Latin America Geography and History Lecture Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the geography, key historical figures, and political terms of Latin America as presented in the lecture notes.

Cordillera

A system of mountain ranges that run parallel to each other.

Sierra Madre Oriental

The 'Eastern' mountain range in Mexico.

Sierra Madre Occidental

The 'Western' mountain range in Mexico.

30 inches of precipitation

The threshold for agriculture in the Central Mesa; receiving less than this amount usually necessitates livestock ranching and grazing instead of crop cultivation.

Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)

The group that launched an uprising in the Chiapas Highlands on January 1, 1994, to protest the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and advocate for Amerindian rights.

Orographic effect

The process by which mountains force air upwards, causing precipitation on the windward slope and creating a dry rain shadow on the leeward slope.

Prevailing Winds in Central America

The easterlies, which move winds from east to west across the region.

Alfred Wegener

The individual who proposed the theory of continental drift in 1912.

Theory of Plate Tectonics

The theory explaining the creation of the Andes Mountains through the subduction of the Nazca Plate underneath the South American Plate.

Mount Aconcagua

The highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, standing at $22,831\,ft$.

Bauxite

The primary ore found in the Guiana Highlands that is processed into alumina and eventually into aluminum via electrolysis.

Angel Falls

Located in Venezuela, it is the world's highest waterfall at $3,212\,ft$.

Tierra templada

The altitudinal zone between $2,500$ and $6,000\,ft$ where coffee is primarily grown due to its ideal climate.

Soil robber

A term for crops like coffee that rapidly deplete nutrients from the soil, requiring high-quality volcanic soils (lava flows) for sustainable production.

Patagón

The term used by Ferdinand Magellan to describe the 'big feet' of the indigenous Tehuelches people, giving Patagonia its name.

Physiographic boundary

A political border that follows a physical feature of the landscape, such as the Rio Grande.

Amazon River

The world's leading river in terms of fresh water volume and discharge rate, supported by a massive drainage basin and high rainfall.

Itaipu Dam

An immense hydroelectric project built through the cooperation of Brazil and Paraguay along the Paraná River.

Estuary

A partially enclosed coastal body of water where freshwater and saltwater mix, such as the Rio de la Plata.

Maya contribution (Mathematics)

The concept of zero, which they applied extensively to their advanced skills in astronomy.

Tenochtitlan

The Aztec capital built in Lake Texcoco on the site where an eagle was seen perched on a cactus eating a snake; it was later destroyed by Hernán Cortés to build Mexico City.

Remittances

Money sent back home by migrants; Mexico ranks as one of the world's leading recipients of these funds annually.

PEMEX

The state-owned company that manages the oil industry in Mexico, with major production centered in the Bay of Campeche.

Monroe Doctrine

The 1823 policy by James Monroe stating the U.S. would not tolerate European interference in the Americas, which significantly impacted U.S.-Latin American relations.

Banana republic

A term referring to countries whose economies were dominated by foreign interests, such as the United Fruit Company in Guatemala.

Risk vs. Vulnerability

In natural hazards studies, risk is the statistical probability of an event, while vulnerability is the potential impact on human life and property (as seen in Honduras during Hurricane Mitch).

Ecotourism

Tourism based on the natural environment and biodiversity; Costa Rica is a leader in this industry, protecting its flora and fauna.

Transoceanic canal

A waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; Panama was chosen for this due to its narrow isthmus.

Quarantine

The specific term used by John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis to describe the naval pressure on Cuba without technically declaring an 'act of war' (blockade).

Failed state

A state whose government has lost the ability to provide basic services or security, a status Haiti reached following the 2010 Earthquake.

Monoeconomic state

A country heavily dependent on a single resource for its economy, such as Venezuela's reliance on oil.

Resource lottery

A concept suggesting that the geographical distribution of resources like oil or minerals is purely random and uneven across different countries.

Forward capital

A symbolically relocated capital city, such as Brasília, intended to encourage development in the interior of a country.

Elongated state

A territorial morphology describing a country that is at least six times longer than its average width, such as Chile.

Graben

A downward-faulted block of the earth's crust, which is the geological feature that contains Lake Titicaca.

Theory of Natural Selection

The evolutionary theory proposed by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book 'On the Origin of Species', based largely on his research of finches in the Galápagos Islands.