click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
WGeo 7
Chapter 9 and 10 Vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
conquistador | A name for the Spanish explorers who claimed land in the Americas for spain |
cultural convergence | The contact and interaction of one culture with another. |
caudillo | A Latin American military dictator. |
pampas | A grasslands region in Argentina and Uruguay. |
cay | a small. low island or coral reef |
coral | The rock like skeleton of tiny sea animals. |
tropical storm | A storm with wind speeds of 39 mph or higher. |
Hurricane | A destructive tropical storm that forms over the Atlantic Ocean, usually in late summer and early fall with winds of at least 74 mph |
El Nino | A warm ocean current off South Americas northwestern coast that influences golbal weather patterns. |
canopy | The upper most layer of a forest where the tree branches meet. |
mestizo | A person of mixed European and Native american heritage |
mulatto | a person of mixed African and European heritage. |
market economy | an economic system in which decisions about production, price, and other economic factors are determined by the law of supply and demand. |
GDP per capita | The total value of good and services produced within a country in a year divided by the country's total population. |
Command Economy | an economic system that is controlled by a single central government. |
traditional economy | an economic system in which families produce goods and services for their own use, with little surplus and exchange of goods. |
plateau | an area of high flat land |
peninsula | a strip of land that juts out into an ocean |
irrigation | the watering of farmland with water drawn from reservoirs or rivers |
sinkhole | a hole formed when limestone is dissolved, causing the land above to collapse |
hacienda | a large Spanish owned estate in the Americas, often run as a farm or cattle ranch |
land redistribution | A policy by which land is taken from those who own large amounts and redistributed to those who gave little or none. |
ejido | farmland owned collectively by members of a rural community |
subsistence farming | farming that provides only enough for the needs of a family or village. |
latifundio | a large commercial farm owned by a private individual or a farming company |
cash crop | a farm crop grown for sale and profit. |
migrant worker | a worker who travels from place to place working where extra help is needed to cultivate or harvest crops. |
nafta | North American free Trade Agreement which phased out trade barriers among the United States,Canada, and Mexico. |
maquiladora | A factory in Mexico along the Unites States border that assemblese goods for export. |