1/30
Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms on the North–South divide, Latin America, modernization and dependency theories, and related historical concepts.
Name | Mastery | Learn | Test | Matching | Spaced |
---|
No study sessions yet.
Global Divides / North-South Divide
A socio-economic and political categorization that separates developed (Global North) from developing (Global South) countries.
Global North
Wealthy, industrialized countries—mostly in the Northern Hemisphere—that control ~80 % of world income and 90 % of manufacturing.
Global South
Less-developed countries—largely in the Southern Hemisphere—characterized by low GDP, high population, and limited access to basic needs.
First World
Cold-War term for the United States and its allies; today largely overlaps with the Global North.
Second World
Cold-War term for the Soviet Union, China, and their allies, later dissolved as a category after the Cold War.
Third World
Original label for poorer, non-aligned nations; now considered outdated and mostly replaced by “Global South.”
Latin America
Cultural region of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations south of the U.S., including Central and South America and some Caribbean states.
North America
Continent comprising Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean islands (definition varies in scope).
South America
Continent south of Panama containing 12 independent nations and nearby islands such as Easter Island and the Galápagos.
Modernization Theory
Explains development as a linear transition from traditional to modern society, driven by technology and cultural change.
Columbian Exchange
Post-1492 transfer of goods, technology, people, and diseases between Europe and the Americas that accelerated Western development.
Industrial Revolution
18th–19th-century shift to mechanized production (steam power, machines) that boosted living standards in early-industrializing nations.
Rostow’s Five Stages of Growth
Historical model positing development through Traditional Society, Pre-conditions for Take-off, Take-off, Drive to Maturity, and High Mass Consumption.
Traditional Society (Rostow)
Stage with subsistence economy and limited technology prior to sustained growth.
Pre-conditions for Take-off
Stage where external demand and infrastructure investments prepare a nation for rapid growth.
Take-off
Short period of rapid industrial expansion and sustained economic growth.
Drive to Maturity
Stage where modern technology diffuses across all sectors, diversifying the economy.
High Mass Consumption
Final stage characterized by widespread affluence and consumer goods.
Dependency Theory
View that under-development results from exploitative relations where the Global South supplies resources to enrich the Global North.
Hans Singer
Economist who, with Prebisch, laid the groundwork for Dependency Theory in the 1950s.
Raúl Prebisch
Argentinian economist who co-developed the Singer-Prebisch thesis on deteriorating terms of trade for primary exporters.
Andre Gunder Frank
Neo-Marxist scholar who blamed capitalist dependence for under-development in the Global South.
Latin American Structuralist Approach
School (e.g., Palma, Cardoso, Faletto) emphasizing reliance on primary-commodity exports and external capital as sources of under-development.
Core Nations
Highly industrialized states that receive most of the world’s wealth and manufacture high-value goods.
Peripheral Nations
Less-developed countries supplying raw materials and labor in exchange for a small share of global wealth.
Capitalist World-Economy Model
Immanuel Wallerstein’s framework describing a global system divided into core and periphery linked by unequal exchange.
North-South Trade Pattern
Colonial and post-colonial flow of raw materials from the South to the North and manufactured goods in the opposite direction.
Abolitionist
Person in 19th-century United States who sought to end slavery (e.g., Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman).
Bleeding Kansas
1854-1861 violent conflict over whether Kansas would enter the U.S. as a free or slave state.
Secession
Act of Southern U.S. states leaving the Union in 1860-61 to form the Confederate States of America.
States’ Rights
Doctrine arguing that U.S. states hold certain powers superior to the federal government; central to Southern grievances before the Civil War.