UNC GEOG120 Quiz 3 Study Guide

South Asia and Southeast Asia

Bollywood

A Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai. Key story elements include courtship, love of family, intergenerational conflict, and conflict resolution through dance and song. It’s influenced by Indian epics (Sanskrit drama, traditional folk theater), Hollywood musicals (1920s-1950s), and MTV/Western music videos.

Regional Boundaries of South Asia

Bordered by the Himalayan Mountains, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal

Physical Geography of South Asia

Topographic Regions:

• Inner highlands: extremely high mountains, plateaus, and the Himalayas

• Middle Arc: very populated, includes river valleys, mountains, and flood plains

• Outer Arc: consists of coastlines, peninsulas, and islands

Population of South Asia

Has the largest regional population with more than 2 billion people. It’s fast growing, with good agricultural regions having the highest densities. Societies are still mostly rural but there are about 50 cities with 1+ million inhabitants. 

Monsoon

A seasonal reversal of wind direction

Land Extensive Agriculture

Low caloric yields per area unit of land where it takes a lot of space to produce small amounts of food

• Example: Nomadism in the inner arc or ranching with grazing animals

Land Intensive Agriculture

High caloric yields per area unit of land which is generally capital/technology intensive or labor intensive

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

Subsistence farming that is distinctive in terms of large labor inputs and high yields per area of land; it’s most common in densely populated areas of Asia.

Bombay (Mumbai)

Was a group of 7 islands that were rented out by the British East India Company for about 10 pounds per year (1880s). It turned into a trading and cotton center under the management of the BEIC.

India’s Caste System

• Brahmins (priestly, academic class)

• Kshatriyas (rulers, administrators, warriors)

• Vaishyas (artisans, tradesmen, farmers, merchants)

• Shudras (manual laborers)

• Dalits, once called “Untouchables” (street cleaners, menial tasks)

Colonialism in South Asia

Formal colonialism arrives with the British East India Co. in 1857 with the incorporation of colonial economy and the creation of a periphery. Big profits from cotton industry. Resistance and civil disobedience through Gandhi’s nonviolent protests: boycotts against sea salt production challenged colonial conditions.

“Indian Mutiny” 1857-1859

“informal” to “formal” colonial rule

Sati

A widow who jumps onto her late-husband’s funeral pyre. It has been banned since 1829. Highlights free will and the conditions under which choices are made. 

Vikas

Means development. It’s both the process of moving toward the dawn of a new social area, and the social era itself. The term has been used as a means of opening up the political arena and to promote equality.

Social Protests in the Garhwal Himalayas

The Chipko Movement was a nonviolent environmental movement that began in the 1970s in India, primarily in the Uttarakhand region (then part of Uttar Pradesh).

• The word “Chipko” means “to hug” in Hindi, referring to the villagers — especially women — who hugged trees to prevent them from being cut down by loggers.

• It was a grassroots movement aimed at protecting forests from deforestation and commercial logging.

• The movement emphasized the importance of forests for local communities’ survival, as they provided water, fuel, and prevented soil erosion.

Global Shipbreaking in Chittagong, Bangladesh

ships are dissected by hand, where the working conditions are extremely poor and employees do intensive physical labor for little over $1 a day. The shipyards provide 80% of the nation’s steel and serves as a gigantic recycling operation. 

The Pacific Rim

The group of countries that border the Pacific Ocean, linked by trade, culture, and geography. In Asia, these countries include China, South Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. These territories tend to poor in  in natural resources and harbor a high-skilled yet low-wage labor force.

Post-WWII Japanese Prosperity

Japan was never colonized by Europeans and therefore didn’t have a neocolonialist dynamic with their former colonizer that might inhibit their growth. Their economy was never structured around Europe or North America. They received US aid in the form of low-interest loans. They had a low-wage and skilled labor force and limited defense spending.

The “Asian Tigers”

Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) → South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong

Case of South Korea

From 1910 to 1945, this country was under Japanese control, and after Japan’s withdrawal, the Korean War (1950–1953) left the peninsula divided during the Cold War. The north developed as a communist state while many people migrated south, where efforts focused on import substitution to build domestic manufacturing. In 1964, a military government promoted export-oriented strategies by devaluing the currency to attract foreign investment and creating the country’s first export processing zone in 1965. Over time, Korea’s landscape came to reflect layers of historical change and national identity formation. In modern Seoul, parks are widely used and valued, showing a balance between dense urbanization and agricultural heritage in a rapidly developing nation.

Case of Taiwan

From 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was a Japanese colony used to test new agricultural, irrigation, and technological methods. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, a power vacuum emerged, and Chinese nationalists took control in 1950 following their loss to Mao Zedong’s communists on the mainland. Taiwan, calling itself the Republic of China in exile, received strong U.S. support as an anti-communist ally, though China viewed it as a breakaway province. In 1959, Taiwan shifted to an export-oriented strategy, implementing martial law, suppressing unions to keep labor costs low, and devaluing its currency to attract foreign investment. The government reduced tariffs, offered tax incentives, and guaranteed foreign investment, making Taiwan a hub for low-cost manufacturing. In 1965, it established its first export processing zone to draw in assembly and polluting industries, further driving its rapid industrial growth.

Case of Singapore

A small island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula: developed as a free port dominated by Chinese traders. After briefly joining Malaysia in 1963, it was expelled in 1965 and became an independent, Chinese-led city-state. With no internal market, it adopted an export-oriented strategy, investing in infrastructure, public housing, and incentives for foreign investors while keeping wages low and restricting unions. The 1968 labor law reinforced a disciplined workforce, supporting rapid industrial growth. Its landscape reflects layers of colonial history, modernization, and multicultural influences from Malay, Chinese, Indian, and South Asian traditions, with the port and oil refining remaining central to its economy.

Case of Hongkong

The Opium Wars of 1842 began when the British East India Company sold opium to China under the Qing dynasty, leading to conflict that ended with Britain’s victory and control of coastal islands that became Hong Kong. Hong Kong developed as a major free trade center and, during the Chinese Civil War, became a refuge for wealthy migrants fleeing to escape conflict. As a British colony, it maintained strict labor control, banned unions, and invested in public housing and job training, though it was less repressive than South Korea or Taiwan. In 1997, Britain returned Hong Kong to China under the agreement that it would remain economically and politically separate for at least 50 years.

Developmental Model vs. Unreplicable Historical Factors

• Specific colonial legacies

• War and migration

• Geopolitics/foreign aid

• Markets

Spheres of Influence in China

areas where foreign powers had special economic, political, or military privileges during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially after China’s defeat in the Opium Wars. Outside powers exercised significant influence without directly governing the territory, weakening China’s sovereignty during the Qing dynasty

Open Door Policy

U.S. proposal made in 1899–1900 that called for equal trading rights for all foreign nations in China and for China’s territorial and administrative integrity to be preserved. It aimed to keep China open to international trade on equal terms and avoid colonization or exclusive control by any one nation

Maoist Transformation

From 1949 to 1976, the People’s Republic of China underwent major political, social, and economic transformation under communist rule. The Great Leap Forward collectivized about 90% of agriculture by 1957, turning all land into state-controlled communes that also served as social and political centers. Following the Soviet model, China pushed rapid industrialization with Soviet aid, focusing on heavy industry before breaking ties and turning inward in an isolationist, anti-Western stance. Mao’s regime promoted an ideological transformation, replacing traditional and religious beliefs with strict communist doctrine and fostering a cult of personality around Mao, symbolized by the Little Red Book. The Cultural Revolution intensified this control, as the Red Guards enforced Maoist purity by violently suppressing dissent, banning Western ideas, and sending many to forced labor camps.

Post-Mao Liberalizations

Under Deng Xiaoping, China began opening to the world economy by dismantling central planning and creating Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to attract foreign investment and promote export-oriented growth. This led to uneven regional development, with wealthy coastal areas and poorer inland regions, alongside environmental degradation. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests highlighted tensions over China’s limited political openness despite economic liberalization. Recent strategies—“Go up, go west, go out”—focus on moving up to higher-tech, higher-profit industries, relocating factories inland for lower labor costs, and expanding Chinese investment abroad, reflecting China’s complex path of selective globalization.

Geographies of China’s “floating population”

China’s urban-rural dynamics are shaped by the Hukou system, which ties legal residency and social benefits to one’s registered location. Around 12% of the population (≈120 million people) are “floating” migrants who live and work away from their registered home but lack legal protections, making them vulnerable to exploitation. Economic growth has been prioritized over social welfare, allowing migrant labor to support industrial expansion while remaining excluded from many urban benefits.

Belt and Road Initiative

a global infrastructure and investment strategy aimed at enhancing trade and economic connectivity between China and countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and beyond. It uses overland and maritime routes, including pipelines, to secure the flow of raw materials and energy into China and support its manufacturing base. The strategy involves building ports, developing land, and acquiring resources, while also advancing China’s geopolitical and military reach, exemplified by its naval expansion and base in Djibouti.

Southeast Asia as Global Crossroads

1. Physical and cultural diversity → religious diversity, diverse colonial legacies, SE Asia as historic “shatterbelt”

Geopolitics of the South China Sea

In response to China’s aggressive claims in the South China Sea, Southeast Asian states have engaged in an arms buildup. China has pursued island-building, creating docks, landing strips, and harbors to assert control. These disputes involve UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), which defines maritime zones: a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, a 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone, and a 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) granting resource rights. China’s claims often overlap with other countries’ EEZs, heightening tensions, while the Taiwan Strait remains another critical and contested geopolitical hotspot.

Doreen Massey

1. “Spatial divisions of labor” → who does what kinds of work, and where?

2. “Rounds of investment” → how historical rounds (or layers) of industrial and geopolitical investments in place shape the development of divisions of labor, culture, and society in those places

Miles Ogborn

1. “Port geographies” → significance of places of contact between terrestrial/maritime spaces, nodes in wider neworks of social relations, and cosmopolitan sites of mixing

Case of Subic Bay, Philippines

The Philippines was invaded by Japan in 1941, and after U.S. forces retook it, the country became a key U.S. military outpost. Following independence in 1946, the Military Bases Agreement of 1947 allowed the U.S. to maintain control over Subic Bay and Olongapo, reflecting U.S. efforts to promote post-colonial stability while containing communism in the Pacific. During the Cold War, the Philippines operated as a military-focused state with limited elections. The country supported U.S. efforts in the Korean War (1950–1953) and the Second Indochina War (1963–1975), with Subic Bay facilitating the flow of ships, personnel, and materials, shaping local labor divisions and black/gray markets. After the 1991 U.S. base closures, the area transitioned into an export processing zone, attracting assembly factories and retaining some retired U.S. personnel due to its medical benefits and infrastructure.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

a London-educated lawyer and one of the leaders in India’s struggle for independence. He organized local communities to participate in nonviolent protests. In 1948, he was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist who opposed the partition plan and Gandhi’s commitment to nonviolence

Outsourcing

refers to contracting out a portion of business with another party, which might be located in a different country

Green Revolution

Refers to changes in agricultural technology and productivity beginning in India in the 1960s

Great Leap Forward (1958-1961)

Sought to reshape China’s agrarian society into an industrial power, but the changes led to widespread famine and the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese as a direct result

Domino Theory

The fear that the fall of one country into communism would lead to the fall of other surrounding countries to communism; it was originally meant as an anecdote but it became the basis for US foreign policy

Ho Chi Minh

Began the communist movement in Vietnam to try and gain independence from France following the end of Japanese occupation in WWII

Viet Cong

The Vietnamese communists who engaged in guerrilla warfare against the US in the Vietnam war

Khmer rouge

A communist organization that came to power in Cambodia. Khmer refers to the dominant ethnic group in Cambodia. They opposed Westernization and US involvement in the newly independent country and believed in a return to agrarian society

Pol Pot

Leader of the Khmer Rouge, led campaign to eliminate the country’s schools, hospitals, and other institutions and make the entire society work on collective farms

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

The organization aimed to promote political security, economic growth, and social development among member countries

Special Economic Zones

Areas of more free-market oriented economics, they are located in coastal China and are special incentives to attract foreign investment

Entrepot

A French term meaning a commercial center of trade

The Strait of Malacca

The main shipping channel between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Its a key transportation gateway, around ¼ of all the world’s exported goods travel through the strait each year

Floating population

Refers to members of a population who reside in an area for a period of time but do not live there permanently