Term | Definition |
cultural diffusion | the process by which people adopt the practices of their neighbors. |
industrial revolution | the shift from human power to machine power. |
renaissance | the revival of art, literature, and learning that took place in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. |
summits | the highest point of a mountain or similar elevation. |
prevailing westerlies | the constant flow of air from west to east in the temperate zones of the earth. |
euro | the common currency used by member nations of the Europe union. |
compulsory | required. |
fertile | able to produce abundantly. |
ore | a rocky material containing a valuable mineral. |
tertiary economic activity | an economic activity in which people do not directly gather or process raw materials but pursue activities that serve others service authority. |
moor | broad, treeless, rolling land, often poorly drained and having patches of marsh and peat bog. |
bog | an area of wet, spongy ground. |
glen | a narrow valley. |
peat | spongy material containing waterlogged and decaying mosses and plants, sometimes dried and used as fuel. |
cultural divergence | the restriction of a culture from outside influences. |
blight | a plant disease. |
fjord | a narrow valley or inlet from the sea, originally carved out by an advancing glacier and filled by melting glacial ice. |
geothermal energy | energy produced from the earth's intense interior heat. |
mixed economy | a system combining different degrees of government regulation. |
dialect | a variation of a spoken language that is unique to region or community. |
impressionism | a style of art where painters try to catch visual impression made by color, light, and shadows. |
nationalize | pride in one's nation the desire of a cultural group to rule themselves as a separate nation. |
recession | an extended decline in business activity. |
confederation | a system of government in which individual political units keep their sovereignty but give limited power to a central government. |
reparation | money paid for war damages. |
inflation | a sharp, widespread rise in prices. |
lignite | a soft, brownish-black coal. |
dike | an embankment of earth and rock built to hold back water. |
polder | an area of low-lying land that has been reclaimed from the sea. |
decentralize | to transfer government power smaller regions. |
canton | a political division or state one of the states in Switzerland. |
neutral | not taking sides in a war. |
perishable good | a product that does not stay fresh for long. |
strip mining | the process whereby miners strip away the surface of the earth to lay bare the mineral deposits. |
navigable | deep and wide enough to allow the passage of ships. |
dry farming | a farming technique that leaves land unplanted every few years in order together moisture. |
sirocco | a hot, dry wind from northern Africa. |
hub | a central point of concentrated activity and influence. |
seismic activity | Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions |
subsidence | a geological phenomenon in which the ground in an area sinks. |
renaissance | the revival of art, literature, and learning that took place in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth,sixteenth centuries. |
graben | a long narrow area that has dropped between two faults. |
inhabitable | able to support permanent residents. |
tsunami | a huge wave caused primarily by a disturbance beneath the ocean, such as an earthquakes or volcanic eruption. |