Global Cultures Unit 1 Basics of Geography and Culture

Unit 1: Basics of Geography and Culture Key Vocabulary Terms: 1 Formal Region - An area of land distinguished by either cultural or physical criteria. 2. Physical Geography - The study of Earth, the environment, and human interactions. 3. Hearth - An area or place where an idea, innovation or technology originates. 4. Relocation Diffusion - Type of diffusion involving people moving and taking their ideas and innovations with them. 5. Projection - A systematic way of taking the round Earth and placing it on a flat surface. 6. Place - The uniqueness of a location. 7. Geography - The study of people, place, environment and space. 8. Environment - The physical context of Earth. It consists of Earth processes and human impact. 9. Perceptual Regions - An area based on what an individual sees in his or her mind. 10. Expansion Diffusion - Ideas and innovations spread from its hearth to nearby places. 11. Absolute Location - Places described in terms of latitude and longitude. 12. Cartography - Subdiscipline of geography concerned with the science of making maps. 13. Functional Region - An area that has a shared political, economic, or social purpose. 14. Globalization - Process heightening interactions, increasing interdependence and deepening relations across country boundaries. 15. Human Geography - The study of people, cultures, and their shaping of place and environment. 16. Time-Space Compression - The increasing connectedness between world cities from improved communication and transportation networks. 17. Agglomeration Effect - Cost advantages created when similar businesses cluster in the same location. 18. Central Business District - The Zone of a city where businesses cluster and around which a city and its infrastructure are typically built. 19. Colonialism - Taking over a territory and physically controlling its government and economy. 20. Strong Globalization - A view that Globalization after 1970 is fundamentally different because global corporations have become more important than states in the world economy. 21. Spread Effects - Positive economic impact in one region that spurs positive economic growth in another region. 22. Glocalization - Adopting a global phenomenon to suit a local need or context. 23. Landlocked - States that share its borders only with other states, not with oceans or seas. 24. Second Wave of Colonialism - From the 1850’s to 1960’s, when European countries claimed colonies in Africa and Asia in the context of the Industrial Revolution. 25. First Wave of Colonialism - From the late 1400’s to 1850’s , when Europeans colonized the Americas and coastal Africa. 26. Digital Divide - The growing gap in access to internet and communication technologies between connected and remote places. 27. Situation - The position of a city or place relative to its surrounding environment or context. 28. Backwash effects - Negative economic impact in one region that stems from positive economic impact in another region. 29. Initial Advantage - Economic boost experienced by a region that is the hearth of production for a good. 30. Weak Globalization - A view that traces modern globalization to circa 1500 and contends that globalization is a long standing process. 31. Scramble for Africa - A division during the 1800’s when European countries claimed colonies in Africa in order to control resources in Africa and to bolster their own nationalism. 32. Human Development Index (HDI) - Index used to evaluate and rank nations based on their progress in human development. It considers factors like life expectancy, per capita income, and education. 33. GDP (Gross Domestic Product ) per capita - A measure of a nation’s economic output when taking its number of people into consideration.