AP Human Geography Notes

5 Themes of Geography:

• Location

  • Relative location.

  • Absolute location: Latitude and longitude.

• Place

  • Distinctive physical and human characteristics of an area.

• Human-Environment Interaction

  • How humans interact with their environment.

• Movement

  • Mobility of individuals, goods, and ideas.

  • Patterns that alter human spatial interactions.

  • Accessibility and connectivity of places.

• Regions

  • An area that displays a specific criteria with one or more distinctive characteristics.

Physical Geography

• Topography

• Climate (Koppen)

• Flora and Fauna

• Soil

Human Geography

• Culture

• Population

• Economic activities

• Political systems

• Urban areas

• Agriculture

4 Forms of Distortion in Maps:

• Shape of the area.

• Direction between points.

• Distance between points (may increase or decrease).

• Relative Size of places.

Thematic Maps:

• Isoline Maps

  • Use lines of equal value to represent data.

  • Examples: elevation, barometric pressure, temperature.

• Choropleth Maps

  • Show data by shading patterns or colors.

• Graduated Symbol Map

  • Size of the symbol is proportionate to the intensity of the data or variable being mapped.

• Dot Map

  • Amount of dots represents the frequency of data or variable.

• Cartogram

  • Uses the size of a political unit to display the value of a piece of data.

Pressure and Climate

• High pressure = cold.

• Low pressure = hot.

• Deserts = high and dry.

• Tropical = equator, low pressure.

Migration Patterns:

• Women are more migratory within a country.

• Men are more migratory between countries.

• Most migrants are adults (families are more difficult to transport).

• Large cities grow more by migration than natural increase.

• Migration increases as commerce develops and transportation improves.

• Major stream of migration: rural to urban.

• The major explanation for migration is economic factors.

Map Projections:

• Goode’s Interrupted/Homolosine Equal

  • Minimizes distortion due to being interrupted and proportional.

  • Interrupts Antarctica and oceans.

• Conic

  • Accurate distance and directions within a relatively small zone.

• Planar Projection

  • Most accurate at the central point.

  • Only shows half the earth at a time.

  • Stretches out when closer to the edge.

• Mercator

  • Distorts shape and size of land masses.

  • Good direction and maintains distance.

  • Used for sea travel.

• Robinson

  • Spreads distortion across shape, size, and direction.

  • Shows landforms correctly; proportional.

  • Poles are shown as a straight line and are too large.

  • Longitude is not parallel.

• Gall-Peters Projection

  • Accurate sizes of land masses; better shows correct geographic relationships.

  • Inaccurate distances; distorted shapes.

  • Latitude and longitude are parallel.

• Fuller Projection

  • Doesn’t use cardinal directions.

  • Maintains accurate size and shape.

• Winkel Tripel Projection

  • Rounder in shape with distortion near north and south poles.

Terms for Describing Countries Economically:

• Primary countries

  • Extract resources from the earth.

• Secondary countries

  • Make or refine products from raw materials.

• Tertiary countries

  • Provide services.

• Quaternary countries

  • Provide information and management.

• MDC (Most Developed Countries)

  • Examples: United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Western European countries.

• NIC (Newly Developed Countries)

  • Examples: China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico.

• LDC (Least Developed Countries)

  • Examples: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi.

Unit 1 Vocabulary:

• Cartography

  • Science of mapmaking.

  • First map made by Eratosthenes ($276-194$ BC).

  • Ptolemy and later Chinese and European advancements.

• Reference maps

  • Show geography of a map without the political data.

• Map scale

  • Level of detail and the amount of area covered.

  • Examples: $1:24,000$, $1$in - $1$ mile, bar line scale.

• Small scale

  • $1/1,000,000$ (more distribution, zoomed out).

• Large scale

  • $1/25,000$ (less distribution, zoomed in).

  • Scales: national, global, regional, county scales.

• Scale of analysis

  • Observational data at a global, national, regional, and local scale.

  • How data is organized and presented on a map.

  • Example: If the map of the world has countries in different colors, the map scale is global, but the scale of analysis is national because it's coloring different countries.

• Scale of inquiry

  • Asking what best scale of analysis would be for a certain topic.

  • How data is grouped together.

Distance

• Absolute Distance

  • Distance in quantitative terms, such as miles or kilometers.

• Relative Distance

  • Qualitative distance, such as $20$ min south, $30$ min north, description of place.

Spatial Arrangement

• Clustering

  • How close objects are over a geographical space.

• Dispersal

  • How far objects are spread out.

Geographic Coordinates

• Meridians

  • Run between the North and South poles; $0$ degrees (prime meridian) to $180$ degrees east/west longitude.

• Parallels

  • Form right angles with meridians; latitude; $0$ degrees (equator) to $90$ North/South.

Mapping Technologies

• GPS (Global Positioning System)

  • Absolute mathematical position.

  • Satellites in orbit, tracking stations to monitor, receiver satellites.

• GIS (Geographic Information System)

  • Computer system; layers data.

Site and Situation

• Site

  • Physical characteristic of a place, e.g., climate, labor force.

• Situation

  • Location of a place relative to the places around it.

Types of Regions:

• Formal Region

  • A uniform homogeneous region.

  • Everywhere has one common trait with distinct boundaries separating itself from other regions.

  • May be predominant characteristic rather than universal.

  • Examples: political organization, language, climate.

• Functional Region

  • Nodal; has a center and characteristics diffuse outward; no function or region.

  • Examples: circulation of a newspaper, pizza delivery, railroad systems, shopping malls.

• Perceptual Region

  • Vernacular; people believe the region exists due to their cultural identity.

  • Example: Midwest of the United States.

Culture and Geography

• Culture

  • What people care about (beliefs, values); what people take care of (materials).

• Archipelago

  • Chain of islands; Example: Japan.

• Spatial distribution

  • The way something is arranged on earth's surface.

Spatial Distribution

• Density

  • Number of times something occurs.

• Concentration

  • Spread of something in space.

• Pattern

  • Where it occurs.

Diffusion Types

• Relocation Diffusion

  • Spreads through the physical movement of people.

  • Example: language is brought to new locale by migrants.

  • Small scale: Spread of pizza from Italian immigrants to the US.

  • Large scale: $1500$s spread of European culture.

• Expansion Diffusion

  • Spread of a feature through an additive process.

  • Hierarchical Diffusion: Spreading of a feature through nodes of authority.

  • Contagious: Rapid, widespread characteristic spreading throughout a population.

  • Stimulus: Spread of an underlying principle even though characteristic itself fails to diffuse; idea diffuses but the original idea has changed; Ex: features on an iPad are adopted into other competitors' products, McDonald’s burgers look different in different countries around the world.

  • Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion: Lower class characteristics spread to higher classes, Ex: hip hop, sagging pants.

Distance Decay

• The decrease of an effect due to distance.

Wallerstein’s Three-Part Theory of Core-Periphery Model:

• Core countries

  • North America, West Europe, Japan.

• Peripheral countries

  • Africa, Asia, Latin America.

• Semi-periphery countries

  • Argentina, China, Brazil, Mexico, Iran, Indonesia.

Scales of Analysis

• International scale of analysis

  • Focuses on the spatial relation between countries.

• National scale of analysis

  • Focuses on economic change in a single country.

Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth:

• $5$ stages.

• Key vocab: mass consumption, drive to maturity, traditional society, take off (stage $3$).

Space-Time Compression

• The time it takes for something to reach another place, increasing connectivity, reduces distance decay.

Basic Concepts

• Pattern

  • The geometric arrangement of objects in space.

• Space

  • The physical gap between objects.

• Flow

  • The movement of people, ideas, goods, or services from one place to another.

Pillars of Stability:

• Environment Pillar

  • Sustainable development must value conservation more than wasting resources or preserving all resources.

• Economy Pillar

  • Make an effort to set prices of goods based on the costs of the environment, and not just supply and demand.

• Society Pillar

  • Modifying the wants of cultures in regards to shelter, food, and clothing to objects that are sustainable.

Environmental Perspectives:

• Environmental determinism

  • Physical environment causes social development; environment causes success of a place; prevalent for LDCs (least developed countries) before the $2$nd and $3$rd industrial revolution.

• Possibilism

  • People control the environment to a high extent; Ex: Netherlands were built on polders to keep an island above water, Florida can drain everglades and present pollution.

Weather vs. Climate

• Weather

  • Daily condition of an atmosphere, temperature and precipitation.

• Precipitation

  • Moisture from the sky; Ex: sleet, hail, snow, rain.

• Climate

  • Average weather measured over a period of time.

Data Types

• Qualitative data

  • Opinion based, not measurable; Ex: surveys, polls, interviews.

• Census

  • Every $10$ years is an official count of individuals in a population and collection of geographic data (how federal funding is determined, helps with moving counties).

Unit 2 Notes

Population Distribution

• $\frac{2}{3}$ of the population is in…

  • East Asia

  • East China, Japan, Koreas, Taiwan

  • South Asia

  • India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

  • Southeast Asia

  • Indonesia, Islands of Java, Philippines, and Malaysia

  • Europe

  • Monaco, Germany, France, over $4$ dozen countries

Factors Influencing Population Clusters

• Site and situation of population clusters

  • Low-lying areas, fertile soil, temperate climate, near ocean/rivers with access to ocean

• Site and situation of sparsely populated regions

  • Dry/wet/cold/high lands

  • Sahara, Amazon rainforest, northern Russia, Canada, North China, Mid China - too harsh for people to live and grow food

Demographic Transition Model (DMT):

• Stage 1: Low Growth

  • Very high birth and death rates, no long term natural increase, no countries present today

• Stage 2: High Growth

  • Rapidly declining death rates and very high birth rates, high natural increase

  • Europe and North America entered stage $2$ as a result of the Industrial Revolution ($1750$)

  • Africa, Asia, and Latin America entered stage $2$ in $1950$ because of the Medical Revolution (Ex: Nigeria, India, Congo)

• Stage 3: Moderate Growth

  • Rapid decline in birth rates, steady decline in death rates, natural increase is moderate, gap between CBR (crude birth rate) and CDR (crude death rate) is smaller

  • Most European countries and North America transitioned to stage $3$ during first half of $20$th century

• Stage 4: Low Growth

  • Very low birth and death rates, no longer term increase, possible decrease in population, (ZPG) - zero population growth

  • The only population change results from immigration (Ex: Canada)

• Possible Stage 5: Decline

  • Low CBR, increasing CDR, more elderly than young, negative NIR (no increase in population)

  • Russia had a negative NIR for past $50$ years (Ex: Japan, Germany)

Epidemiologic Transition Model (ETM):

• Stage 1: Pestilence and Famine

  • The biggest factor (high CDR), more parasitic diseases (Ex: black plague)

• Stage 2: Receding Pandemics

  • Rapidly declining CDR, Industrial Revolution improved medicine, nutrition, and sanitation (Ex: cholera pandemic in London)

• Stage 3: Degenerative Diseases

  • Moderately declining CDP, decrease in death from infectious disease, increase in chronic disorders associated with aging (Ex: cardiovascular diseases, cancer)

• Stage 4: Delayed Degenerative Diseases

  • Low but increasing CDR, deaths caused more by cardiovascular illnesses and cancer, these are usually delayed because of modern medicine treatments

• Possible Stage 5

  • The evolution of viruses gain resistance against vaccines, antibiotics cause new strains of bacteria to form, diseases more common in poverty, increased transportation causes spread of viruses and bacteria, healthcare also varies

Healthcare Systems

• Developed countries

  • Public service available at little or no cost, government pays for $70\%$

• Developing countries

  • Individuals pay for over $50\%$, exception - US, individuals pay for $55\%$

Declining Birth Rates

• Improving education and healthcare

• Contraception may go against religious/cultural beliefs such as Roman Catholics, fundamentalist Protestants, Muslims, Hindus

Types of Population Policies:

• Pro-natalist/expansive

  • Encourages births

  • Ex: the USSR in $1944$ gave awards to women for getting pregnant in order to increase fertility rate, Germany has cross of honor with the German mother on it, India uses family planning

• Anti-natalist/restrictive

  • Discourages births

  • Ex: Chinese had the Later, Longer, Fewer (fewer children, $2$ kids allowed in cities, $3$ in rural) policy and the one child policy (received rewards: free medical care, schooling, bonuses, etc.) (disobeying results in penalties: education and medical guarantees are withdrawn, wages reduced)

Ravenstein’s 11 Laws of Migration:

1. Most migrants only go a short distance

2. Migration proceeds step by step

3. Migrants going long distance prefer big cities

4. Each migration stream produces a compensation counter stream

5. Rural people are more migratory than urban

6. Women more migratory within a country; men more migratory between countries

7. Most migrants are adults since families are harder to transport and migrate less.

8. Large cities grow more by migration than natural increase

9. Migration increases in volumes as commerce develops and transportation improves

10. Major stream of migration is rural to urban

11. The major cause of migration is economic

3 Main Eras of US Immigration:

• Colonial settlement in the $17$th and $18$th century, people from Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa

• Mass European immigration in the late $19$th and early $20$th century, the beginning ($19$th cent) was mostly Northern and Western Europe immigrants; by the $20$th century most immigrants were from South and East Europe

• Asian and Latin American migration and integration during the late $20$th and early $21$st century

Countries with Largest Land Area:

• Russia, Canada, China, US, Brazil

United Nations High Commissions for Refugees

Recognizes three groups of forced political migrants:

• A refugee has been forced to migrate to avoid a potential threat to his or her life, and he or she cannot return for fear of persecution

• An internally displaced person (IDP) is similar to a refugee, but he or she has not migrated across an international border.

• An asylum seeker is a migrant who is looking to be a refugee of another country

Unit 2 Vocabulary:

• Ecumene - Places of permanent human settlement, only a little of the world, $5000$ BC to $1900$

• Colonialism - An endeavor by one country to ascertain settlements and to impose its political, economical, and cultural principles in another territory

• Imperialism - Effort by one country to determine settlements and to impose its political, economic and cultural principles on such territory

• Carrying capacity - Number of individuals an environment can support

• Agricultural density - Ratio of the quantity of farmers to amount of arable land (farmers divided by arable land); the US and Canada have a smaller agricultural density than India and Bangladesh, shows amount and advancement of technology being employed, one person can produce more with better machines

• Arithmetic density - Total number of objects in an area (total population divided by total land) easiest to get and most frequently used; how unfolded people are; HIGH - a lot of people but little land

• Physiological density - Number of individuals to be supported by a unit of arable land (total population divided by arable land) shows what quantity food a rustic must produce per unit; us doesn't need to produce as much; Egypt puts more stress on the environment because most of the country is desert, with less arable land the physiological density is high, (higher density - more stress on land)

• Crude Birth Rate (CBR) - Total number of live births for each $1,000$ born

• Crude Death Rate (CDR) - Total number of deaths per $1,000$ people

• Natural increase rate (NIR) - Curious about which population grows, CBR-CDR-NIR, (per $100$ because it is a percentage, not per $1,000$ people), average current NIR is $1.2\%$; highest NIR is in South West Asia and Africa

• Infant mortality rate (IMR) - Annual number of infant (under $1$ years old) deaths per $1,000$

• Total fertility rate (TFR) - Average number of kids a lady will have

• Life expectancy - Average number of years a baby will live based off mortality rates

• Doubling time - The amount of time it takes for a single population to double in size

• Dependency ratio - Number of individuals too old or too young to figure compared to the quantity that may ($14$ and younger and $65$ and older); the larger the dependency ratio the more burden there's on the working population; Ex: $85\%$ Africa, $47\%$ Europe

• Sex ratio - Number of males per $100$ females, developed countries have more females which live longer

  • A population model of male and females can show the culture of a state or a historical event.

• Malthus’(Malthusian) theory - The population is growing exponentially (geometrically), however, the food supply only increases arithmetically (linear)

Population Issues

• Neo-malthusians - Believe earth’s resources can only support a finite population, but they think about all resources not only food production

• GDP per capita - Measure of a country's economic output that accounts for its number of individuals

• Immigration - Permanent move to a different place

• Emigration - Leaving an area as a part of permanent move

• Migration - Temporary (possibly permanent) move from one place to another

  • #1 reason to maneuver is to search out jobs

• Intervening obstacle - Environmental or cultural element that stops migration

• Intervening opportunity - Cultural, economic, political, environmental factor that causes an individual to prevent migrating to their original destination

• Critical distance - Distance beyond a person’s willingness to travel

• Minority-majority - Minorities add up to be greater than majority

• Gravity model - Greater pull in larger communities, bigger cities receive more immigrants

• Step migration - Occurs little by little, migrants stop at places along the thanks to their final destination

• Chain migration - Process within which legal immigrants may sponsor a loved one for immigration into the US

• Intraregional migration - Movement within one region of a country

• Xenophobia - Hatred of foreigners based on stereotypes, prejudice, and racism

• Counterurbanization - Most prevalent in places rich with natural amenities; Ex: range of mountains States (Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming)

• Ethnocentrism - Judging another culture based on standards of one's own culture (thinking theirs is better)

• Interregional migration - Movement from one region to a different region within the same country; Ex: Abundant land on the old American frontier, most jobs and services in are clustered urban areas

  • Russia: Interregional migration was encouraged by the government. The government built new factories and has other economic incentives for the current population to move.

  • Canada: Shares an identical east to west interregional migration pattern with the U.S. Three westernmost provinces are destinations for interregional migrants.

  • China: Around $100$ million people have emigrated along the urban coast of China, where manufacturing is prevalent.

  • Brazil: Government moved its capital from Rio De Janeiro to Brasília ($600$ miles from Atlantic Coast) to encourage migration of residents living on the Atlantic coast to move to an interior location

• Remittances - Money earned by immigrants to send back home.

• Brain drain - Loss of skilled educated workers

  • Largest number of refugees originated from Southwest Asia and sub-saharan Africa.

  • Preference shown for specific employment placement and family reunification.

  • Passing of the Quota Act in $1921$ and the National Origins Act in $1924$ by the U.S. Congress marked the start of restricted immigration to the U.S.

• Great Migration - Africans migrate to another state to flee discrimination

• Rust Belt - 1970’s US near the Great Lakes, stopped employing factory jobs so people would move south

• Counter migration - Ex: United States citizens move to Mexico

Unit 3 Notes

Folk Music

• Originates anonymously, transmitted orally

• Modifications to songs over successive generations to represent changes in conditions

• Content of songs centers on events in daily life, life-Cycle events, Ex: birth, death, or marriage, environmental features, Ex: agriculture or climate

• Migration of people also diffuses the music

Popular Music

• Music written with the intent of being sold

• Performed in front of a paying audience

• Often displays a high degree of technical skill

• Musicians often have strong connections with other similar musicians that may span the globe, Limited connections with local musicians of different genres

Folk Clothing Preferences

• Style of clothing worn in response to distinctive agricultural practices and climatic conditions

• People in the Netherlands wear wooden shoes since their climate is very wet

• Fur-lined boots protect against cold in arctic climates.

Popular Clothing Preferences

• Style of clothing shows occupation or income instead of the environment.

• Business suits worn by professionals, Designer clothes worn by the affluent

Folk Housing

• Available resources influence what is built, Ex: stone, grass, sod, and skins.

• Two Most Common: Wood, Brick

• Climate and local topography influence design of housing structures

• Chinese villages, Ex: All used similar materials to build with. Ex: adobe. Distinct designs in each location attributed to local cultural preference and local geography.

Threats to Culture

• Threats to folk culture

  • Loss of traditional values

• Threats to Pop culture

  • Sustainability of practice over many non-uniform landscapes, Causes pollution, Depletion of natural resources

• Media imperialism

  • Satellites

  • Limit government control of information, Globalization makes uniqueness difficult, Ex: less dowry in Indian cultures, Amish still travel by horse in illinois then to kentucky

Barriers on Diffusion:

• Distance or physical barriers

  • Distance is too far, Ex: diffusion of Buddhism from India is very slow due to the Himalayan Mountains

• Age barriers -- Older people are more resistant to new words or norms.

• Linguistic barriers -- When people don't speak the same language or words don't translate properly.

• Religious barriers -- When a religion has restrictions such as taboos.

• Political barriers -- Internet/media censorship in many countries like North Korea.

• Folk/local culture -- Traditional culture may reject implementation of new culture.

• Social class barriers -- Many have limited access to technology causing less exposure.

• Economic barriers -- People cannot afford expensive movies or updated technology.

• Regulatory barriers -- Import laws/customs, trade agreements, media contracts/providers delay diffusion.

Food Preferences

People adapt their food preferences to conditions in the environment…

• Example:

  • Asia - Rice in the milder, moist regions and wheat in drier regions of Asia.

  • Europe - Italy uses quick frying food because of their fuel shortages and Northern Europe slow stewing and roasting foods because they had more timber.

• A restriction imposed by a social custom to eat particular plants or animals that are believed to embody negative forces is a taboo.

  • Ancient Hebrews forbade eating animals that did not chew their cud or that have cloven feet and fish lacking fins or scales.

  • Muslims embrace the taboo against eating pork.

  • Hindus embrace the taboo against consuming cattle.

Language

• System of communication through speech, collection of sounds with same meaning.

Language Organization

Languages of Southwest Asia and North Africa and Central Asia

• Afro-Asiatic

  • Arabic is a major language. Official language in $24$ countries of S.W. Asia and North Africa. One of the six official languages in the U.N.

• Altaic

  • Most speakers are Turkish. It became the official language of many countries that formed after the Soviet Union collapsed, Ex: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Niger-Congo Branch

• Swahili

  • First language of $800,000$ people. Official language of Tanzania. Spoken by $30$ million Africans, the language used to speak with outsiders from different villages.

Indo-European Branches

• Germanic branch

  • Primarily in northwestern Europe and North America. There are two: High and Low Germanic subgroups. English is a Low Germanic group. Also predominant in Northern and Western Europe.

• Indo-Iranian branch

  • Spoken primarily in South Asia. Most speakers of the language branch. Subdivided into eastern group (Indic) and western group (Iranian).

• Balto-Slavic branch

  • Spoken primarily in Eastern Europe.

  • East Slavic and Baltic Groups: Most widely used language is Russian followed by Ukrainian and Belarusan.

  • West and South Slavic Groups: Most spoken West Slavic language is Polish followed by Czech and Slovak, while the most widely spoken south language is Serbo-Croatian.

• Romance branch

  • Spoken primarily in southwestern Europe and Latin America. Most widely used are Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian.

  • Regions where spoken languages tend to correspond to the political boundaries of Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy.

Modern English Evolution

Modern English has evolved from three Germanic tribes invading the British Isles.

• Angles - from southern Denmark

• Jutes - from northern Denmark

• Saxons - from northwestern Germany

• Over time, others invaded England and their languages influenced the basic English.

  • Vikings from present-day Norway

  • Normans from present-day Normandy in France spoke French.

• First successful colony was Jamestown, VA, in $1607$.

Language Theories

• Proto-Indo European

  • Germanic, romance, baltoslavic, indo iranian’s origin, possibly began in turkey

• Nomadic warrior theory hypothesis

  • Diffuse through warfare and conquest

• Sedentary farmer theory

  • Diffuse through peaceful sharing of food

US Dialects (Hans Kurath)

• New England - from English settlers

• Southeastern - $\frac{1}{2}$ from southeast England, others from other diversity of countries and class

• Midlands - most diverse, Quakers from north of England, Scots, Irish, German, Dutch, Swedish immigrants

• Soft drinks are called different names in different areas of the U.S.

US Settlements

• East, New England - Puritans from East Anglia, SE Europe, little Northern Europeans

• South east colonies - SE Europe

• Midlands - Pennsylvania, Quakers, Scots and Irish, German, Dutch, Swedish

Language Conflicts

• Northern Belgium (flemings - Dutch dialect) vs southern Belgium (walloons - French)

  • Conflict in signs, cultural affair, public health, urban development, French is official state language, Germanic vs Romance languages.

• Switzerland has no language conflict and a decentralized gov so locals have power.

• $527$ languages in Nigeria

• Basque language faces change, has been isolated for centuries.

• Hebrew has been revived and changed to fit modern language.

Universalizing Religions