Term | Definition |
conquistadors | Name for the Spanish explorers who claimed land in the Americas for Spain. |
cultural convergance | The contact and interaction of one culture with another. |
caudillos | 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 skeletons of tiny sea animals |
tropical storm | A storm with winds of at least 39 miles per hour. |
hurricane | A destructive tropical storm that forms over the Atlantic Ocean, usually in late summer and early fall, withe winds of at least 74 miles per hour. |
El nino | A warm ocean current off South America's northwestern coast that influences global weather patterns. |
canopy | The uppermost later of a forest where tree branches meet. |
mestizo | A person 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 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 subsistence economy. |
plateau | An area of high, flat land. |
peninsula | A strip of land that juts out into the ocean. |
irriation | 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 a 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 of a rural community. |
subsistence farming | Farming that provides only enough for the needs of a family or a 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 | North American Free Trade Agreement, which phased out trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. |
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. |