Exam 2 Study Guide - Human Geography | GEOG 1001, Study notes of Geography

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Geography Exam 2 Study Guide The Russian Domain Continentality  Contrasting it to locations close to water  Describes inland climates with hot summers and cold, snowy winters  Caused when water absorbs insulation slower than land does, and releases it slower o Absorbs insolation from the sun  Because of continentality, Russia is a high latitude continental climate where seasonal temperature extremes and short growing seasons o Greatly limits opportunities for human settlement  Water bodies help stabilize air temperatures Ural Mountains  Located north of Kazakhstan to Arctic Ocean  Created a physical and cultural divide  Natural boundary between Europe and Asia  Geographic significance: Ural mountains is the mark between European Russia’s eastern edge and Siberia (Asia), separating the continents  Cultural significance: Ural mountains traditionally marked Russia’s eastern cultural borderline from the European west.  Siberia has extreme continentality making their region too cold for tree growth o They use tundra vegetation instead o Their tundra region is triggered by permafrost  A cold-climate condition of being unstable; seasonally frozen ground limiting the growth of vegetation and causes railroad construction problems Environmental Degradation—European Core, demographic crisis(particularly Men)  The breakup of the Soviet Union and trying to open the region to international public analysis revealed some of the world’s most severe environmental degradation  Almost 2/3 of the Russian population live in an environment harmful to their health  Two extreme examples: o Chernobyl  Located in northern Ukraine 1  Nuclear power plant suffered a catastrophic meltdown in 1986  The world’s worst nuclear accident  One of the greatest environmental disasters of the modern age  Will persist within the region for generations  Prypiat, Ukraine was founded in 1970 to house Chernobyl power plant workers  By 1979, 50,000 people were living there  Abandoned in 1986 o Shrinking of the Aral Sea  Created by Soviet in 1960’s  Source of the water comes from Amu Darya and Syr Darya  Is not a true sea because it does not connect to an ocean  2 rivers that are connected to Aral Sea used heavily used for cotton (irrigation):  Amu Darya  Syr Darya  In 2004, sea had shrunk to 25% of its original size  In 2007, 10% of its size  Because of this, there was a high concentration of salt causing most fish to die  Rebirth Island o Island where Soviets stored bioweapons o Containers of bubonic plague were kept as weapons  Containers weren’t stored properly and stated to leak o Main town was abandoned o Feared animals will carry “weapons” out o Now is a peninsula  The Karakalpaks o Autonomous Republic, Uzbekistan (central Asia) o 150 million tons of dust, salt, and pollutants were dumped on Central Asia and contaminated Aral Sea and connecting rivers o Effects:  High respiratory problems  Birth defects doubled  Pregnant women were anemic (throat cancer)  Death rate was 110 vs. 10 o Many split into groups of two and half settled in the Fergana Basin (up the Syr Darya) and the other half by the Amy River delta  Demographic Crisis 2  Lenin treated socialism as a transition between capitalism and communism (transition period)  Stalin takes control after Lenin o Reform movements: o Collecting agriculture to control peasants o Command economy  His theory – Leninist theory – argued that women should contribute fully to national development o Traditional attitude persisted o Result “Double Day” Communism  Meaning of communism shifts  Social revolution to create a classless and peaceful stateless social society order structured upon common ownership of the means of production  Based on writings of Marx o Never detailed how it would work as economic system  Branch of broader socialist movement o Ultimate expression of socialism Socialism  Production/distribution of goods are owned collectively, wealth is more evenly distributed, and political power is exercised by the whole community o Lenin treated it as a transition between capitalism and communism Marx (bourgeoisie, proletariat)  Karl Marx (1818-1883)  Created Marxism, which analyzes the conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and laborers (proletariat)  Workers or state should own “means of production” and profits should be evenly distributed—Workers should own factories and profits should own these  Marxism informs socialism and communism  Tells them to unite and overthrow capitalism and establish a (oligiarn) society with no government or money and work out of common good, sharing what they produce Forming of U.S.S.R.  Russification – the Soviet policy of resettling Russians into non- Russian portions of the Soviet Union  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics  government headquarters (move to Moscow) 5 Command Economy  Private property abolished  Central government determined how much of all goods should be produced (more efficient and profits more evenly distributed)  Making all of the decisions  Reform happened under Stalin  Government plans driven by perceived needs of the workers Collectivization  Small farms combined into larger collective ones o Kolkhozy  Increase efficiency (more people and food available for industry)  Extend communism to countryside  Initially peasants passively resisted – the immediate affect halved the livestock  Produced a Famine in the Ukraine (1932-1933) o 3.1-7 million dead o Took about 7 more years to exceed agriculture what they were producing before the collectivization Cold War  During WWII  Putting money into military to build it up  Advocated communist ideology Gorbachev  Glasnost - Public discussions of social and economic problems o Opened a can of worms Iron Curtain  Term coined by British leader Winston Churchill during the Cold War  Defined the military, political, and ideological barrier in Europe that separated the Soviet from eastern Europe Russia: So What Now? 2 Key Economic Reforms: Privatization – selling of industries formerly owned and operated by the government to private companies or individuals (seeking efficiency operated-free market) Lifting of Price Controls – prices were no longer kept artificially low to keep good affordable; it was determined by supply and demand 6 Moscow  “Moscow and Russia are Two Different Countries” o Largest city in greater Europe o Moscow had prices higher for goods than in most Russian cities o Housing was state owned  1950s, concrete blocks o Real estate boom o Income disparity Gender issues post fall of S.U. (what is true of Russian women today?)  Soviet policy encouraged all women to work for wages outside the home  By 1970’s, 90% of women had full-time jobs  Late 1990s – 70% of registered unemployed were women o Women took a big hit with the SU o Women are supporting themselves, parents, and children  Leninist theory argued that women should contribute fully to national development o Traditional attitude persisted o Result “Double Day”  Unlikely to hold senior supervisory positions  By 2005, women workers averaged 36% less than men  Primary role of Soviet women is domestic Life and Debt Background/Documentary (some of this information is in your textbook, Lome Convention, tourism, assembly plants, neo-colonialism etc.) What is the IMF? What are SAPS?  IMF – International Monetary Fund; formed to help European countries get back on their feet o A financial institution funded by developed nations to help developing countries  SAPS – Structural Adjustment Programs o Policy changes required a borrowing country o Government needs to nationalize industry o In order to get loans governments had to:  Liberalize trade  Privatizing nationalized industry  Cut social programs  Education, health care  Devalue currencies  Make experts more competitive on a global market 7  Production system that relied upon export commodities, forced labor, and limited access to land Monocrop production – the production of a single commodity, such as sugar  System created rigid class lines, as well as the formation of a multiracial society in which people with lighter skin we privileged Creolization  It is the blending of African, European, and Amerindian cultural elements o Manifesting itself in language and music  Ultimate Creolization o Through the case of The Garífuna  Group of people of mixed ancestry  Colonial  1636 - European Slave Ship wrecks off the Coast of St. Vincent Island in Caribbean  Carib (slaves) Indians already on the Island  The new arrivals begin to take Carib women thus mixing the groups  They begin to speak Indian language (west African language influences)  18th Century Brits resettle 5,000 o Relocate them to Bay Islands, Honduras o Half survive o Relied on subsistence and fishing to live o Lived on beaches - beach folk  Today Garífuna are known as: o Black Caribs o Morenos o Garinagu o Roatan, Honduras Rastafarian Movement  Founded in 1932 – Afro-Jamaican Religious Movement  Inspired by the crowning of Ethiopian King Haile Selesse o Significant because only 2 sovern nations: Ethiopia and South Africa  Marcus Garvey was the founder of Universal Negro Improvement Association which promoted unity o Pan-African – spanning all of Africa; a unification of Africa people and cultural traditions or black identity within Africa  Black Solidarity, Look to Africa  Prophesized about African King 10 o He was seen as a prophet  Key Beliefs o Haile Selassie was Black Christ o Return to the African Homeland (Repatriation)  Two primary phases o 1920s-1950s Conversion phase o 1960s-70s Opposition to colonial rule and other forms of oppression  Cuban revolution, civil rights  Component: Smoking Ganja o Spiritual Act, Closer to Jah, Bible Study o Brings pleasure o Brings one “closer to God”  Component: Having Dreadlocks o Believed it was supported by: Shall not make baldness on head Leviticus 21:5 o Not universal Maroons – society of run away slave that formed their own communities; formed own traditions; communities of runaway slaves  Significant: preserves practices Monroe Doctrine  “We should consider any attempt on their part [European powers] to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”  Named after president James Monroe  States that US will not tolerate European military action in the western hemisphere  Became important in WWI and WWII Roosevelt Corollary 1904  “Exercise international police power in any state in the hemisphere when it disapproved of internal conditions there.”  US would exercise police power in the hemisphere when it disapproved conditions that were taken place here Comparison of Cuba/Puerto Rico Cuba  Cant go to cuba – not part of US  1959 Communist Revolution  Social improvements  USSR  Special Period o Short decline because of Soviet Union 11 o Cuba was asked to make sacrifices, cut back spending o Opened economy to outside investment – this was HUGE o Redeveloping tourism industry  Helms Burton Act 1996 o U.S. stop all trade w/Cuba  Guantanamo Bay o Portion of Cuba that the US controls (US Naval Base) o Haitian/Cuban Refugees fleeing by boat to Florida o Detention facility Iraq/Afghanistan Puerto Rico  Operation Bootstrap o Government aided program to move from sugar plantation to industry o Sugar plantation company  industry o Successful o Many took advantage of tax incentives to relocate to Puerto Rico  Commonwealth o U.S. citizens o Chief of state – president of USA o Head of government – elected governor o Puerto Ricans are US citizens o Because they are not living in a state of the US, they cannot vote in the presidential election  1998 Vote o Puerto Ricans voted on commonwealth status: independent, dependent? o Retain commonwealth 50% o Statehood 47% o Independence 3% o Will vote again in 2012 Haiti—Historical Geography (this info is not in your textbook) Haiti under France—How prosperous was it in relation to the rest of the French empire? Haiti’s Ties to Louisiana—I gave a few examples Louisiana Purchase 1803  Napoleon wanted to restore western empire that would include Louisiana and Haiti o Wanted Haiti at the center o Haitions won 12