Term | Definition |
pampas | a grasslands region in Argentina and Uruguay |
conqistador | name for the Spanish explorers who claimed land in the Americas for spain |
cultural divergence | the restriction of a culture from outside influences |
caudillo | a Latin american military dictator |
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 |
hurricane | a destructive tropical storm that forms over the atlantic ocean usually in late summer and early fall with 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 layer of a forest where tree branches meet |
mestizo | a person of mixed European and native american heritage |
multatto | African and european |
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 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 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 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 | 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 US, Canada, and Mexico |
maquiladora | a factory in Mexico, along the United States border, that assembles goods for export |