of sports, the history of comic books, etc. Geographers can study these same issues, and virtually anything else, but the geographer's perspective is SPATIAL, rather than TEMPORAL like the historians. Hence there can also be the geography of war, the geography of sports, and the geography of comic books. What geographers add to such topics is the spatial perspective. Biologists do the same thing when they divide living organisms into different groups with similar characteristics to better understand the great variety of living organisms.
Hollow continent	South America is sometimes called the "hollow continent" because of the peripheral location of its population centers. the center of the continent is "hollow - it is sparely located. [map]
Hollow frontier
Homelands	Homelands were areas designated to racial groups in Africa in the 1970s. These systems were dismantled in the 1990s. Homelands were the cornerstones of the white minority governments policy known as "separate development," the successor of apartheid.
Hot Spots	Many of the islands in the Pacific Realm are volcanic island chains formed above "hot spots" in the ocean crust. Read the USGS site on hotspots and island chain formation. [hotspot] [wwhotspt]
Human Development Index	The human development index (HDI), composed of three indicators: life expectancy, education (adult literacy and combined secondary and tertiary school enrollment) and real GDP per capita. (Note: for our purposes, GNP and GDP mean the same thing and they are synonymous with income.)

I

Iberia	The European peninsula consisting of Spain and Portugal. [map]
Imperialism	The drive toward the creation and expansion of a colonial empire and once established its perpetuation.
Import substitution industries	Industries that local entrepreneurs establish to serve populations of remote areas when transport costs from distant sources make goods too expensive to import.
Indochina	The eastern component of a mainland Southeast Asia, ruled by France during the colonial era; constituted by the countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Industrial revolution	The Industrial Revolution commenced from a change from handicraft to mass production of products with the invention of steam engine. Coal was used to smelt iron rather than wood or charcoal. Britain benefited the most as the Industrial Revolution occurred when British influence extended worldwide and the most significant advances occurred in Britain. The British possessed skills necessary to make the machines that manufactured the products, controlled the flow of raw materials, and held a monopoly over products in demand. Manufacturing regions occur adjacent to large coalfields in the British midlands. An east -west belt of manufacturing extended from northern France into Poland with heavy manufacturing centered on the Ruhr in western Germany. Other aspects of the Industrial Revolution included agglomerative (concentrating) forces and deglomerative (dispersal) forces. These were a nodule region marked by a set of points where industrial activities occurred rather than regions. Other general factors included: raw material transport costs, cost of finished product and transport and special factors, perishability of goods, and differentiated between regional and local factors. For more see: http://history1700s.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa090697.htm
Infrastructure	A country's infrastructure is defined by our author as "the foundations of a society: urban centers, transport networks, communications, energy distribution systems, farms, factories, mines, and such facilities as schools, hospitals, postal services, and police and armed forces." (textbook page G-7) Today, a modern state's infrastructure includes railroads, airports, energy distribution systems, telecommunications networks and the like. [map]
Insularity	Having the qualities of an island (Japan).
Internal republics
Intervening-opportunity	Intervening opportunity-potential trade between two places even if the first two conditions are met, will only develop in the absence of a closer intervening opportunity.
Irredentism	A policy of cultural extension and potential political expansion aimed at a national group living in a neighboring country For example, when India mistreated the Muslims living in state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Muslim government of neighboring Pakistan threatened, and ultimately wet to, war [map] Irredentism is often a cause of cultural conflicts as countries protect members of their cultural group living in neighboring countries.
Isthmus	A land bridge; a comparatively narrow link between larger bodies of land. Central America forms such a link between North and South America. [map]

J

Jakota Triangle

Easternmost region of East Asia. Japan, Korea, Taiwan. Transformed community and society. [map]

K

Khymer Rouge

The Kymer Rouge is the clandestine Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) in Cambodia which has opposed the Cambodian government. They have been among the worst offenders of land mines in the world.

L

Land bridge	A narrow isthmian link between two large landmasses. They are temporary features - at least in terms of geologic time subject to appearance and disappearance as the land or sea level rises and falls. [map]
Latin America	[map]
LDCs	Is it appropriate to divide the world into the More Developed Countries (MDCs) and the Less Developed Countries (LDCs)? As stated above the author of our textbook says no since all countries have more developed and less developed areas and because the most commonly used measure of development (GNP per capita) masks the unequal distribution of income within a country. Yet, I believe that it is useful regionalization scheme since it is still used by so many people. We also noted that there are several commonly used synonyms for MDCs and LDCs. Here is a map showing one view of the less developed world [LDC]. Note that regions are inventions of geographers and different geographers, using different criteria, may come up with different regions. Generally, most people would classify the following realms as LDC's: Sub-Saharan Africa South Asia Southeast Asia China * North Africa and Southwest Asia Middle America South America the Pacific Realm
Leaching	The high amounts of rainfall in such areas leach nutrients out of the soil, so even though the tropical rain forests in these areas look thick, the soil is in reality quite poor. Shifting cultivation is a special type of agriculture that people use in such areas because of the poor soil quality. Leached soils is infertile, reddish appearing, tropical soil whose surface consists of oxides of iron and aluminum; all other soil nutrients have been dissolved and transported downward by percolating water associated with heavy rainfall.
Lesser Antilles	The smaller islands of the Caribbean [map]
Life expectancy	[map]
Lingua franca	Common second language: In Europe throughout the Roman Empire: Development of a lingua franca (Latin) that unified the continent. Has not been unified as it was under the Romans.
Literacy   Llanos	The Llanos (plains) extend from Bolívia, Peru and Colombia, through 1000km of Venezuela to the Orinoco delta, an area of about 320,000 square kilometers. [map]

M

Maghreb	The Maghreb is comprised of the northwestern most African countries of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The name itself means "Isle of the West." The countries in the Maghreb are sometimes referred to as the Barbary States.
Mainland/rimland framework	Twofold regionalization of the Middle American realm based on its modern cultural history. The Euro-Amerindian mainland stretching from Mexico to Panama (except for the Caribbean coastal strip), was a self-sufficient zone dominated by hacienda land tenure. The Euro-African Rimland, consisting of that Caribbean coastal zone plus all of the Caribbean islands to the east, was the zone of the plantation that heavily relied on trade with Europe and North America. [map]
Mainstreet	The core are of Canada along the St Lawrence river [map].
Maquiladora	Foreign owned factories (mainly by large U.S. companies) that assemble imported, duty-free components and raw materials into finished industrial products. For more see de Blij & Mueller text, p. 224-225.
Market economy
MDCs	The more developed realms generally include: North America Japan * Europe Australia / New Zealand Russia * The author of our textbook includes the developing countries of China, Mongolia, and North Korea in the East Asian realm which also includes the industrialized country of Japan, and the Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) of South Korea and Taiwan. One final note: Is China an LDC or an MDC? Look at the data for China found in appendix A of your textbook. According to our measures of economic development China is definitely a less developed country with a GNP per capita of only $620.
Megalopolis	Term used to designate large coalescing supercities that are forming in diverse parts of the world; used specifically to refer to the Boston-Washington multi-metropolitan corridor on the northeastern seaboard of the United States, but the term is now used generically with a lower-case m as a synonym for conurbation. [map]
Mercator projection	The continent of Africa makes up one fifth of the world's land surface. This comes as a surprise to many students since on a common map used in many schools, called the Mercator Projection, Africa appears smaller than it really is. This is because all maps distort (see appendix B in your textbook.). Maps distort because they try to portray the curved surface of the earth on a flat(map) surface. The Mercator projection enlargesareas near the north and south poles and shrinks areas near the equator. (It does this so that north and south will always be directly up and down on the map.) Africa therefore, which sits on the equator, appears smaller.
Mercosur	Launched in 1995, this Southern Cone Common Market established a free trade zone and customers union linking Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. (de Blij & Mueller, p. 249). [map]
Mesoamerica	[map]
Mestizo	The root of this word is the Latin for mixed: it means a person of mixed white and Amerindian ancestry.
Mestizo-transitional	[map]
Metropolis	Urban agglomeration consisting of a (central) city and its suburban ring.
Mexamerica
Middle America
Monsoon	Refers to the seasonal reversal of wind (and moisture) flows in certain parts of the subtropics and lower-middle latitudes. The dry monsoon occurs during the cool season when dry offshore winds prevail. The wet monsoon occurs in the hot summer months, which produce onshore winds that bring large amounts of rainfall. The air-pressure differential over land and sea is the triggering mechanism, with windflows always moving from areas of relatively higher pressure toward areas of relatively lower pressure. Monsoons make their greatest regional impact in certain coastal and near-coastal zones of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.
Mulatto	A person of mixed African (black) and European (White) ancestry.

N

 O

Orographic rainfall	Mountain induced precipitation, especially where air masses are forced over topographic barriers. Downwind areas beyond such a mountain range experience the relative dryness known as the rainshadow effect.
Ottoman Empire	[map] De Blij & Mueller text, p. 285 - 287.

P

Pacific Rim	A far flung group of countries and parts of countries (extending clockwise from New Zealand to Chile) sharing the following criteria: they face the Pacific Ocean, they evince relatively high levels of economic development, industrialization, and urbanization, their imports and exports mainly move across Pacific waters.
Pampas	Pampa is a subregion of Argentina. It is noted for food production. While it represents only about 20% of the land area of Argentina, two-thirds of the population lives in the Pampa. The word Pampa means plain.
Pastoralism	A form of agricultural activity that involves the raising of livestock. Many peoples described as herders actually pursue mixed agriculture, in that they may also fish, hunt, or even grow a few crops. But pastoral peoples' lives do resolve around their animals.
Periodic market	A market that opens periodically (for example once a week or at some other regular interval). Part of a regional network of similar markets in a preindustrial, rural setting where goods are brought to market on foot (or perhaps by bicycle) and barter remains a major mode of exchange.
Periphery	The contrasting spatial characteristics of, and linkages between, the have (core) and have-not (periphery) components of a national or regional system.
Peters projection	A map projection. The Peters Projection distorts the shapes of the continents, but preserves their relative sizes. On this map you can see the true size of Africa in comparison to the other continents. Africa stretches 4,800 miles north to south and 4,500 miles east to west. It is larger than the United States, Europe, India, China, Argentina, and New Zealand combined. [map]
Petristroika	Perestroika means restructuring. It was part of the Soviet Union's attempt to modernize communism under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
Physiographic boundary	A boundary between states that conforms to rivers or mountain crests, or other physiographic features.
Physiography	Literally means landscape description, but commonly refers to the total physical geography of a place; includes all of the natural features on the Earth's surface, including land forms, climate, soils, vegetation, and hydrography.
Plains
Plantation	A large estate owned by an individual, family, or corporation and organized to produce a cash crop. Almost all plantations were established within the tropics; in recent decades many have been divided into smaller holdings or reorganized as cooperatives.
Plate boundary zones	Plate boundary zones -- broad belts in which boundaries are not well defined and the effects of plate interaction are unclear.
Plate tectonics	In geologic terms, a plate is a large, rigid slab of solid rock. The word tectonics comes from the Greek root "to build." Putting these two words together, we get the term plate tectonics, which refers to how the Earth's surface is built of plates. The theory of plate tectonics states that the Earth's outermost layer is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small plates that are moving relative to one another as they ride atop hotter, more mobile material. For more information see: http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html#anchor19309449
Plateau	Africa is often characterized as a plateau continent. A plateau is an "upland" or "tableland".An area of relatively high elevation.
Political revolution	The French Revolution led to revolutions all over the European continent and the rise of the Nation-State. A Nation-State is a political unit comprising a clearly defined territory and inhabited a substantial population, sufficiently well organized to posses a certain measure of power, the people considering themselves to be a nation with certain emotional and other ties. A Nation-State is also expressed in its legal institution: political system, ideological strength, government that seeks to support forces that unify a state over forces that will disunify it and European model-many states elsewhere in the world are multicultural states.
Post-industrial economy	Emerging economy, in the United States and a handful of other highly advanced countries, as traditional industry is overshadowed by a higher technology productive complex dominated by services, information-related, and managerial activities.
Price distortion
Primary economic activities	PRIMARY ACTIVITIES are those that directly remove resources from the earth. Generally they include AGRICULTURE, MINING, fishing, and lumbering. Activities engaged in the direct extraction of natural resources from the environment such as mining, fishing, lumbering, and especially agriculture.
Primate city	Primate City-A country's leading city that is disproportionately large and expressive of national capacity and feeling, i.e., a microcosm of the country at large.
Puna	Puna (From 12,000 to 15,000 feet.) Above the tree line, which marks the upper limit of the tierra fría, lies the puna (or paramos); this extends from 12,000 to 15,000 feet and is so cold and barren that it can support only the grazing of sheep and other hardy livestock. See altitudinal zonation.
Push and pull factors	The idea that migration flows are simultaneously stimulated by conditions in the source area, which tend to drive people away, and by the perceived attractiveness of the destination.

 Q

Quarternary economic activities

Activities engaged in the collection, processing, and manipulation of information.

R

Rain shadow	The relative dryness in areas downwind of mountain ranges caused by orographic precipitation wherein moist air masses are forced to deposit most of their water content in the highlands.
Realm	"The basic spatial unit in our world regionalization scheme. Each realm is defined in terms of a synthesis of its total human geography -- a composite of its leading cultural,, economic, historical, political, and appropriate environmental features." A simple definition of a realm would be "the largest logical regions into which we can divide the whole world."
Region	"A scientific device that allows us to make spatial generalizations based on artificial criteria that we establish for the purpose of constructing regions" OR "an area on the earth's surface marked by certain properties"
Regional complementarity	The author of our textbook states that regional complementarity "exists when two regions can specifically satisfy each other's demands through an exchange of raw materials and/or finished products". Regional complementarity exists between two areas if one has something that the other wants and the other has something that the first area wants. When regional complementarity exists, trade between the regions is mutually beneficial.
Regional criteria	What criteria could be used to designate a REGION? As we have seen - virtually anything. In this world regional geography course we will use our four class themes of: Physical Geography Economic Geography Historical Geography Cultural Geography ALSO, regional boundaries tend to pass though areas of sparse population. Therefore we may add POPULATION CLUSTERS as a fifth criterion
Regional Geography	The REGIONAL approach studies the many characteristics of each region (or realm) of the world. This is the approach of your textbook and the main approach used in this course.
Relative location	The regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places. Distance, accessibility, and connectivity affect relative location.
Relief	Vertical difference between the highest and lowest elevations within a particular area.
Renaissance	Western Europe's developing states were on the threshold of discovery - the discovery of continents and riches across the oceans. Europe's emerging powers were fired by a new national consciousness and pride, and there was renewed interest in Greek and Roman achievements in science and government. Appropriately, this period is referred to as Europe's Renaissance. (de Blij & Mueller, p. 50-51).
Rift valley	Along the eastern part of Africa the plateau is cut by rift valleys: large, elongated, "trenches" about 20 to 60 miles wide. these valleys have a total length of more than 6000 miles and they stretch from the Red Sea south to Mozambique. The elongated lakes lie within these rift valleys. [afescarp] [aflakes]
Ring of Fire	Convergent boundaries explain the location of the world's ocean trenches, some mountain chains like the Andes of South America and the Himalayas of Asia [India], and the location of most of the world's volcanoes [ringfire].
Rule of 70	Even though population growth rates seem small (1%, 2% 3%, or maybe 4%) they have a big impact. a useful way to see this is by using the "Rule of 70". the rule of 70 is a way to ESTIMATE the number of years it takes for something to DOUBLE if you know the annual percentage growth rate. Therefore, the population of the United States with an annual population growth rate of 1% will double in about 70 years IF THE POPULATION GROWTH RATE REMAINS AT 1%. The population of the country of Mozambique, Southern Africa, with an annual population growth rate of 4% will double in 17.5 years, quadruple in 35 years and increase by a factor of 8 in 70 years IF THE POPULATION GROWTH RATE REMAINS AT 4%. So a small change in the population growth rate results in significant increase in population. You should now examine appendix A of your textbook and see how well the rule of 70 calculates the population doubling time. (Note: the textbook uses the rate of "Natural Increase" to measure the population growth rate.)
Rural-to-urban migration	When people move from the rural areas to the cities, as in many of areas of South America.
Rust belt	The aging and declining Manufacturing Belt of the northeastern quadrant of the United States and the adjacent southeastern Canada is now often referred to as the Rustbelt. (de Blij & Mueller, p.155). Or any aging and declkining industrial area - like the northeast province of China.

S

Sahel	Semiarid zone extending across most of Africa between the southern margins of the arid Sahara and the moister tropical savanna and forest zone to the south. Chronic drought, desertification, and overgrazing have contributed to sever famines in the area since 1970. [map]
Second world
Secondary activities	SECONDARY ACTIVITIES involve converting resources into finished products. These are the MANUFACTURING activities.
Selva	Selva is another term for tropical rainforest.
Sequent occupance	The notion that the successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape. For example, the present cultural landscape of Bolivia includes parts from the early Incan Indians, and from the Spanish colonists who conquered them, and finally from the period after independence. Parts of all these successive cultures make up the cultural landscape of Bolivia today.
Shatter belt	"A region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals." Eastern Europe: This is the most complex, troublesome and changeable region of Europe. This region is also known as a shatterbelt, a zone of chronic political splintering and fracturing. Other areas of the world warrant this classification (S.E. Asia) Geographic terminology is replete with words that describe the breakup of established order.
Shifting cultivation	Cultivation of crops in recently cut and burned tropical clearings, soon to be abandoned in favor of newly cleared nearby forestland. Also known as "slash-and-burn" agriculture.
Siberia	Siberia contains sizable quantities of oil and natural gas, hydroelectric power (in mountainous regions), lumber and mineral reserves. Human habitation would be difficult even under the best of political regimes and the vast existence of permafrost makes retrieval of this region's natural resources difficult.[map]
Slash and burn agriculture	Cultivation of crops in recently cut and burned tropical forest clearings.
South Mexico	[map]
Spatial perspective	Pertaining to the earth's surface. Synonym for geographic(al). Geographers can study anything that has a significant spatial component. Geographers concentrate on the "where" and by doing this they may be able to gain a better understanding of what is being studied than if the "where" were ignored. This is the "Spatial Perspective" that is peculiar to the study of geography. This perspective is useful in a wide variety of field and therefore you have a wide variety of sub disciplines in the field of geography (like political geography, cultural geography, physical geography, etc.). Businesses use geography when they decide WHERE to locate a new plant. Real estate developers use geography when they decide WHERE to build a new housing development. You have used geography when you decided WHERE to look for a job, or WHERE to go on vacation, or WHERE to go to school. If the WHERE is important, then geographers can study it. History analogy: Geographers can study these same issues, and virtually anything else, but the Geographer's perspective is SPATIAL, rather than TEMPORAL like the historians. Hence there can also be the geography of war, the geography of sports, and the geography of comic books. What geographers add to such topics is the spatial perspective. MAPS: primary tool to see the spatial perspective
Spatial process
State	A politically organized territory that is administered by a sovereign government and is recognized by a significant portion of the international community. A State is approximately synonymous with a "country" NOT: Illinois, Chihuahua, Tamil Nadu, and Mato Grasso which are political units within countries The United Nations has establish the convention of using "State" to mean country, and "state" to apply to the internal political units of the US, Mexico, India, and Brazil.
Steppe	Steppe is semiarid grassland, short-grass prairie; also the name given to the semiarid climate type (BS).
Subduction	In plate tectonics, the process that occurs when an oceanic plate converges head-on with a plate carrying a continental landmass at its leading edge. The lighter continental plate overrides the denser oceanic plate and pushes it downward.
Subsistence agriculture / Subsistence farming	minimum-life-sustaining farming
Systematic geography	Topical geography: cultural, political, economic geography and the like. SYSTEMATIC geography studies one issue and looks at its spatial variations in all parts of the globe. College courses in systematic geography include: physical geography, economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, etc. The four systematic topics, or THEMES, that we will use: physical geography cultural geography economic geography historical geography

 T

Territorially-contiguous
Tertiary economic activities / Tertiary activities	TERTIARY ACTIVITIES comprise the SERVICE sector of the economy. The tertiary activities include retailing, transportation, education, banking, etc.
Third world
Tierra caliente	Tierra Caliente (From sea level to 2,500 feet.) The lowest vertical zone from sea level to 2,500 feet, is known as the tierra caliente or the "hot" of the coastal plains and low lying interior basins where tropical agriculture (such as bananas) predominate. [altzona]
Tierra fria	Tierra Fria (From 6,000 to 12,000 feet.) Still higher, from about 6,000 feet to nearly 12,000 feet is the tierra fría, the cold country of the Andes where crops such as potatoes and barley are the mainstays. Only small parts of Middle America reach into this zone, but in South America this environment is more extensive in the Andes. [altzona]
Tierra helada	Tierra Helada (Above 15,000 feet.) The highest zone of all is the tierra helada or "frozen land", a land of permanent snow and ice that reaches to the peaks of the highest mountains. As one moves poleward of the tropics beyond 15 degrees of latitude, the sequence of these environmental zones extends downward with breaks occurring at progressively lower altitudes. [altzona]
Tierra templada	Tierra Templada (From 2,500 to 6,000 feet.) Above this lowest zone lie the tropical highlands containing Middle and South America’s largest population clusters, the tierra templada of temperate land reaching up to 6,000 feet. Temperatures in this region are cooler; prominent among the commercial crops is coffee while core (maize) and wheat are the staple grains. [altzona]
Time-space convergence	The increasing nearness of places that occurs as modern transportation breakthroughs progressively reduce the time distance between them. The trip by boat from New York to San Fransisco before the Civil War took months. After 1870, the transcontinental railroad cut the travel time to less than two weeks; by 1930, trains made the journey in three days. After 1945, propeller plans made the trip in about 12 hours, and by 1960, non-stop jet plans achieved today's travel time of five hours.
Transculturation	The two-way exchange of cultural traits between societies in close contact EXAMPLES Mexico: The current cultural landscape of Mexico is the result of a mixing of the earlier Amerindian cultures and the Spanish culture of the European colonists. The result is an entirely new culture. In Sub-Saharan Africa: transculturation occurred in many of the European controlled areas as Christian beliefs were COMBINED with existing tribal religions creating different, unique, Christian, or African Christian, religions.
Transcaucasian transition zone	In the Russian realm. This is a battleground between Russians, Turks, Christians,Armenians, Muslims and Persians consisting of the independent republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia (part of what Russia Considers its near abroad). This region is caught between external powers (Turkey, Iran and Russia) all vying for influence and dominance in this region and countries in the Transcaucasion region often play the above powers against each other – this is another shatterbelt. [ruregs.]
Transferability	Transferability-the ease with which a commodity may be transported from one region to another.
Transform boundary	Transform boundaries -- where crust is neither produced nor destroyed as the plates slide horizontally past each other. Transform boundaries explain the locations of many of the world's earthquakes. [Calif] [worquake]
Transition zone	ALL regional boundaries are transition zones. Some are large like the boundary between Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. aftrans.gif
Tropical-plantation	[map]

U

Undifferentiated Culture Sphere (South America)	[map]
Urbanization	Urbanization is the percentage of a country's population who live in urban areas. Urban areas generally means in towns and cities of 2,500 or more people. Currently just less than half of the worlds population live in urban areas. Generally as countries develop urbanization increases.

V

Vietnam War
Y2Y	Yellowstone to the Yukon - a proposed wildlife conservation zone stretching from Yellowstone Park in the United States to the Yukon Territory in Canada. An indication of the open space and sparse populations of the "empty quarter" of North America (See Nine Nations of North America.) See: http://www.npr.org/programs/RE/archives/981130.y2y.html

W

X

Y

Y2Y

Yellowstone to the Yukon - a proposed wildlife conservation zone stretching from Yellowstone Park in the United States to the Yukon Territory in Canada. An indication of the open space and sparse populations of the "empty quarter" of North America (See Nine Nations of North America.) See: http://www.npr.org/programs/RE/archives/981130.y2y.html

Z