AMERICAS
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Table of Contents

North America                        Middle America                        South America

 

NORTH AMERICA

 

 

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

  1. Anglo-American label

  2. English language

  3. Christian faiths

  4. European norms in government, architecture, diet, arts

  5. highly urbanized

  6. mobile populations

  7. high incomes

  8. manufacturing output

  9. federal states with plural societies

 

 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

  1. Arctic Coastal Plain

  2. Canadian Shield

  3. Interior Lowlands

  4. Piedmont

  5. Appalachian Highlands

  6. Gulf Atlantic Coastal Plain

  7. Interior Highlands

  8. Great Plains

  9. Rocky Mountains

  10. Intermontane Basins & Plateaus

  11. Pacific Mountains & Valleys

 

 

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

  1. Northern Frontier

  2. French Canada

  3. Maritime Northeast

  4. Core

  5. South

  6. Continental Interior

  7. Southwest

  8. Western Frontier

  9. Pacific Hinge

 

 

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

  1. European expansion

  2. Population distribution

  3. Ethnic distribution

 

 

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

  1. Industrial resources

  2. Fuel resources

  3. Agricultural resources

  4. Postindustrial

300 days of sunshine per year

Recreational water within 1 hour drive

Affordable housing

Start up capital ($1 billion)

Low risk environment

Tax breaks

Cooperative state & local governments

Lenders

Businesses

Major University (Graduate Engineering Program)

Economic enterprises

Government

Social-services complexes

Military

 

 

 

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

  1. Canadian political organization

  2. United States political organization

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MIDDLE AMERICA
(Central American & the Caribbean basin)


MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

  1. Mexico, Central America, Caribbean Islands

  2. physically and politically fragmented

  3. culturally diverse

  4. endemic poverty

 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

  1. land bridge

  2. archipelago — Greater & Lesser Antilles

  3. natural hazards — earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes

 

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. culture hearths

a. Maya civilization

                    i. classic period 200-900 AD

                    ii. Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Yucatan peninsula

                    iii. theocratic structure

b. Aztec civilization

                    i. 1300 AD

                    ii. Valley of Mexico

                    iii. Tenochtitlan (>100,000 people)

2. legacy of colonialism

a. land was appropriated — colonial commercial interests

b. lands devoted to food crops for local consumption were converted to cash crops for export

c. land alienation — induces famine, poverty, migration, little agricultural diversity

d. mainland / rimland framework

                      i. mainland — Euro-Indian influence, greater isolation, hacienda prevalent

                      ii. rimland — Euro-African influence, highly accessible, plantation economy

Examples of Population Pyramids

 

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

  1. Diversity

  2. Euro-Indian vs. Euro-African

  3. Geographic distribution

  4. Age distribution – population pyramid

  5. Poverty

 

 

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

 

1. Mexico & NAFTA

a. Foremost, it promises a higher standard of living.

b. NAFTA creates more jobs for Mexicans as US companies begin to invest more heavily in the Mexican market.

c. Mexican exporters increase their sales to the US and Canada.

d. Is that the entire story?

2. Central America

a. Environmental concerns

                    i. Tropical Deforestation

                    ii. 3 million acres of woodland in Central America disappear each year!

b. Causes of tropical deforestation

                    i. Clearing of rural lands to accommodate meat production and export

                    ii. Rapid logging of tropical woodlands to meet global demands for new housing, paper, and furniture

                    iii. Population explosion: forests are cut to provide crop-raising space and firewood

                    iv. What is the solution?

3. Caribbean Basin – Tourism

a. Advantages

                    i.  State and regional economic options

                    ii. A clean industry

                    iii. Educational

b. Disadvantages

                    i.   Disjunctive development

                    ii.  Degrades fragile environmental resources

                    iii. Inauthentic representations of native cultures

 

 

 

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

 

1. Mexico

a. Population distribution

b. Natural resources

c. Location of maquiladoras

d. GDP per capita along the US-Mexican border

2. Central America

    a. Guatemala

    b. Belize

    c. Honduras

    d. El Salvador

    e. Nicaragua

    f. Costa Rica

    g. Panama        WORLD HISTORY:  THE PANAMA CANAL courtesy of Natalie

3. Caribbean Basin

a. Greater Antilles - Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti

     b. Lesser Antilles - Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, the Netherland Antilles, Trinidad & Tobago

 

Soufriere Hills, Montserrat, West Indies

This site is maintained by the Michigan Technological University as part of their volcano monitoring activity around the world. The Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat has been very active in recent years. This site contains links to information about the volcano itself, as well as many images of the volcano in various stages of eruption. Additionally, there are links to the Montserrat Tourist Information Board, a good site that illustrates the impact of geography on people since much of the island has been evacuated due to the volcanic activity.

 

This site at the University of Texas includes a wide range of information about the Dominican Republic, one of the two countries on the island of Hispaniola. This page includes links to such things as Dominican Republic Art & Culture, Academia, and Government, among others. One of the links will take you to the Dominican Republic Chamber of Commerce which contains a variety of information on current events, history and geography of the country.

 

Although this site appears to be set up for the basic purpose of attracting visitors (tourists) to the Bahamas, it contains a lot of information about this chain of islands off the southeast coast of the United States. You can find an overview of the history of the islands as well as items on local culture, local services and how to get there.

 

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SOUTH AMERICA


MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

1. population concentrated along periphery

2. cultural pluralism

3. minimal regional economic interaction

 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Andes Mountains in west

2. Amazon Basin in central north

3. Plateaus

 

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Inca Empire

a. culture hearth - intermontane basin around Cuzco (1200-1535 AD)

b. altiplanos key to settlement patterns

c. 20 million at high point

d. impressive transportation networks & integration efforts

e. highly centralized

2. tropical plantation

a. resembles Middle America rimland

b. location, soil and climate favor plantation crops, especially sugar

c. initially relied on African labor

3. European commercial

a. most “Latin” part of South America

b. includes pampas - temperate grasslands

c. economically most advanced

d. excellent transportation networks & quality of life

4. Amerindian subsistence

a. former Inca Empire

b. feudal socioeconomic structure

c. includes some of poorest areas

 

Deforestation in Brazil

d. subsistence agriculture in difficult environments

5. Mestizo transitional

a. surrounds Amerindian subsistence region

b. culturally & agriculturally mixed

c. transitional economies

6. undifferentiated

a. characteristics difficult to classify

b. sparsely populated

c. isolation & lack of change

d. Amazonia development

 

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. movement to and clustering of people in towns and cities

2. 79% of people living in cities

3. rate of natural increase and internal migration

4. “Latin American city” model

 

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

1. MERCOSUR

a. launched in 1995

b. southern cone common market

c. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay

2. Andean Community

a. formed in 1969 (Andean Pact)

b. restarted in 1995

c. Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia

3. Group of Three (G-3)

a. formed in 1995

b. Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia

c. free trade association, aims to phase out all tariffs

4. NAFTA

a. launched by US, Mexico, Canada in 1995

b. wants to expand into South America to include Chile

 

POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. Caribbean North — Venezuela, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname

coastal locations, early European plantation development, forced migration of black laborers

2. Andean West — Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay

Amerindian populations, subsistence agriculture, mountainous environments, poverty

3. Southern Cone — Argentina, Uruguay, Chile

heart of European commercial culture

4. Brazil

half continent’s land & people, federal republic, ethnic diversity, Portuguese, Catholic, substantial mineral resources

 

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Copyright © 1996 Amy S. Glenn
Last updated: 03 February 2012