Unit 2 Geo 135 Terms

African Diaspora

The forced removal of Africans from their native areas to localities around the globe, especially due to slavery. It can also refer to contemporary migration flows from Africa due to violence or poverty that result in African communities forming in other regions in the world.

Brain Drain

Migration of the best-educated people from developing countries to developed nations where economic opportunities are greater.

Brain Gain

The potential of return migrants to contribute to the social and economic development of their country of origin with the experiences they have gained abroad.

Capital Leakage

The gap between the gross receipts an industry (such as tourism) brings into a developing area and the amount of capital retained.

Caribbean Diaspora

The recent large-scale movement of people from the Caribbean to major cities in North America and Europe.

Chain Migration

A pattern of migration in which people in a sending area become linked to a particular destination, such as Dominicans with New York City.

Circular Migration

Temporary labor migration, in which an individual seeks short-term employment overseas, earns money, and then returns home.

Creolization

The blending of African, European, and even some Amerindian cultural elements into the unique sociocultural systems found in the Caribbean.

Greater Antilles

The four large Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.

Hurricanes

Tropical storms in the Atlantic Basin with abnormally low-pressure centers and with sustaining winds of 74 mph or higher. Each year during hurricane season (July–October), a half dozen to a dozen hurricanes form in the warm waters of the Atlantic and Caribbean, bringing destructive winds and heavy rain.

Lesser Antilles

The arc of small Caribbean islands from St. Maarten to Trinidad.

Maroons

Runaway slaves who established communities rich in African traditions throughout the Caribbean and Brazil.

Offshore Banking

Financial services offered by certain European dependencies and microstates, often located on islands, that are typically confidential and tax exempt. As part of a global financial system, offshore banks have developed a unique niche, offering their services to individual and corporate clients for set fees. The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands are leaders in this sector.

Rimland

The mainland coastal zone of the Caribbean, beginning with Belize and extending along the coast of Central America to northern South America.

Transnational Migration

Complex social and economic linkages that form between home and host countries through international migration. Unlike earlier generations of migrants, 21st century immigrants can maintain more enduring and complex ties to their home countries as a result of technological advances.

Agricultural Density

The number of farmers per unit of arable land. This figure indicates the number of people who directly depend upon agriculture, and it is an important indicator of population pressure in places where rural subsistence dominates.

Berlin Conference

The 1884-1885 conference that set the framework for dividing Africa into European colonial territories. The boundaries created in Berlin satisfied European ambition but ignored indigenous cultural affiliations. Many of Africa’s civil conflicts can be traced to ill-conceived territorial divisions crafted during this event.

Biofuels

Energy sources derived from plants or animals. Throughout the developing world, wood, charcoal, and dung are primary energy sources for cooking and heating.

Conflict Diamonds

Diamonds that are sold on the black market to fund armed conflict and civil war, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Desertification

The spread of desert conditions into semiarid areas owing to improper management of the land.

Food Insecurity

When people lack physical or economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for extended periods of time.

Horn of Africa

The northeastern corner of Sub-Saharan Africa that includes the states of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. Since the 1980s, drought, famine, ethnic conflict, and political turmoil have undermined development efforts in this area.

Pastoralists

Nomadic and sedentary peoples who rely upon livestock (especially cattle, camels, sheep, and goats) for their sustenance and livelihood.

Physiological Density

A population statistic that relates the number of people in a country to the amount of arable land.

Sahel

The semidesert region at the southern fringe of the Sahara, and the countries that fall within this region, which extends from Senegal to Sudan. Droughts in the 1970s and early 1980s caused widespread famine and dislocation of population.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Goals resulting from a UN–led effort to end extreme poverty by focusing on 17 key indicators, the top five of which are no poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, and gender equality, with key benchmarks for 2030.

Swidden

A form of cultivation in which forested or brushy plots are cleared of vegetation, burned, and then planted in crops, only to be abandoned a few years later as soil fertility declines. Also called slash-and- burn agriculture or shifting cultivation.

Transhumance

A form of pastoralism in which animals are taken to high-altitude pastures during the summer months and returned to low-altitude pastures during the winter.

Arab Spring

A series of public protests, strikes, and rebellions in the Arab countries, often facilitated by social media, that have called for fundamental government and economic reforms.

Domestication

The purposeful selection and breeding of wild plants and animals for cultural purposes.

Exotic River

A river that issues from a humid area and flows into a dry area otherwise lacking streams.

Hydropolitics

The interplay of water resource issues and politics. Countries often disagree about water resources, especially in regard to major rivers that cross international boundaries.

Medina

The original urban core of a traditional Islamic city.

Pastoral Nomadism

A traditional subsistence agricultural system in which practitioners depend on the seasonal movements of livestock within marginal natural environments.

Salinization

The accumulation of salts in the upper layers of soil, often causing a reduction in crop yields, resulting from irrigation with water of high natural salt content and/or irrigation of soils that contain a high level of mineral salts.

Sectarian Violence

Conflicts that divide people along ethnic, religious, and sectarian lines.