AP Human Geography: Industrialization and Economic Development

Vocabulary flashcards covering AP Human Geography Unit 7 topics, including economic sectors, development theories, global trade organizations, and regional economic geography.

Quaternary economic activities

Economic activities that involve the collection, processing, and manipulation of information.

Transportation technology in the Industrial Revolution

Technological advancements that enabled the spatial diffusion and geographical expansion of industrial activities beyond initial coal and iron resource basins.

Semiperiphery (Southeast Asia)

The structural classification applied to countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam due to the extensive growth of their secondary economic sector.

Global economic patterns data limitation

A visual mapping limitation where representations of global economic flows fail to show the growth of business investment in less developed countries.

Measures of development limitation

The principle that a nation can achieve a high level of economic and social development that is not adequately reflected in annual production and trade statistics.

Free-trade zones (NAFTA)

Trade agreements that promote regional trade and economic integration primarily by eliminating tariffs on goods that cross borders between member states.

European Union free trade

An economic arrangement in which physical borders between member states become irrelevant in the context of commercial trade and the free movement of goods.

Gender development disparity

A social development condition in which countries maintain lower levels of gender equality despite providing high levels of education and healthcare.

Comparative advantage (industrial relocation)

An economic factor driving factories to relocate from areas like the U.S. Midwest and Northeast to Mexico or the southern U.S. due to lower wages, reduced operating costs, and efficient transport to major markets.

Internet economic restructuring

The transformation of traditional commercial arrangements by expanding the importance of express package delivery systems over physical central business district retail sales.

Core-periphery relationship

A structural dynamic characterized by a relationship of power and the systematic transfer of resources from less developed areas to more developed areas.

Maquiladoras

Manufacturing outsourcing plants located throughout northern Mexico near the United States border.

Growth poles (Medical Technology)

Regional concentrations of advanced industry and research supported by an international network of researchers and multinational corporate partners.

Elimination of import tariffs (European Union)

The trade policy mechanism that has fostered significant regional economic growth among member states by abolishing customs duties on cross-border goods.

Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth

A modernization theory proposing that countries independently progress through successive linear stages ending in high mass consumption, criticized for ignoring global economic interdependence.

Fossil energy reliance

The widespread dependence on fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation fuel that depletes global natural resources and produces atmospheric pollution in urban centers.

Opportunity cost in international trade

The economic principle where countries specialize in producing goods for which they hold the lowest opportunity cost, thereby maximizing the total global output of goods.

World Systems Theory

A dependency framework positing that countries are locked into structural tiers of core, semiperiphery, and periphery, offering little opportunity for peripheral economies to transition into the wealthy core.