Latin America: Cultural Geography, Physiography, Geology, Pre-Columbian Cultures, and Colonial Silver

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms from lectures on the Cultural Geography, Physiography, Plate Tectonics, Geologic Evolution, Pre-Columbian Cultures, and Colonial Silver in Latin America.

Latin America

A term introduced by French geographers to distinguish regions speaking Romance (Latin-based) languages from Anglo-Saxon languages, popularized by Michel Chevalier to theorize a region inhabited by a 'Latin race' sharing cultural and racial connections.

Latin America Region

Primarily Spanish and Portuguese-speaking parts of Central and South America.

Caribbean Region

French, Dutch, and English-speaking areas of Central and South America.

Western Boundary of Latin America

The Pacific Ocean, including islands like Galápagos (Ecuador) and Easter Island (Chile).

Southern Boundary of Latin America

Cape Horn (island of Hornos), with Latin American countries asserting claims to Antarctica.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

A papal decree aimed at dividing the newly explored world between Spain and Portugal, never recognized by the British, Dutch, or French.

Columbian Exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries, permanently altering both worlds.

Encomienda System

A system granted to Spanish conquistadors allowing them to collect tribute from indigenous communities.

African Diaspora Religions

Syncretic religions that emerged in Latin America, integrating West African spiritual traditions with Roman Catholicism, such as Macumba, Candomblé, Vodou, and Santería.

Megacity

An urban area with a population exceeding 10 million people, examples in Latin America include Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires.

Andes

The world's longest and second-highest mountain range, located in South America.

Amazon River

The world's biggest river system by discharge volume and watershed, located in South America.

Atacama Desert

The world's driest desert, located in Chile.

Altitudinal Zonation

The concept that temperature variation in Latin America's tropics is largely determined by elevation rather than latitude.

Lowlands

Physiographic structural zones in Latin America with an elevation of less than 500 meters, including the Amazon and Rio de la Plata lowlands.

Highlands

Physiographic structural zones in Latin America with elevations between 500 and 2,000 meters, often flat-topped plateau regions like the Brazilian, Patagonian, Guiana, and Mexican Plateaus.

Mountains

Physiographic structural zones in Latin America with elevations greater than 2,000 meters, including the Andes and Sierra Madre systems.

Divergent Plate Boundary

A type of plate boundary where tectonic plates move apart from each other.

Convergent Plate Boundary

A type of plate boundary where tectonic plates move toward each other, leading to subduction or collision.

Transform Plate Boundary

A type of plate boundary where tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally.

Crust

The outermost compositional layer of the Earth, varying in thickness and density.

Lithosphere

The rigid outer mechanical layer of the Earth, which includes the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle, broken into tectonic plates.

Basaltic Lava

Mafic lava with low viscosity that flows easily, resulting in effusive eruptions.

Andesitic Lava

Intermediate composition lava with moderate viscosity, leading to more explosive eruptions, named after the Andes mountains.

Rhyolitic Lava

Felsic lava with high viscosity, causing very explosive eruptions.

Subduction Zone

A region where an oceanic plate plunges beneath another plate (oceanic or continental) at a convergent plate margin.

Circum-Pacific 'Ring of Fire'

A major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean characterized by numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, involving oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and plate movements.

Mantle Plume

An upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle that can melt through the overriding lithosphere, creating a series of volcanoes (a hot spot chain) as a plate moves over it, e.g., the Galapagos Hotspot.

Isostasy

The state of gravitational equilibrium between the Earth's lithosphere and asthenosphere, where tectonic plates 'float' at an elevation dependent on their thickness and density.

Orogeny

A process of mountain building involving intense deformation and metamorphism of the Earth's crust, typically caused by the collision of tectonic plates.

Craton

A general term for a stable, ancient part of a continent.

Shield

The exposed part of a craton where ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks are visible.

Platform

A part of a craton where Precambrian basement rocks are covered by younger, flat-lying sedimentary rocks.

Supercontinent Cycle

The quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust, with Pangea and Rodinia being the last two major examples.

Pangea

The most recent supercontinent, which existed ~335 to ~175 million years ago, composed of a northern portion (Laurasia) and a southern portion (Gondwana).

Gondwana

The southern portion of the supercontinent Pangea, comprising South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and the Indian subcontinent.

Passive Continental Margin

A boundary between continental and oceanic crust within the same plate, not an active plate boundary, important for oil and gas reservoirs, found off the eastern coasts of South America and along the Gulf of Mexico.

Isthmus of Panama

The final connection between Mexico and South America, formed around 3.5-3 million years ago.

Clovis Culture

An early human culture in the Americas, dated to approximately 13,000 years ago, characterized by distinct fluted spear points.

Olmecs

The 'mother culture' of Mesoamerica (1200–800 BC), known for developing writing, colossal head sculptures, and trading networks.

Maya

An ancient Mesoamerican civilization that occupied the Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, known for hieroglyphic writing, astronomy, and calendar systems.

Aztec Empire

A powerful Mesoamerican civilization established around 1200–1520 AD, with its capital at Tenochtitlán, known for militarism, tribute system, and human sacrifice.

Tenochtitlán

The capital city of the Aztec Empire, founded in 1325, which had a population of about 300,000 before the Spanish conquest.

Inca Empire

A South American empire that stretched about 4,000 km across Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, northern Chile, and Argentina, known for the quipu record system, advanced roads, and architecture like Machu Picchu.

Quipu

A record-keeping system used by the Inca, consisting of knotted strings.

Metallurgical Evolution Stage I (Native Metals)

The earliest stage where metals like gold and silver are used in their natural, pure form without smelting.

Metallurgical Evolution Stage II (Reduction, Smelting, Melting, and Casting)

The stage involving heating ores to extract metals, then melting and shaping them.

Placer Deposit

A river deposit or sedimentary concentration formed by erosion and transport, which concentrates minerals resistant to weathering and that are heavy, such as gold and silver.

Huayrachina (Huaira)

A small, wind-powered clay furnace used in the Andes, especially by the Inca, to smelt silver and copper ores on windy ridges.

Lost-wax Casting (Cire Perdue)

An ancient metalworking method used to create detailed objects by sculpting a wax model, molding it in clay, melting out the wax, and pouring molten metal into the cavity.

Bronze

An alloy primarily of copper, with additions of tin, arsenic, phosphorus, and small amounts of other elements, used by Pre-Columbian cultures for tools and weapons.

La Noche Triste ('Night of Tears')

An event on June 30, 1520, when the Spanish under Cortés attempted to flee Tenochtitlán but were caught, resulting in the loss of 600 Spaniards and thousands of allies.

Potosí

A major colonial silver mining site located in Bolivia.

Guanajuato

A major colonial silver mining site located in Mexico.

Royal Fifth (Quinto Real)

The 20% tax Spain claimed on all silver extracted from its colonies.

Volcanic Caldera

A large depression formed when a volcano collapses after an eruption.

Hydrothermal Circulation

Heated groundwater moving through rocks, leaching minerals, and depositing them as ores, often associated with silver mineralization around volcanic calderas.

Oxide Ores

Silver ores that form at the surface by oxidation, which were easier to smelt in early colonial times.

Sulfide Ores

Silver ores found deeper underground that were harder to process with early smelting methods.

Patio Process

A silver extraction method introduced in the 1570s that used mercury to extract silver from both oxide and sulfide ores.

Amalgamation

A process of mixing crushed ore with mercury, where mercury binds with silver or gold, then is roasted off to leave the pure metal.

Mita

A forced labor draft adapted by the Spanish from the Inca, requiring Andean communities to send workers to Potosí mines, leading to thousands of deaths annually.