Geography Terms Word Scramble
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Answer | Question |
afforestation | converting previously unforested land to forest by planting trees or seeds |
aridity | climate with insufficient moisture to support trees or woody plants |
Balfour Declaration | 1917 British mandate that required the establishment of a Jewish national homeland |
desertification | process by which arid and semiarid lands become degraded and less productive, leading to more desertlike conditions |
guest worker | a foreigner who is permitted to work in another country on a temporary basis |
hajj | pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims |
import substitution | process by which domestic producers provide goods or services that were formerly bought from foreign producers |
informal economy | economic activities that take place beyond official record and not subject to formalized systems of regulation or remuneration (example, street selling, petty crime) |
intifada | the violent uprising of Palestinians against the rule of Israel in the Occupied Territories |
Islam | religion that is based on submission to God's will according to the Qur'an |
Islamism | anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and overall |
jihad | sacred struggle or striving to carry out God's will according to the tenets of Islam |
kinship | shared notion of relationship among members of a group often but not necessarily based on blood, marriage, or adoption massif |
Muslim | member of the Islamic religion |
nationalist movement | organized groups of people, sharing common elements of culture, such as language, religion, or history, who wish to determine their own political affairs |
nationalization | process of converting key industries from private to governmental organization and control |
oasis | spot in the desert made fertile by the availability of surface water |
petrodollar | revenues generated by the sale of oil |
tribe | form of social identity created by groups who share a common set of ideas about collective loyalty and political action |
world religion | belief system with worldwide adherents |
Zionism | movement whose chief objective has been the establishment for the Jewish people of a legally recognized home in Palestine |
biodiversity | variety in the types and numbers of species in particular regions of the world |
biogeography | study of the spatial distribution of vegetation, animals, and other organisms |
biome | largest geographic biotic unit, a major community of plants and animals or similar ecosystems |
cartogram | map projection that is transformed in order to promote legibility or to reveal patterns not readily apparent on a traditional base map |
climate | typical conditions of the weather expected at a place often measured by long |
colonialism | establishment and maintenance of political and legal domination by a state over a separate and alien society |
colonization | establishment of settlement in a place or region |
commodity | anything useful that can be bought or sold |
commodity chains | networks of labor and production processes that originate in the extraction or production of raw materials, The end result is the delivery and consumption of a finished commodity |
communism | form of economic and social organization characterized by the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange |
continental drift | slow movement of the continents over long periods of time across Earth's surface (see plate tectonics) |
culture | shared set of meanings that are lived through the material and symbolic practices of everyday life |
demographic transition | replacement of high birth and death rates by low birth and death rates |
diaspora | spatial dispersion of a previously homogeneous group |
ecosystem | complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their relationships in a particular place |
gender | social differences between men and women rather than the anatomical differences related to sex |
geomorphology | study of landforms global warming |
globalization | increasing interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common processes of economic, environmental, political, and cultural change |
greenhouse effect | trapping of heat within the atmosphere by water vapor and gases, such as carbon dioxide, resulting in the warming of the atmosphere and surface |
gross domestic product (GDP) | estimate of the total value of all materials, foodstuffs, goods, and services that are produced in a country in a particular year |
hegemony | domination over the world economy, exercised through a combination of economic, military, financial, and cultural means, by one national state in a particular historical epoch |
imperialism | extension of the power of a nation through direct or indirect control of the economic and political life of other territories |
international division of labor | specialization of different people, regions, and countries in certain kinds of economic activities |
International Monetary Fund (IMF) | organization that provides loans to governments throughout the world |
International regime | orientation of contemporary politics around the international arena rather than the national one |
intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) | region where air flows together and rises vertically as a result of intense solar heating at the equator, often with heavy rainfall, and shifting north and south with the seasons |
leadership cycles | periods of international power established by individual states through economic, political, and military competition |
mercantilism | economic policy in which government controls industry and trade |
nation | group of people often sharing common elements of culture, such as religion, language, a history, or political identity |
nationalism | feeling of belonging to a nation as well as the belief that a nation has a natural right to determine its own affairs |
nation | state |
neocolonialism | economic and political strategies by which powerful states in core economies indirectly maintain or extend their influence over other areas or people |
neoliberalism | economic doctrine based on a belief in a minimalist role for the state, assuming the desirability of free markets as the ideal condition not only for economic organization but also for social and political life |
plate tectonics | theory that Earth's crust is divided into large solid plates that move relative to each other and cause mountain building, volcanic, and earthquake activity when they separate or meet |
quaternary activity | economic activity that deals with the handling and processing of knowledge and information |
regional geography | study of the ways in which unique combinations of environmental and human factors produce territories with distinctive landscapes and cultural attributes |
regionalism | strong feelings of collective identity shared by religious or ethnic groups that are concentrated within a particular region |
regionalization | geographer's classification of individual places or areal units |
Secondary activity | economic activity involving the processing, transformation, fabrication, or assembly of raw materials, or the reassembly, refinishing, or packaging of manufactured goods |
sectionalism | extreme devotion to local interests and customs |
sense of place | feelings evoked among people as a result of the experiences and memories that they associate with a place and to the symbolism that they attach to it |
social movements | organized movements of people with an agenda of political opposition and activism |
sovereignty | exercise of state power over people and territory, recognized by other states and codified by international law |
spatial justice | fairness of the distribution of society's burdens and benefits, taking into account spatial variations in people's needs and in their contribution to the production of wealth and social well |
state | independent political unit with territorial boundaries that are internationally recognized by other states |
structural adjustment policies | economic policies, mostly associated with the International Monetary Fund, that required governments to cut budgets and liberalize trade in return for debt relief |
supranational organization | collection of individual states with a common economic and/or political goal that diminishes, to some extent, individual state sovereignty in favor of the collective interests of the membership |
sustainable development | vision of development that seeks a balance among economic growth, environmental impacts, and social equity |
tertiary activity | economic activity involving the sale and exchange of goods and services |
World Bank | development bank and the largest source of development assistance in the world |
world region | large scale geographic division based on continental and physiographic settings that contain major clusters of humankind with broadly similar cultural attributes |
world system | interdependent system of linked by political and economic competition |
Berlin Conference | meeting convened by German chancellor Bismark in 1884 to 85 to divide Africa among European colonial powers |
bush fallow | modification of shifting cultivation where crops are rotated around a village and fallow periods are shortened |
common market | market in which internal restrictions on the movement of capital, labor, and enterprise are also removed from the basic framework of a customs union |
Desertification | process by which arid and semiarid lands become degraded and less productive, leading to more desertlike conditions Domestification |
ethnic group | group of people whose members share cultural characteristics |
feminization of poverty | likelihood that women will be poor, malnourished, and otherwise disadvantaged because of inequalities within the household, the community, and the country |
G8 | Group of Eight countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) whose heads of state meet each year to discuss issues of mutual and global concern |
harmattan | hot, dry wind that blows out of inland Africa |
homelands | areas set aside in South Africa for black residents as tribal territories where they were given limited self |
Irredentism | assertion by the government of a country that a minority living outside its borders belongs to it historically and culturally |
microfinance programs | programs that provide credit and savings to the self |
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) | 8 goals to be met by the year 2015, agreed to by the UN, that include the eradication of poverty, universal primary education, gender equality, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating of disease |
modernization theory | economic development occurs when investment rates enable higher levels of industrialization, thus raising labor productivity and increasing the GDP per capita levels |
Pastoralism | system of farming and way of life based on keeping herds of grazing animals |
shifting cultivation | agricultural system that preserves soil fertility by moving crops from one plot to another |
slash and burn | agricultural system often used in tropical forests that involves cutting trees and brush and burning them so that crops can benefit from cleared ground and nutrients in the ash |
Transhumance | movement of herds according to seasonal rhythms: warmer, lowland areas in the winter, and cooler, highland areas in the summer |
Tribe | form of social identity created by groups who share a common set of ideas about collective loyalty and political action |
Asian Tigers | newly industrialized territories of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore that have experienced rapid economic Growth and become semiperipheral within the world |
chaebol | South Korean term for the very large corporations in that country that, with government help, control numerous businesses and dominate the national economy |
counterurbanization | net loss of population from cities to smaller towns and rural areas |
feng shui | application of a collection of ancient principles of geomancy that are believed by adherents to ensure health, wealth, happiness, long life, and healthy offspring through the spatial organization of cities, buildings, and furniture |
import substitution | process by which domestic producers provide goods or services that were formerly bought from foreign producers |
keiretsu | Japanese business networks facilitated after World War II by the Japanese government in order to promote national recovery |
Pacific Rim | loosely defined region of countries that border the Pacific Ocean pinyin |
Ring of Fire | chain of seismic instability and volcanic activity that stretches from Southeast Asia through the Philippines, and down the Pacific coast of the Americas to the southern Andes in Chile, It is caused by the tension built up by moving tectonic plates |
Silk Road | ancient east-west trade route between Europe and China. |
zaibatsu | large Japanese conglomerate corporation |
bonded labor | labor that is pledged against an outstanding debt. |
caste | system of kinship groupings that is reinforced by language, religion, and occupation. |
distributary | river branch that flows away from the main stream. |
microfinance programs | programs that provide credit and savings to the self |
monsoon | seasonal reversal of wind flows in parts of the lower to middle latitudes, During the cool season, a dry monsoon occurs as dry offshore winds prevail; in hot summer months a wet monsoon occurs as onshore winds bring large amounts of rainfall. |
orographic effect | influence of hills and mountains in lifting airstreams, cooling the air, and thereby inducing precipitation. |
Raj | rule of the British in India. |
Aborigines | indigenous peoples of Australia |
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) | association of more than 40 low lying, mostly island, countries that have formed an alliance to combat global warming, which threatens their existence through sea |
Antarctic Treaty | international agreement to demilitarize the Antarctic continent, delay mineral exploration, and preserve it for scientific research |
atoll | low lying island landform consisting of a circle of coral reefs around a lagoon, often associated with the rim of a submerged volcano or mountain |
cargo cult | Pacific island religious movements in which the dawn of a coming new age was associated with the arrival of goods brought by spiritual beings or foreigners |
cattle station | livestock enterprises where cattle (or sheep) are raised on large grazing leases in the remote regions of Australia |
Closer Economic Relations (CER) Agreement | agreement in 1983 that built upon an earlier New Zealand |
common property resources | resources such as fish or forests that are managed collectively by a community that has rights to the resource rather than it being owned by individuals |
Dreamtime | aboriginal worldview that links past and future, people and places, in a continuity that ensures respect for the natural world |
ecological imperialism | concept developed by historian Alfred Crosby to describe the way in which European organisms were able to take over the ecosystems of other regions of the world, often with devastating impacts on local peoples, flora, and fauna |
ecosystem | complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their relationships in a particular place |
Great Artesian Basin | world's largest reserve of underground water located in central Australia and under pressure so that water rises to the surface when wells are bored |
intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) | region where air flows together and rises vertically as a result of intense solar heating at the equator, often with heavy rainfall, and shifting north and south with the seasons |
marsupial | Australian mammal such as the kangaroo, koala, and wombat that gives birth to premature infants that then develop and feed from nipples in a pouch on the mother's body |
Melanesia | region of the western Pacific that includes the westerly and largest islands of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia |
Outback | dry and thinly populated interior of Australia |
ozone depletion | loss of the protective layer of ozone gas that prevents harmful ultraviolet radiation from reaching Earth's surface and causing increases in skin cancer and other ecological damage |
Polynesia | central and southern Pacific islands that include the independent countries of Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tuvalu; American Samoa; the French territories of Wallis and Fortuna and French Polynesia |
South Pacific Forum | institution that promotes discussion and cooperation on trade, fisheries, and tourism between all of the independent and self |
stolen generation | Aboriginal children that were forcibly removed from their homes in Australia and placed in white foster homes or institutions |
subsistence affluence | achievement of a good standard of living through reliance on self |
theory of island biogeography | theory that smaller islands will generally be less biologically diverse than larger ones |
Treaty of Waitangi | 1840 agreement in which 40 Maori chiefs gave the Queen of England governance over their land and the right to purchase it in exchange for protection and citizenship,It provides the basis for Maori land rights and New Zealand's bicultural society |
White Australia policy | Australian policy, until 1975, that restricted immigration to people from northern Europe through a ranking that placed British and Scandinavians as the highest priority, followed by southern Europeans, with the goal of attaining a homogenized |
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