AP HUG

AP Human Geography Study Guide

This study guide covers the main topics in AP Human Geography to help you prepare for the AP exam.

1. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives

1.1. Basic Geographic Concepts

• Definition of Geography: The study of the Earth's surface and the processes that shape it, the relationships between people and their environment.
• Key Concepts: Location, place, region, movement, human-environment interaction.
• Types of Location:
  • Absolute Location: Exact location using coordinates (latitude and longitude).
  • Relative Location: Location in relation to other places.
• Place: Unique characteristics of a location, including physical and human attributes.
• Region: An area with unifying characteristics.
  • Types of Regions:
    • Formal Region: Defined by a common characteristic (e.g., climate, political boundary).
    • Functional Region: Organized around a node or focal point (e.g., metropolitan area).
    • Perceptual/Vernacular Region: Based on people's beliefs, feelings, and attitudes about an area (e.g., the South).
• Movement: The flow of people, goods, and ideas between places.
• Human-Environment Interaction: How humans modify, adapt to, and depend on the environment.

1.2. Geographic Tools and Technologies

• Maps: Visual representations of the Earth's surface.
  • Types of Maps:
    • Reference Maps: Show general geographic information (e.g., political maps, physical maps).
    • Thematic Maps: Show specific data or information (e.g., population density, income levels).
  • Map Projections: Methods of transferring the Earth's curved surface onto a flat map.
    • Common Projections: Mercator, Robinson, Goode Homolosine.
    • Distortion: All map projections distort shape, area, distance, or direction.
• Geographic Information System (GIS): A computer system that captures, stores, analyzes, and displays geographic data.
• Remote Sensing: Acquiring information about the Earth's surface without physical contact (e.g., satellite imagery, aerial photography).
• Global Positioning System (GPS): A satellite-based navigation system that provides precise location data.

1.3. Spatial Analysis

• Density: The frequency with which something occurs in space.
• Concentration: The extent of a feature's spread over space.
  • Clustered/Agglomerated: Objects are close together.
  • Dispersed/Scattered: Objects are far apart.
• Pattern: The geometric arrangement of objects in space.
• Spatial Association: The degree to which things are similarly arranged in space.

2. Population and Migration

2.1. Population Geography

• Population Distribution: The pattern of where people live.
• Population Density: The number of people per unit of area.
  • Arithmetic Density: Total number of people divided by total land area.
  • Physiological Density: Number of people per unit of arable land.
  • Agricultural Density: Number of farmers per unit of arable land.
• Population Composition: The structure of a population in terms of age, sex, and other properties such as marital status and education.
  • Age-Sex Pyramids: Visual representations of the age and sex composition of a population.
• Demographic Measures:
  • Crude Birth Rate (CBR): The total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.
  • Crude Death Rate (CDR): The total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.
  • Natural Increase Rate (NIR): The percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate.
  • Total Fertility Rate (TFR): The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years.
  • Infant Mortality Rate (IMR): The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age, compared with total live births.
  • Life Expectancy: The average number of years an individual can be expected to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions.

2.2. Population Growth and Decline

• Demographic Transition Model (DTM): A model of how the population of a country changes over time.
  1. Stage 1: Low Growth: High CBR and CDR, low NIR.
  2. Stage 2: High Growth: High CBR, declining CDR, high NIR.
  3. Stage 3: Moderate Growth: Declining CBR, low CDR, moderate NIR.
  4. Stage 4: Low Growth: Low CBR and CDR, low NIR.
  5. Stage 5: Decline: CBR lower than CDR, negative NIR.
• Malthusian Theory: Thomas Malthus argued that population growth would outpace food production, leading to famine and disease.
• Factors Affecting Population Change:
  • Economic Development: As countries develop, birth rates tend to decline.
  • Education: Higher levels of education, especially for women, are associated with lower birth rates.
  • Healthcare: Access to healthcare reduces infant mortality and increases life expectancy.
  • Government Policies: Policies such as family planning programs can affect population growth.

2.3. Migration

• Types of Migration:
  • International Migration: Movement across country borders.
  • Internal Migration: Movement within a country.
  • Voluntary Migration: Migration based on choice.
  • Forced Migration: Migration due to violence, persecution, or environmental factors.
• Ravenstein's Laws of Migration: A set of generalizations about migration patterns.
  • Most migrants move only a short distance.
  • There is a process of absorption, whereby people immediately surrounding a rapidly growing town move into it and the gaps they leave are filled by migrants from more distant areas.
  • There is a process of dispersion, which is the inverse of absorption.
  • Each main current of migration produces a compensating counter-current.
  • Long-distance migrants go to one of the great centers of commerce and industry.
  • Natives of towns are less migratory than those of rural areas.
  • Females are more migratory than males within their country of birth, but males more frequently venture beyond.
  • Migration increases in volume as industries and commerce develop and as transport improves.
  • The major direction of migration is from the rural to urban areas.
  • Migration is mostly due to economic causes.
• Push and Pull Factors:
  • Push Factors: Conditions that encourage people to leave a place (e.g., poverty, violence, environmental disasters).
  • Pull Factors: Conditions that attract people to a new place (e.g., economic opportunities, political freedom, better living conditions).
• Migration Transition: Changes in migration patterns that result from the demographic transition.
• Impacts of Migration:
  • Economic Impacts: Remittances, labor market changes.
  • Social Impacts: Cultural diffusion, social integration challenges.
  • Political Impacts: Changes in demographics and voting patterns.

3. Cultural Geography

3.1. Culture

• Definition of Culture: The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that constitute a group's distinct tradition.
• Elements of Culture: Language, religion, ethnicity, customs, traditions, and values.
• Material Culture: Physical objects produced by a culture (e.g., tools, buildings, clothing).
• Non-Material Culture: Abstract concepts of a culture (e.g., beliefs, values, norms).

3.2. Language

• Language Families: Groups of languages with a shared but distant origin.
  • Indo-European: Most widely spoken language family (e.g., English, Spanish, Hindi).
  • Sino-Tibetan: Includes Mandarin Chinese.
• Language Diffusion: The spread of a language.
  • Relocation Diffusion: Spread through migration.
  • Expansion Diffusion: Spread through hierarchical, contagious, or stimulus diffusion.
• Language Extinction: The disappearance of a language.
• Lingua Franca: A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.
• Official Language: The language adopted for use by a government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

3.3. Religion

• Types of Religions:
  • Universalizing Religions: Attempt to be global and appeal to all people (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism).
  • Ethnic Religions: Appeal primarily to one group of people living in one place (e.g., Judaism, Hinduism).
• Spatial Distribution of Religions:
  • Christianity: Predominant in Europe, North America, South America.
  • Islam: Predominant in the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia.
  • Buddhism: Predominant in East Asia, Southeast Asia.
  • Hinduism: Predominant in India.
• Religious Landscapes: How religion shapes the cultural landscape (e.g., churches, mosques, temples).
• Religious Conflicts: Conflicts arising from religious differences.

3.4. Ethnicity

• Definition of Ethnicity: Identity with a group of people who share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.
• Ethnic Enclaves: Areas with a high concentration of a particular ethnic group.
• Ethnic Conflicts: Conflicts arising from ethnic differences.
• Racism: Belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

3.5. Cultural Diffusion

• Types of Diffusion:
  • Relocation Diffusion: The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
  • Expansion Diffusion: The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.
    • Hierarchical Diffusion: The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.
    • Contagious Diffusion: The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.
    • Stimulus Diffusion: The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.
• Acculturation: The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups, each of which retains distinct cultural features.
• Assimilation: The process by which a group's cultural features are altered to resemble those of another group.
• Syncretism: The combination of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature.
• Cultural Hearths: The origin of a culture.

4. Political Geography

4.1. State

• Definition of a State: An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs.
• Sovereignty: Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.
• Nation: A group of people with a common culture and a sense of unity.
• Nation-State: A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality.
• Multinational State: State that contains two or more ethnic groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities.
• Stateless Nation: A nation that does not have a state.
• Frontiers vs. Boundaries:
  • Frontier: A zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control.
  • Boundary: An invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory.

4.2. Boundaries

• Types of Boundaries:
  • Physical Boundaries: Coincide with significant features of the natural landscape (e.g., mountains, rivers, deserts).
  • Cultural Boundaries: Follow the distribution of cultural characteristics (e.g., language, religion).
  • Geometric Boundaries: Based on straight lines or arcs.
• Boundary Disputes:
  • Definitional Boundary Dispute: Focuses on the legal language of the boundary agreement.
  • Locational Boundary Dispute: Centers on the delimitation or demarcation of the boundary.
  • Operational Boundary Dispute: Involves differing views over how the boundary should function.
  • Allocational Boundary Dispute: Concerns the ownership or use of resources in the border area.

4.3. Government

• Forms of Government:
  • Democracy: A system of government in which citizens elect leaders.
  • Autocracy: A system of government in which a single person holds unlimited political power.
  • Anocracy: A country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic, but rather displays a mix of the two types.
• Electoral Geography: The study of the spatial aspects of elections and voting behavior.
  • Gerrymandering: The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.

4.4. Geopolitics

• Heartland Theory: A geopolitical concept that suggests whoever controls Eastern Europe controls the heartland and eventually the world (Mackinder).
• Rimland Theory: Control of the rimland (the coastal areas of Eurasia) is key to controlling the world (Spykman).

4.5. Supranationalism

• Definition of Supranationalism: A venture involving three or more states for political, economic, or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives.
• Examples of Supranational Organizations:
  • United Nations (UN): An international organization founded to promote world peace and cooperation.
  • European Union (EU): A political and economic union of European countries.
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): A military alliance of European and North American countries.
  • World Trade Organization (WTO): An international organization that regulates international trade.

5. Economic Geography

5.1. Economic Systems

• Types of Economic Systems:
  • Subsistence Economy: Production is mainly for personal consumption.
  • Commercial Economy: Production is mainly for sale in the market.
  • Planned Economy: Government controls production and distribution.
  • Market Economy: Supply and demand determine production and distribution.
• Economic Sectors:
  • Primary Sector: Extraction of raw materials (e.g., agriculture, mining).
  • Secondary Sector: Manufacturing and processing of raw materials.
  • Tertiary Sector: Services (e.g., retail, healthcare, education).
  • Quaternary Sector: Information and knowledge-based services (e.g., research, development).
  • Quinary Sector: High-level decision-making roles (e.g., government officials, CEOs).

5.2. Agriculture

• Agricultural Revolutions:
  • First Agricultural Revolution: The transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture.
  • Second Agricultural Revolution: Improved agricultural techniques and increased crop yields.
  • Third Agricultural Revolution (Green Revolution): Introduction of high-yield seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation to increase agricultural production.
• Types of Agriculture:
  • Subsistence Agriculture: Farming for personal consumption.
    • Shifting Cultivation: Clearing forests for planting, then moving on to new areas.
    • Intensive Subsistence Agriculture: Farming that requires a lot of human labor and is practiced on small plots of land.
  • Commercial Agriculture: Farming for profit.
    • Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming: Integration of crops and livestock.
    • Dairy Farming: Production of milk and dairy products.
    • Grain Farming: Production of grains such as wheat, corn, and rice.
    • Livestock Ranching: Raising livestock for meat and other products.
    • Mediterranean Agriculture: Specialized farming in areas with a Mediterranean climate.
    • Plantation Agriculture: Large-scale commercial farming of crops such as coffee, tea, and sugarcane.
• Von Thünen Model: A model of agricultural land use based on transportation costs.
• Challenges in Agriculture:
  • Environmental Degradation: Soil erosion, water pollution, deforestation.
  • Food Security: Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food.
  • Globalization: Impacts of global markets on local farming practices.

5.3. Industry

• Industrial Revolutions:
  • First Industrial Revolution: Began in the late 1700s with new energy sources and machines.
  • Second Industrial Revolution: Began in the late 1800s with new technologies such as electricity and steel.
• Weber's Least Cost Theory: A model for the location of industries based on transportation, labor, and agglomeration.
• Types of Industries:
  • Bulk-Reducing Industry: An industry in which the final product weighs less than the inputs.
  • Bulk-Gaining Industry: An industry in which the final product weighs more than the inputs.
• Industrial Regions:
  • Major Industrial Regions: Western Europe, North America, East Asia.
• Deindustrialization: The decline of manufacturing industries in a region or country.

5.4. Services

• Types of Services:
  • Consumer Services: Provide services to individual consumers (e.g., retail, healthcare, education).
  • Business Services: Provide services to other businesses (e.g., finance, advertising, legal services).
  • Public Services: Provide services to the public (e.g., government, police, fire protection).
• Location of Services:
  • Central Place Theory: A theory that explains the distribution of services based on market area and range (Christaller).
• Growth of Services: The increasing importance of services in the economy.

5.5. Development

• Measures of Development:
  • Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year.
  • Gross National Income (GNI): The total value of goods and services produced by a country's residents and businesses, regardless of location.
  • Human Development Index (HDI): A measure of development that combines indicators of health, education, and income.
  • Gini Coefficient: A measure of income inequality.
• Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth: A model of economic development.
  1. Traditional Society: Subsistence agriculture, limited technology.
  2. Preconditions for Take-off: Investments in infrastructure and technology.
  3. Take-off: Rapid economic growth in a few industries.
  4. Drive to Maturity: Diversification of the economy.
  5. Age of Mass Consumption: High levels of consumption and economic development.
• Wallerstein's World Systems Theory: A theory that divides the world into core, periphery, and semi-periphery countries.
  • Core Countries: Developed countries that dominate the global economy.
  • Periphery Countries: Less developed countries that provide raw materials and labor to core countries.
  • Semi-Periphery Countries: Countries that have characteristics of both core and periphery countries.
• Sustainable Development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

6. Urban Geography

6.1. Urbanization

• Definition of Urbanization: The process by which the population of urban settlements grows.
• Urban Hearths: Areas were cities first developed.
• Megacities: Cities with more than 10 million residents.
• World Cities: Cities that function as centers of the global economy.

6.2. Urban Models

• Concentric Zone Model: A model of urban structure in which cities grow outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings (Burgess).
• Sector Model: A model of urban structure in which cities grow in sectors along transportation routes (Hoyt).
• Multiple Nuclei Model: A model of urban structure in which cities have multiple centers of activity (Harris and Ullman).
• Peripheral Model: A model of urban structure in which cities are surrounded by a beltway and have edge cities along the beltway (Harris).
• Latin American City Model: A model of urban structure that combines elements of the concentric zone and sector models.

6.3. Urban Issues

• Urban Sprawl: The uncontrolled expansion of urban areas.
• Suburbanization: The