Geographic Tour Flashcards
Define physical geography
focuses on natural features of earth, water, weather, climate, land formation
Define population geography
focuses relationship between geography and population rates, death and birth
Define political geography
focuses on geography’s effects on politics, national boundaries, and between states
Define economic geography
focusues on relationship between geography and economic activity
Characterize the midwest or plains states
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio; known for agriculture of wheat, oats, and corn; near waterways and coal and iron deposits
Characterize the midatlantic states
D.C., New York, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; industrialized area with financial center in NY
Characterize the south
Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia; mild weather, rich soil, oil, agriculture in cotton, peanuts, rice, corn, tobacco, cattle
Characterize the mountain states
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico; sparsely populated
Characterize the pacific states
Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska, California, which leads in agriculture
Characterize New England
Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut; small region, fishing, shipping, manufacturing, dairy farming
What’s important about North America?
Ottawa, Canada, resources nickle, gold, silver, zinc; United States, D.C., coal, copper, gold, silver, nickel; Mexico, Mexico City, oil, gold, silver, natual gas, corn, coffee, sugar cane
What’s important about Central America?
Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua; very poor people, bananas, coffee, corn, long coastline
What’s important about South America?
half of the population and area lies in Brazil; Andes stretch length of the west coast; Amazon Basin covers north central part of continent; peripheral populations now moving inward; difficult terrain kept countries distanced from one another; dividied into 4 regions, North, West, Southern Cone, Brazil; cultural and economic pluralism strong, subsistance and commercial farming side by side
What are the differences between these geographic areas of South America?
North followed a plantation development model importing slaves and contract laborers that were absored into the culture; West influenced by Andes and Amerindian culture; South influenced by Europe; Brazil influeneced by Portugal and strong African culture
What’s important about Europe?
39 states, Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, Southern Europe more populous than Northern; Eastern Europe largest region, known as shatter belt because of Balkanization; Northern Europe low resources yet one of richest areas; Western Europe hub of economic power; British Iles rely on Europe for resources
What’s important about Northern Africa?
Northern Africa separated from Subsaharan Africa by Sahara Desert; surrounded by water except at Sinai Peninsula in Egypt; Atlantic to west, Mediterranean to north, Red Sea to east; Atlas Mountains lie in the north; fertile soil lends itself to agriculture
What’s important about Subsaharan Africa?
Sahara Desert to the north; Atlantic to the west, Indian Ocean to the east; includes Horn of Africa and Sudan which are influenced by Middle East; includes Sahel a trasitional zone between Sahara and Savanna; Ruwenzri mountain range which includes Mt. Kilimanjaro; includes Great Rift Valley, Nile, Niger, Zaire, and Zambezi rivers
What has led to many of the problems in Subsaharan Africa?
approximately 50 states and hundreds of ethnic groups makes this a diverse area; when given independence, geographic borders not considered, which has led to the fraud, mismanagement, and poor health conditions
How are Northern Africa regions divided?
Maghreb, northwest; Nile Valley, northeast; Sahara, south
What’s important about Asia?
Russia is most of Eurasian and twice as large as Canada; most people live West of the Ural Mountains; has most mineral resources and most coal and oil, but it’s in hard to reach areas
What’s important about South Asia?
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka; Himalayas to the north; very dense population; religions share many cultural practices; conflicts strengthened after British Colonialism fell
What’s important about East Asia?
China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia; Taiwan and North Korea not classified or recognized as states
What’s important about Antartica?
surrounded by the Southern Ocean; one of the largest deserts
What’s important about Australia?
surrounded by Indian and Pacific Oceans
