Combined Revision: Geography, Science, Economics, and History

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts across Geography, Combined Science, Economics, and 20th-Century History.

International migration

The permanent movement of people from one country to another country.

Remittance

The money or goods that migrants send back to families and friends in origin countries.

Refugees

People who, in fear of persecution, seek refuge in other countries.

Asylum seekers

A person seeking international protection in another country from persecution, but who has not yet been legally recognised as a refugee.

Fertility Rate

The average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime.

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The number of deaths per $1{,}000$ people in a population each year.

Natural Increase

The increase in population when the birth rate is higher than the death rate, calculated as $\text{Natural Increase} = \text{CBR} - \text{CDR}$ (excluding migration).

Pro-Natalist Policy

A government policy that encourages people to have more children in order to increase the birth rate.

Anti-Natalist Policy

A government policy that encourages people to have fewer children in order to reduce population growth.

Urbanisation

An increase in the proportion of people living in cities or towns.

Informal settlement

Any form of housing, shelter, or settlement where residents have no legal rights to the land upon which they are built.

Urban sprawl

The unplanned growth of urban areas into the surrounding countryside.

Suburbanisation

The movement of people and services from the centre of towns and cities to their edges (the suburbs).

Brownfield sites

Land within an urban area that has been previously used, abandoned, and left unused.

Greenfield sites

An area of land, usually found on the edge of a large town or city, that has not been developed previously.

Top-down development

Urban management schemes planned and directed by the central or local government.

Bottom-up development

Urban management schemes planned by small, non-governmental organisations, often directly involving local people.

Human Development Index (HDI)

A composite statistic scored from $0$ to $1$ measuring development based on life expectancy at birth, schooling/knowledge, and standard of living (GNI).

Bilateral aid

Strategic support given directly from one country to another, where the recipient country must typically spend the money on goods or services from the donor country.

Multilateral aid

Assistance where high-income countries donate money to international organisations, which is then distributed among poorer countries.

Exothermic Reactions

Chemical reactions that release energy to the surroundings, causing the surrounding temperature to increase, where products have lower energy than reactants.

Endothermic Reactions

Chemical reactions that absorb energy from the surroundings, causing the surrounding temperature to decrease, where products have higher energy than reactants.

Collision Theory

The principle stating that for a chemical reaction to occur, particles must collide with energy equal to or greater than the activation energy ($E_a$) and with the correct orientation.

Dynamic equilibrium

A state reached in a reversible reaction within a closed system when the rate of the forward reaction equals the rate of the backward reaction.

Amphoteric Oxides

Oxides that can react with both acids and bases to form salt and water (e.g., $Al_2O_3$, $ZnO$).

Neutral Oxides

Oxides that do not react with either acids or bases (e.g., $H_2O$, $CO$, $NO$).

Amylase

A digestive enzyme produced in the salivary glands and pancreas that breaks down starch into simple sugars.

Protease

A digestive enzyme produced in the stomach and pancreas that breaks down proteins into amino acids.

Lipase

A digestive enzyme produced in the pancreas that breaks down fats into fatty acids and glycerol.

Xylem

Plant vascular tissue made of dead, hollow cells reinforced with lignin that transports water and mineral ions upwards from roots to leaves.

Phloem

Plant vascular tissue that carries out translocation, transporting sugars (sucrose) and amino acids bidirectionally from source to sink.

Active Immunity

Defence against a pathogen gained through the body producing its own antibodies (via infection or vaccination), providing long-term protection through memory cells.

Passive Immunity

Short-term defence against a pathogen acquired by receiving ready-made antibodies from another source (e.g., breast milk).

Brownian Motion

The random motion of microscopic particles suspended in a fluid, caused by collisions with fast, randomly moving molecules of the fluid.

Transverse Waves

Waves in which the oscillations/vibrations are perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer (e.g., light, water waves, EM waves).

Longitudinal Waves

Waves in which the oscillations/vibrations are parallel to the direction of energy transfer, consisting of compressions and rarefactions (e.g., sound waves).

Scarcity

The fundamental economic condition resulting from infinite human wants and needs exceeding finite available resources.

Opportunity Cost

The next best alternative foregone when an economic choice or decision is made.

Production Possibility Curve (PPC)

A diagram showing the maximum combination of two goods or services an economy can produce when all resources are fully and efficiently utilised.

Price Mechanism

The system in a free-market economy where price fluctuations signal changes in supply and demand, reallocating resources without government intervention.

Price Elasticity of Demand (PED)

A measure of the responsiveness of the quantity demanded of a good to a change in its price, calculated as percentage change in quantity demanded divided by percentage change in price.

Public Goods

Goods that are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, which are subject to the free-rider problem and thus not provided by private firms in a free market.

Merit Goods

Goods that provide positive external benefits to society but are under-consumed and under-provided in a free market (e.g., education, healthcare).

Demerit Goods

Goods harmful to consumers and society that are over-consumed in a free market due to negative externalities and information failure (e.g., cigarettes, alcohol).

Fiscal Policy

Government policy that alters taxation and government spending levels to influence aggregate demand and macroeconomic performance.

Monetary Policy

Measures implemented by a government or central bank using interest rates, money supply, and exchange rates to influence economic activity.

Salami Tactics

The incremental strategy used by the USSR in Eastern Europe to eliminate political opposition slice by slice, rigging elections and banning alternative parties.

Truman Doctrine

A 1947 US foreign policy pledging economic and military support to nations resisting communist subjugation, establishing the principle of containment.

Marshall Plan

A $\$13\text{ billion}$ US economic recovery package designed to rebuild post-WWII European economies, facilitate trade, and diminish the appeal of communism.

Traditionalist / Orthodox View

The historiographical school (1940s–1950s) arguing that the Cold War was caused primarily by Soviet aggression, expansionism, and ideological drives led by Joseph Stalin.

Revisionist View

The historiographical school (1960s–1970s) asserting that the USA caused the Cold War through economic imperialism, containment aggression, and atomic diplomacy under Harry S. Truman.

Post-Revisionist View

The historiographical school (1980s onward) maintaining that neither superpower was solely responsible for the Cold War, viewing it as an inevitable clash stemming from mutual fear, miscalculation, and power vacuums.

Domino Theory

The US belief that if one country fell under communist control, surrounding regional neighbours would inevitably collapse to communism in succession.

Brezhnev Doctrine

A Soviet foreign policy declaring that the USSR possessed the right to intervene militarily in any communist country where the communist regime was threatened.

Glasnost

Mikhail Gorbachev's reform policy of political 'openness,' permitting free speech, relaxation of media censorship, and public scrutiny of government history and policies.

Perestroika

Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reform policy focused on 'restructuring' the Soviet planned economy by introducing small-scale private enterprise and market incentives.

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's WWI military strategy designed to rapidly defeat France by invading through neutral Belgium before wheeling east to confront Russia.

Enabling Act (March 1933)

Legislation passed by the German Reichstag that granted Adolf Hitler the authority to enact laws without parliament approval, laying the legal foundation for his dictatorship.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Vladimir Lenin's 1921 economic policy that temporarily reintroduced limited private ownership for small businesses and permitted peasants to sell surplus grain for profit.

Collectivisation

Joseph Stalin's agricultural policy that abolished private farm ownership, liquidated the Kulaks, and forced peasants into state-managed collective farms (Kolkhoz).