Definitions Flashcards
An indigenous inhabitant of Australia
Aborigine
A harmful form of precipitation high in sulfur and nitrogen oxides
- Caused by industrial and auto emissions, this damages aquatic and forest ecosystems in regions such as Eastern North America and Europe
Acid Rain
The rate a moving air mass cools or warms with changes in elevation, which is usually around 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit per 1000 feet or 1 degree Celsius per 100 meters
- Contrasts with environmental lapse rate
Adiabatic Lapse Rate
The forced removal of Africans from their native area and their resettlement throughout the world, especially in the Americas
African Diaspora
A mostly political body that has tried to resolve regional conflicts
- Founded in 1963, the organization grew to include all the states of the continent except South Africa, which finally was asked to join in 1994
- In 2004, the body changed its name from the Organization of African Unity to the African Union
African Union (AU)
A popular but controversial strategy to redistribute land to peasant farmers
- Throughout the 20th century, various states redistributed land from large estates or granted title from vast public lands in order to reallocate resources to the poor and stimulate development
- Occurred in various forms, from awarding individual plots or communally held land to create state run collective farms
Agrarian Reform
The practice of large scale, often corporate farming in which business enterprises control closely integrated segments of food production, from farm to grocery store
Agribusiness
A fan shaped deposit of sediments dropped by a river or stream flowing out of a mountain range
Alluvial Fan
The largest intermountain plateau in the Andes, which straddles Peru and Bolivia and ranges in elevation from 10,000 to 13,000 feet (3,000 to 4,000 meters)
Altiplano
The relationship between elevation, temperature, and changes in vegetation that result from the environmental lapse rate (average 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1,000 feet [6.5 degrees Celsius for every 1,000 meters])
Altitudinal Zonation
A wide variety of tribal religions based on the worship of nature’s spirits and human ancestors
Animism
An adjective for human caused change to a natural system, such as the atmospheric emissions from cars, industry and agriculture that are causing global warming
Anthropogenic
A landscape heavily transformed by human agency
Anthropogenic Landscape
The policy of racial separateness that directed the separate residential and work spaces for white, blacks, coloureds, and Indians in South Africa for nearly 50 years
- It was abolished when the African National Congress came to power in 1994
Apartheid
A regional political and economic organization focused on Arab unity and development
Arab League
A series of public protests, strikes, and rebellions in the Arab countries, often facilitated by social media, that have called for fundamental government and economic reforms
Arab Spring
The geographic term for description and analysis of how physical or human traits differ within a spatial unit or area on the surface of Earth
Areal Differentiation
The geographic term for description and analysis of how different places or points on Earth interact with each other
Areal Integration
A regional organization designed to encourage economic development in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Basin
Asia - Pacific Economic Cooperation Group (APEC)
A supranational geopolitical group linking together the 10 different states of Southeast Asia
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Protection for refugees who are victims of ethnic, religious, or political persecution in other parts of the world
Asylum Laws
A low, sandy island made from coral
- Often oriented around a cultural lagoon
Atoll
A language family that encompasses wide expanses of the Pacific, insular Southeast Asia, and Madagascar
Austronesian
Minor political subunits created in the former Soviet Union and designed to recognize the special status of minority groups within existing republics
Autonomous Areas
In the context of China, provinces that have been granted a certain degree of political and cultural autonomy, or freedom from centralized authority, due to the fact that they contain large numbers of non - Han Chinese people
- Critics contend that they have little true autonomy
Autonomous Region
Key central Siberian railroad connection completed in the Soviet era (1984), which links the Yenisei and Amur rivers and parallels the Trans - Siberian railroad
Bailcal - Amur Mainline (BAM) Railroad
A geopolitical term and concept to describe the breaking up or large political units to smaller ones, the type example being the replacement of the former Yugoslavia with smaller independent states such as Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, and so on
Balkanization
An 1884 conference that divided Africa into European Colonial Territories
- The boundaries created in Berlin satisfied European ambition but ignored indigenous cultural affiliations
- Many of Africa’s civil conflicts can be treated to ill conceived territorial divisions crafted in 1884
Berlin Conference
The array of species, both flora and fauna, found in an ecosystem or bioregion
Biodiversity
Energy sources derived from plants or animals
- Throughout the developing world; world, charcoal, and dung are primary energy sources for cooking and heating
Biofuels
A spatial unit or region of local plants and animals adapted to a specific environment, such as a tropical savanna
Bioregion
This is a Brazilian conditional cash transfer program created to reduce extreme poverty
- Families who qualify receive a monthly check from the government as long as they keep their children in school and take them for regular health checkups
Bolsa Familia
A member of the Russian communist movement led by Lenin that successfully took control of the country in 1917
Bolshevik
A coniferous forest found in a high altitude or mountainous environment in the Northern hemisphere
Boreal Forest
Migration of the best educated people from developing countries to developed nations where economic opportunities are greater
Brain Drain
The potential of return migrants to contribute to the social and economic development of a home country with the experiences they have gained abroad
Brain Gain
A private trade organization that acted as an arm of colonial Britain in ruling most of South Asia until 1857, when it was abolished and replaced by full governmental control
British East India Company
A country that is situated between much stronger countries, and which is intended to reduce conflicts between those more powerful countries by preventing them from sharing a common border
Buffer State
An array of nonaligned or friendly states that “buffer” a larger country from invasion
- In Europe, keeping a buffer zone has been a long term policy of Russia (and also of the former Soviet Union) to protect its western borders from European invasion
Buffer Zone
The name given to native malay (literally “sons of the soil”), who are given preference for jobs and schooling by the Malayasian government
Bumiputra
Settlements of temporary and often illegal housing in Indian cities, caused by rapid urban migration of poorer rural people and the inability of the cities to provide housing for this rapidly expanding population
Bustees
The gap between the gross receipts an industry (such as tourism) brings into a developing area and the amount of capital retained
Capital Leakage
A regional trade organization established in 1972 that includes former English colonies in the Caribbean Basin as its members
Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM)
The economic flight of Caribbean peoples across the globe
Caribbean Diaspora
The complex division of South Asian society into different hierarchically ranked hereditary groups
- Most explicit in Hindu society but is also found in other cultures to a lesser degree
Caste System
A trade agreement between the United States and Guatemala, El Savador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and the Dominion Republic to reduce tariffs and increase trade between member countries
Central American Free Trade Association (CAFTA)
An economic system in which the state sets production targets and controls the means of production
Centralized Economic Planning
A very large South Korean business conglomerate that is composed of numerous smaller companies
Chaebol
A Russian term for dark, fertile soil, often associated with grassland settings in southern Russia and Ukraine
Chernozem Soils
The eastern half of the country of China, where the Han Chinese form the dominant ethnic group
- The vast majority of China’s population is located here
China Proper
Strategic setting where narrow waterways or other narrow passages are vulnerable to military blockade disruption
Choke Point
A thematic map in which areas are colored or shaded to depict differences in whatever is being mapped
Choropleth Map
A social unit that is typically smaller than a tribe or an ethnic group but larger than a family, based on supposed descent from a common ancestor
Clan
The average weather conditions for a place, usually based upon 30 years of weather measurements
Climate
The measured change in climate from a previous state, contrasted with normal variability
Climate Change
A graph of average annual temperature and precipitation data by month and season
Climograph
An agreement signed in 1982 between Australia and New Zealand, designed to eliminate all economic and trade barriers between the two countries
Closer Economic Relationship (CER) Agreement
An ideological struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union that was conducted between 1946 and 1991
Cold War
A Russian led military association that includes Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
- The CSTO and SCO work together to address military threats, crime and drug smuggling
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
Formal, established (mainly historical) rule over local peoples by a larger imperialist government for the expansion of political and economic empire
Colonialism
A racial category used throughout South Africa to define people of mixed European and African ancestry
Coloured
A belief based on the writings of Karl Marx
Communism
The promoted the overthrow of capitalism by the workers, the large scale elimination of private property, state ownership and central planning of major sectors of the economy (both agriculture and industrial) and one party authoritarian rule
Conflict Diamonds
A philosophical system based on the ideas of Confucius, a Chinese philosopher who lived in the 6th century bce
- Stresses education and the importance of respecting authority figures, as well as the importance of authority figures acting in a responsible manner
- Historically significant throughout East Asia
Confucianism
The degree to which different locations are linked with one another through transportation and communication infrastructure
Connectivity
A climate region in a continental interior, removed from moderating oceanic influences, characterized by hot summers and cold winters
- In such a climate, at least one month must average below freezing
Continental Climate
Areas where the two tectonic plates moving in opposing directions meet and converge
Convergent Plate Boundary
A conceptualization of the world into two economic spheres
- The developed countries of western Europe, North America, and Japan form the dominant core, with less developed countries making up the periphery
- Implicit in this model is that the core gained its wealth at the expense of peripheral countries
Core - Periphery Model
Highly mobile Slavic speaking Christians of the southern Russian Steppe who were pivotal in expanding Russian influence in 16th and 17th century Siberia
Cossacks
The suppression of a rebellion or insurgency by both military and political means, which includes not just armed warfare but also winning the support of local peoples by improving local infrastructure (schools, roads, ect)
Counterinsurgency
The blending of African, European, and some Amerindian cultural elements into the unique sociocultural systems found in the Caribbean
Creolization
A system in which close friends of a political leader are either legally or illegally given business advantages in return for their political support
Crony Capitalism
A process in which immigrants are culturally absorbed into the larger host society
Cultural Assimilation
A culturally distinctive settlement in a well defined geographic area, whose ethnicity has survived over time, stamping the landscape with an enduring personality
Cultural Homeland
The active promotion of one cultural system over another, such as the implementation of a new language, school system, or bureaucracy
- Historically, this has been primarily associated with European colonialism
Cultural Imperialism
A physical or natural landscape that has been changed considerably by the influences of human settlement
Cultural Landscape
A process of protecting, either formally (with laws) or informally (with social values), the primacy of a certain cultural system against influences (real or imagined) from another culture
Cultural Nationalism
The blending of two or more cultures, which produces a synergistic third culture that exhibits traits from all cultural parents
- Also called cultural hybridization
Cultural Syncretism or Hybridization
An area of historical cultural innovation
Culture Hearth
Learned and shared behavior by a group of people that gives them a distinct “way of life”
- Made up of both material (technology, tools, ect.) and abstract (speech, religion, values, ect.) components
Culture
An alphabet based on the Greek alphabet and used by Slavic languages heavily influenced by the Eastern orthodox church
- It is attributed to the missionary work of St. Cyril in the 9th century
Cyrillic Alphabet
The currently preferred term used to denote the members of India’s most discriminated against (“lowest”) caste groups, those people previously referred to as “untouchables”
Dalit
The process of a former colony’s gaining (or regaining) independence over its territory and establishing (or reestablishing) an independent government
Decolonization
A five stage model of population change derived from the historical decline of the natural rate of increase as a population becomes increasingly urbanized through industrialization and economic development
Demographic Transition Model
The spread of desert conditions into semi arid areas due to improper management of the land
Desertification
The breaking apart or separation within a political unit such as a nation state
Devolution
The scattering of a particular group of people over a vast geographic area
- Originally, the term referred to the migration of Jews out of their homeland, but now it has been generalized to refer to any ethnic dispersion
Diaspora
A geologic boundary where tectonic plates move away from each other, in opposite directions, thereby creating either a rift zone, which is a depression, or in other places, a ridge built of volcanic material
Divergent Plate Boundary
Refers to the state of having different landscapes, cultures, or ideas, as well as the inclusion of distinct peoples in a particular society
Diversity
An economic strategy in which a country adopts in the U.S. dollar as its official currency
- A country can be partially dollarized, using U.S. dollars alongside its national currency, or fully dollarized, in which case the U.S. dollar becomes the only medium of exchange and the country gives up its own national currency
- Panama fully dollarized in 1904
- Ecuador fully dollarized in 2000
Dollarization
The purposeful selection and breeding of wild plants and animals for cultural purposes
Domestication
A U.S. geopolitical policy of the 1970s that stemmed from the assumption that if Vietnam fell to the communists, the rest of southeast Asia would soon follow
Domino Theory
A strictly south Asian language family that includes such important languages as Tamil and Teluga
- Once spoken through most of the region, they are now largely limited to southern South Asia
Dravidian Language Family
A loose confederation of self governing churches in eastern Europe and Russia that are historically linked to Byzantine traditions and to the primacy of the patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul)
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Created by the European Union (EU) in 1999 to facilitate economic matters amongst member states, including usage of a common currency
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
An intergovernmental organization that promotes economic integration and security among its 15 member states in West Africa
- It was founded in 1975
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
The notion that globalization will result in the world’s poorer countries gradually catching up with more advanced economies
Economic Convergence
Suburban node of activity that features a mix of peripheral retailing, industrial perks, office complexes, and entertainment facilities
Edge City
An abnormally large warm current that appears off the coast of Ecuador and Peru in December
- During this year, torrential rains can bring devastating floods along the Pacific coast and drought conditions in the interior continents of the Americas
El Nino
A city and port that specializes in transshipment of goods
Entrepot
The decline in temperature as one ascends higher in the atmosphere
- On average, the temperature declines 3.5 degrees Farenheit for every 1,000 feet of elevation, or 6.5 degrees Celsius for every 1,000 meters
- Not to be confused with the Adiabatic Lapse Rate
Environmental Lapse Rate
A religion closely identified with a specific ethnic or tribal group, often to the point of assuming the role of the major defining characteristic of that group
- Normally, ethnic religions do not actively seek new converts
Ethnic Religion
A shared cultural identity held by a group of people with a common background or history, often as a minority group within a larger society
Ethnicity
