Unit 2 - Geography
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:To what extent does geography contribute to our understanding of the relationship between people, places, and environment over time?
What are two types of geographic tools?
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2.
What are three types of Maps?
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2.
3.
What are two types of location?
Why is it important to have two ways of distinguishing a location?
What are two ways to identify a place?
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2.
What is one modification people made to their land?
What is one negative effect of people’s interaction with the land/earth?
What is cultural diffusion?
How do the Triangular Trade and the European colonization of Latin America fit into the theme of “movement?”
Name a few ways in which Eastridge High School is divided into regions?
What is the benefit of dividing nations into different regions?
What are the Five Themes of Geography?
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2.
3.
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5.
What are the positive impacts of mountains?
What are the negative impacts of mountains?
What are the positive impacts of rivers?
What are the negative impacts of rivers?
What are the positive impacts of deserts?
What are the negative impacts of deserts?
What are the positive impacts of oceans?
What are the negative impacts of Oceans?
What are the positive impacts of seas?
What are the negative impacts of seas?
How have coastlines impacted an areas ability to travel, trade and explore?
What natural resources are found in the Rainforest?
How have savannas irregular rain patterns impacted the development of civilizations?
What determining factor(s) impacts Upstate New York’s climate?
What are the positive impacts of monsoons?
What are the negative impacts of monsoons? /
- Geography-The study of the earth and its features.
Geography tells us about:
* People who live on the earth, the places they have created and how these places differ based on their geographical features.
II. Geographic tools and measurements
A. Globes- The most accurate way to draw the earth - Asa Sphere (round form)
- Gives the accurate shape of the earth’s landmasses and bodies of water.
- Shows true distances between places.
TYPES OF MAPS:
1. Physical/Topographical Map - Shows physical features (Topography) of an area (Mountains, rivers, seas, elevation)
2. Political Map - Shows places that people have created. (Cities, boundaries of countries and states, Capitals)
- Used to locate places, plot routes and judge distances.
- Advantage - allows you to see all areas of the world at the same time, shows more detail & can be folded and carried easily.
- Disadvantage - Distortions with distance, direction, shape and/or area.
III. Study of geography can be organized into 5 themes:
- Location- Tells us “Where is it?”
- Absolute Location–Tells us the exact location on the earth’s surface as measured by latitude (lines N & S of the equator) and longitude (lines E & W of the Prime Meridian)
- Place- Includes the features and characteristics that give an area its own identity or personality.
- Physical characteristics - Topography
b. Human characteristics– Culture of an area
(Language, religion, architecture, music, politics and way of life.)
3. Human/Environment Interaction– How do people modify AND adapt to their natural surroundings. To survive people must make changes in their environment. As a result, changes in the environment also occur.
- Adaptations/modification to the land – Terrace farming, building of canals, slash and burn agriculture, building of chinampas.
- Travel-Canals and roads used to help with transportation, communication (Infrastructure) and trade
- Clothing- used to protect and identify cultures.
- Ecological impact – Global warming, destruction of rainforests, pollution of earth’s water, etc.
- Movement- Movement of people spreads ideas, people, foods, animals and cultural characteristics from one place to another
EXAMPLES:
a)Triangular Slave Trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas.
- Raw materials are brought from the Americas to Europe, Europe produces finished product, Finished products are sold or traded to the Americas and Africa
- slaves for goods goods for slaves slaves used for harvesting raw materials, which would be turned into manufactured goods for $$$.Africans moved from Africa, brought to New World.
- Europeans set up homes in Africa and the Western Hemisphere - Colonial migration
- Region- An area that is unified by some feature or a mixture of features.
1. Governments and Economies
Examples: Cold War Regions
a. Eastern Civilizations - (USSR and Eastern Europe) Communist and Command Economies
b. Western Civilizations – (US and Western Eur.) Democratic and Capitalist/Market Economies
2. Regionalizing Nations Geographically:
- East Asia ( Japan, China, Korea)
- South East Asia (Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam)
- South Asia (India, Pakistan)
- Sub-Saharan (African nations South of the Sahara)
- Latin America (Central and South American nations) Mexico
- Middle East (North Africa, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, etc.)
- Western Europe (Ireland east to Finland, South to Italy, west to Portugal)
- Eastern Europe (from Poland east to the former Soviet Union and south to Greece)
- Mountains- highest (in elevation) of the world’s landforms. Rise from about 2, 000 ft to more than 20,000 ft above sea level.
- Isolation– Separated areas and people for hundreds of years, causing the development of ethnic differences (Hindered Cultural Diffusion)
- Homogeneous Cultures - people of area have same or similar cultural practices
- Ethnocentrism - China considered itself the “Middle Kingdom”
- Protection – Isolation protected cultures from invasion (natural barrier)
- Lack of Arable land - Mountainous terrain caused to people to develop alternative forms of farming.
- Terracing - Building step-like features in side of Mountains (examples: Peru, Japan, China)
- Natural resources – Rich deposits of iron, gold, silver, coal, etc.
- Mountain Ranges of the World:
b) Ural Mountains – Russia
c) The Alps - Western Europe
d) AndesMountains – South America
e) Mount Kilimanjaro– Africa
- Rivers- Waterways flowing through land and emptying into another body of water.
- Farming –Irrigation, fertile soil, arable land
- Fresh Water Source – People need Freshwater to survive (drink)
- Transportation - Rivers became trade routes, where goods and ideas were exchanged among different cultures (cultural diffusion).
- Invasion - At times rivers left many cultures open to invasion
- River Valley Civilizations - Ancient Civilizations arose around rivers
- Rivers of the World:
2.Nile River - Egypt, Africa
3.Indus River– India, Asia
4.Ganges River (“Mother of Life”) – India, Asia
5.Tigris and Euphrates Rivers- Mesopotamia, Middle East (Asia)
6.Huang He (“Yellow”, “Great Sorrow”)– China, Asia
7.Yangtze River – China, Asia
8.Congo River– Africa
- Deserts - Arid areas with hot and dry climates year round. There is little or no vegetation in this zone
- Lacks of Arable land – Deserts receive very little rainfall throughout the year. People and plants face great obstacles in order to survive these conditions
- Irrigation Systems – Civilizations who have survived the harsh conditions of deserts have developed irrigation systems in order to provide arable land. (examples: Egypt and the Nile, Mesopotamia and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers)
- Protection –Deserts harsh conditions have provided civilizations a natural barrier to invasion
- Sahara Desert- North Africa, largest desert in the world, served as a barrier separating the peoples and cultures to the north & south of it.
- Deserts of the World:
2)Gobi Desert- China
3)Arabian Desert –Arabian Peninsula
- OCEANS–Largest bodies of water. Oceans of world are connected
- Isolation - Caused much isolation between nations prior to advanced ship making technology
- Transportation and Trade- Means of travel and trade for centuries during and after the Age of Exploration
- Oceans of the World:
2.Pacific Ocean
3.Indian Ocean
4.Arctic Ocean
- SEAS–Bodies of water that linked many nations and empires together due to accessibility of travel.
- Trade and Transportation - Important for trade and communication
- Invasion –The accessibility of seas to travel and trade also left many civilizations open to invasion
- Roman Empire – The Roman Empire used the Mediterranean Sea as a launching point as they built an empire across three continents, Europe, Africa and Asia (Middle East)
- Seas of the World:
2.Mediterranean Sea - South of Europe, North of Africa, West of Asia
3.Caribbean Sea–North and Central America
4.Black Sea - Eastern Europe
- Coastline - where the land meets the water.
- Regular Coastline - has extensive coastline, much of it smooth with few natural harbors and therefore negatively impacts trade as there are few places for ships to anchor safely.
- Africa - Lack of harbors has served as a barrier to trade throughout Africa’s history
- Irregular coastline- very jagged coastline with many natural harbors that provides places for many ships to anchor safely.
- Europe - Helped Europeans explore, colonize and spread ideas and goods throughout the world
- Tropical Rain Forest–A dense forest region with a hot and humid climate due to its warm latitude plentiful rainfall.
- Plant and Animal Life - Rainforests are home to millions of kinds of plant and animal life.
- Amazon River Basin - South America
- Zimbabwe Rain Forest - Africa
- Has Two Seasons:WET (Winter) & DRY (Summer)
- Lacks arable Land – Its irregular patterns of rainfall make it difficult to grow crops.
a)India
b)Eastern Africa
c)Australia.
- Climate - The usual pattern of weather events that occurs in an area over a long period of time.
- Climate is determined by:
b)Location– Proximity tolarge bodies of water effects temperature and precipitation.
c)Mountain ranges - Proximity tomountain ranges effects temperature and precipitation
d)Elevation – Areas of higher elevations tend to have cool temperatures
J. Monsoons- Seasonal winds that affect the climate and shape the pattern of life in South Asia and South East Asia
- Southwest (summer) monsoon- Blows from June to September
- Arable Land – The summer monsoon brings rain, which blows off the oceanand provides rainfall for crops.
- Floods– Too much rain causes rivers to swell rapidly and flooding occurs and can kill many people and animals and destroy villages.
- Drought – If the rain comes too late or if there is not enough rain, drought can occur. This can cause famine in extreme cases.
- Location- Where is it?
2.Relative-In the Pacific Ocean, East of China, East of Korea
- Place
- Archipelago- Physical separation from the continental mainland
- Pacific Rim -Volcanoes and earthquakes (Pacific Rim)
- 80% mountainous
- Unnavigatable rivers – hard to travel
- Narrow coastal plains - lack of Arable land
- Lack of natural resources - oil
- Homogeneous- language and ethnicity
- Ethnocentric - Cultural isolationist attitude (Islands)
- Movement- cultural diffusion b/w mainland Asia & Japan
- Writing System – Came from China
- Religion– Buddhism
- Infrastructure - Cars, trains, bikes, subway systems, motorcycles
- World War II
- Lack of resources (OIL)
- Japan sets up Greater East Asia Company
- Imports raw materials
- Exports finished goods
- Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor- to eliminate only threat in the Pacific
- Human Environmental Interaction
- Adaptation to the environment
- Lack of arable land
- Terracing as a form of agriculture
- Fishing industry
- Shinto - religion incorporates nature worship
- Housing patterns - utilizing space
- Trade - Import of raw materials and export of manufactured goods
- Region: Japan as part of
- Pacific Rim – In the Pacific Ocean with heavy volcanic activity including earthquakes, and tsnumais
- East Asia – Location is near Korea, and China, other East Asia nations