Geog 202 Test 1

Front 1

asymmetrical wargare

Back 1

a term that describes the difference between a superpower's military technology and stategy and the lower-level technology and guerilla tactics used by Al Qaeda and the Taliban

Front 2

bubble economy

Back 2

when vast sums of money flow into a developing country and creates an inflated economy that cannot be sustained. When the bubble pops, a severe depression can happen (ex. Thailand in 1997).

Front 3

centrifugal forces

Back 3

cultureal and political forces acting to weaken or divide an existin state. (pull away from the center).

Front 4

centripetal forces

Back 4

forces that promote political unity and reinforce the state structure

Front 5

colonialism

Back 5

formal establishment of rule over a foreign population

Front 6

core-periphery model

Back 6

the US and canada, western europe and japan constitute the global economic core of the north, while most of the areas to the south make up a less-developed global periphery

Front 7

cultural imperialism

Back 7

the active promotion of one cultural system at the expense of another

Front 8

cultural nationalism

Back 8

the process of defending a cultural system against offensive cultural expressions while at the same time promoting local or national cultural values

Front 9

cultural syncretism or hybridization

Back 9

blending of forces to form a new type of cultures. a common product of cultural collision. (ex. british influence in india)

Front 10

culture

Back 10

it is the behavior held in common by a group of people giving them a way of life. it is a learned behavior

Front 11

decolonialization

Back 11

process of a colony's gaining (or regaining) control over its territory and establishing a separate, independent government (ex. US from Britain's rule)

Front 12

demographic transition model

Back 12

a four-stage model that conceptualizes changes in birthrates and death rates through time as a population urbanizes

Front 13

economic growth rate

Back 13

averagin annual growth of the GNI or GDP over a period of five years

Front 14

ethnic religions

Back 14

religions that remain identified closely with a specific ethnic, tribal or national grou (ex. Judaism and Hinduism)

Front 15

Globalization

Back 15

the growing interconnectedness of people and pleces through converging processes of economic, political and cultural change

Front 16

GNI per capita

Back 16

divide the GNI (growth national income) by the country's population

Front 17

lingua franca

Back 17

when people from different cultural groups cannot communicate directly in their native languages, they often agree upon a third language to serve as a common tongue (ex. Swahili-eastern Africa, French was used for international politics and business, but now it is becoming English)

Front 18

nation-state

Back 18

describes a political unit with territorial boundaries recognized by other countries that are internally governed by an organizational structure. (homogeneous cultural group with its own fully independent political territory)

Front 19

overurbanization

Back 19

urban population grow more quickly than it can provide housing, transportation, waste disposal and water supply

Front 20

rate of natural incresase-RNI

Back 20

(most common population statistic) depicts the annual growth rate for a country or region as a percentage increase

Front 21

squatter settlements

Back 21

illegal developments of makeshift housing are found in the developing world

Front 22

sweatshops

Back 22

crude factories in which workers sew clothing and assemble sneakers with labor-intensive tasks for extremely low wages

Front 23

total-fertility rate-TRF

Back 23

rate that measure the fertility of an average group of women moving through their childbearing years

Front 24

transnational firms

Back 24

are companies that disrupt local ecosystems in search for natural resources and manufacturing sites

Front 25

universalizing religions

Back 25

religions that appeal to all peoples regardless of location or cultures (ex. christianity, islam and buddhism)

Front 26

anthropogenic

Back 26

human-caused

Front 27

bioregion

Back 27

assemblage of local plants and animals covering a large area

Front 28

climate region- boundaries

Back 28

are drawn around areas with similar average conditions (tempearture and precipitation)

Front 29

climograph

Back 29

regional climate maps displaying graphs of average high and low temperatures and precipitation for an entire year

Front 30

desertification

Back 30

spread of desert like conditions due to the farming of marginal lands

Front 31

greenhouse effect

Back 31

the natural process of lower atmosphere heating that results from the trapping of incoming and reradiated solar energy by water moisture, clouds, and other atmospheric gases

Front 32

green revolution

Back 32

term applied to the development of agricultural techniques used in developing countries that usually combine new, genetically altered seeds that provide higher yield than native seeds when combined with high inputs of chemical fertilizer, irrigation and pesticides

Front 33

prairie

Back 33

grassland in which grassy plants form a verdant cover during the wet season (in north america- midsection in US and Canada_

Front 34

steppe

Back 34

steppe-grassland in which shorter, less dense grass grows (in central asia, russia and southwest asia)

Front 35

acid rain

Back 35

industrially produced sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere that damage forests, poison lakes and kill fish

Front 36

boreal forest

Back 36

coniferous forest found in high latitude or mountain environments of the northern hemisphere

Front 37

concentric zone model

Back 37

a simplified description of urban land use: a well-defined central business district (DBD) is surrounded by concentric zones of residential activity, with higher-income groups living on the urban periphery

Front 38

connectivity

Back 38

how well different locations become linked with one another through imporoved transportation and communication networks

Front 39

counterurbanization

Back 39

people leave large cities and move to smaller towns and rural areas

Front 40

cultural assimilation

Back 40

the process in which mimmigrants are culturally absorbed into the larger host society

Front 41

digital divide

Back 41

regions' poor and underprivileged groups have significantly less access to internet communications than the wealthy

Front 42

ethnicity

Back 42

a shared cultural identity held by a group of people with a common back ground or history, often as a minority group within a larger society

Front 43

federal state

Back 43

nations allocate considerable politial power to units of government beneath the national level

Front 44

gentrification

Back 44

a process of urban revitalization in which higher-in-come residents displace lower-income residents in central city neighborhoods

Front 45

group of eight (G8)

Back 45

collection of powerful countries (us, cnada, japan, germany, great britain, france, italy, and russia) that regularly meet for discussion on key economic and poitical issues

Front 46

location factor

Back 46

the varied influences that explain why economic activity is located where it is

Front 47

megalopolis

Back 47

the largest settlement cluster in the us includes: washington DC (4.7 million), baltimore (2.5 million) philadelphia (6 million), new york city (20.2 million) and boston (3.3. million)

Front 48

north american free trade agreement (NAFTA)

Back 48

extended the FTA to mexico making it the world's largest trading bloc including more than 400 million consumers and a huge freeptrade zone that stretches from beyond the arctic circle to latin america

Front 49

prairie

Back 49

area of land in which vegetation is dominated by tall grasslands in the east and short grasses and scrub vegetation in the west

Front 50

sectoral transformation

Back 50

the evolution of a nation's labor force from one dependent on the primary sector (natural resource extraction) to one with more employment in the secondary sector (manufacturing or industrial), tertiary (services) and quaternary (information processing) sectors.

Front 51

tundra

Back 51

misture of low shrubs, grasses and flowering herbs that grow briefly in the short growing seasons of the high latitudes

Front 52

unitary state

Back 52

a political system in which power is centralized at the national level

Front 53

urban decentralization

Back 53

the process in which cities spread out over a larger geographical area

Front 54

urban realms model

Back 54

a simplified description of urban land use, especially descriptive of the modern north american city. it features a number of dispersed, peripheral centers of dynamic commercial and industrial activity linked by sophisticated urban transportation networks

Front 55

agrarian reform

Back 55

peasants demanding redistribution of farm land

Front 56

antiplano

Back 56

the high plains of peru and bolivia that are treeless

Front 57

central american free trade association (CAFTA)

Back 57

this is a trade agreement between the US and Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, HOnduras, Costa Rica and the Cominican Republic to reduce tariffs and increase trade between member countries

Front 58

dependency theory (1960)

Back 58

expansion of European capitalism created the region's underdevelopment. For the developed "cores" of the world to prosper, the "peripheries" became dependent and impoverished

Front 59

dollarization

Back 59

a process which a country adopts- in whole or part- the US dollar as its official currency

Front 60

el nino

Back 60

occurs when a warm pacific current arrives along the normally cold coast waters of Ecuador and Peru in December arount Christmas time

Front 61

grassification

Back 61

conversion of tropical forest into pasture

Front 62

growth poles

Back 62

planned industrial cities (usually capital cities)

Front 63

informal sector

Back 63

concept that presupposes a dual economic system consisting of formal and informal sectors. the informal sector includes self-employed, low-wage jobs that are usually unregulated and untaxed. some scholars include illegal activities such as drug smuggling and prostitution as informal

Front 64

latifundia

Back 64

long-observed practice of maintaining large estates

Front 65

maquiladora

Back 65

mexican assembly plants that line the border of the US

Front 66

megacities

Back 66

urban conglomerations of more than 10 million people

Front 67

mercosur

Back 67

the souther common market estblishe din 1991 that calls for free trade among member states and common external tariffs for nonmember states. Argentina, Paragua, Brazil, and Uruguay are members. Chile is an associate member

Front 68

mestizo

Back 68

people of mixed european and indian anestry

Front 69

minifundia

Back 69

peasants who farmed small plots for their subsistence

Front 70

neoliberal policies

Back 70

policies that stress privatization, export production, direct foreign investment, and few restirctions on imports

Front 71

neotropics

Back 71

tropical ecosystems of the western hemisphere

Front 72

organization of american states (OAS)

Back 72

founded in 1948 and headquartered in washington D.C. the organization advocates hemispheric cooperation and dialog. most states in the americas belong except cuba

Front 73

remittances

Back 73

monies sent home by immigrants working abroad to family members and communities in countries of origin. (mostly developing countries)

Front 74

rural-to-urban migration

Back 74

process that occurs when rural jobs disappear and many households will send family mambers to the cities for employment as domestics, construction workers, artisan and vendors

Front 75

shields

Back 75

large upland plateaus of central and south america

Front 76

squatter settlements

Back 76

makeshift housing on land not legally owned or rented by urban migrants, usually in unoccupied open spaces within or on the outskirts of a rapidly growing city

Front 77

subnational organizations

Back 77

governing bodies that include several states, such as trade organizations. often involve a loss of some state powers to achieve the organization's goals

Front 78

syncretic religion

Back 78

blends of different belief systems

Front 79

treaty of tordesillas

Back 79

a treaty signed in 1494 between spain and portugal that drew a north-south line some 300 leagues west of the azores and cape verde islands. spain received the land to the west of the line and portugal the land to the east. the pope at that time brokered the treaty

Front 80

urban primacy

Back 80

a condition in which a counry has a primate city three to four times larger than any other city in the country