Term | Definition |
Conquisttadors | name for the Spanish explorers who claimed land in america for Spain. |
Cultural Convergence | the contact and interaction of one culture with another. |
Caudillos | a Latin american military dictator. |
Pampas | a grassland region in Argentina |
Cays | a small, low island or coral reef. |
Coral | the rocklike skeleton 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 with winds of a least 74 miles per hour. |
EL Nino | a warm ocean current off south america northwestern coast that influences global weather patterns. |
Ecosystems | the interaction of plant life animal life and the physical environment in which they live. |
Mestizos | a person of mixed european and native american heritage. |
Mulattoes | a person of mixed african and european ancestory |
Market Economy | an economic system on which decision |
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 economy system that is controlled by 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 america's often run as a farm or cattle ranch. |
land redistrution | 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 rural community. |
subsistence farming | farming that provides only enough for the needs of a family or a village. |
latifundio | a large commerical 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, Mexico. |
maquiladora | a factory in mexico along the untied states border that assembles goods for exports. |