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Geography Ch. 9 & 10
Geography Chapter 9 & 10 vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
conquistador | 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 dictator |
pampas | A grasslands region in Argentina and Uruguay |
cay | a small, low island or coral reef |
coral | The rocklike skeletons of tiny sea animals |
tropical storm | A storm with winds of at least 39 miles (63 km) per hour |
hurricane | A destructive tropical storm that forms over the Atlantic Ocean, usually in late summer or early fall, with winds of at least 74 miles (119 km) per hour |
El NiƱo | A warm ocean current off South America's northwestern coast that influences global weather patterns |
canopy | The uppermost layer of a forest where tree branches meet |
mestizo | A person of mixed European and Native American heritage |
mulatto | A person of mixed African and European ancestry |
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 goods 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; also known as a subsistence economy |
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 have little or none |
ejido | Farmland owned collectively by members if 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 United States border, that assembles goods for export |