Notes

GEOGRAPHY 1 FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE

FINAL EXAM: THURSDAY 12/18 - 1:30-3:30

The Middle East: common themes (7 themes. *seventh theme is petroleum, but wasn’t

mentioned in study guide*)

1. Climate/aridity/oases/major rivers

• River valleys: Tigris, Euprates, Nile

Water: contentious issues/examples

• Water is a source of competition

• Israel has biggest struggle because of unfriendly neighbors

Egypt + the Nile/issues/Aswan Dam

• The dam built by the USSR interferes with seasonal flooding

2. Languages: major families represented

• Hamitic-Semitic family: Arabic, Hebrew, Berber (N. Africa)

• Indo European: Farsi, Kurdish

• Uralic-Altaic: Turkish, Azeri

Arabs/non-Arab groups

3. Monotheism: 3 major religions

• Judaism, Christianity and Islam

-Islam: the 5 pillars/Quran/Sunni/Shi’ites

• Sunni, Shi’ites, and smaller sects

1. Profession of faith: One God- Allah & Muhammad is his prophet

2. Pilgrimage to Mecca (Haj)

3. Prayer 5 times a day facing Mecca

4. Charity to the poor & needy

5. Fasting during Ramadan

-Sizable Christian minorities: where? Copts

• 10% or more in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt

4. Geo-politics + the Middle East

-Crossroads location/trade/Silk Road

• Well-located on trade routes, but can be easily attacked

• Trade with Europe, Asia and Africa

-Colonialism: Ottomans/League of Nations mandates (who? where?)

• The colonial legacy: Ottoman empire until 1918

• League of nations mandates: France- Lebanon, Syria. UK- Palestine,

Transjordan (absolute monarchy)

-Contemporary situation: dictators/monarchs

• No democracy

-The Arab Spring/where?/outcomes

• Libya, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen revolutions (started in Tunisia)

• Outcomes: Muslim brotherhood won Egypt elections (Sharia), civil wars, only

o This is what makes the Nile productive because of deposition of

sediments in area around Nile

o Arabic is most commonly spoken

o Biggest language family

minor victories

o Tunisia had the best outcome: overthrew dictator ship, held elections, and

secular party won

-ISIL: goals/where/methods

• Rise of ISIL: used chaos of Syria civil war to organize themselves

• ISIL- Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant (Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Syria)

• Goals: more territorial focused, worldwide caliphate (one-world theocratic

6. Stateless peoples: Jews/Palestinians

• Kurdistan: a country that doesn’t exist

• Turkey (most live here), Iran, Iraq and Syria

• ISIL are Iraqi Kurds

• Kurds are not Arabs

-The PKK/Berbers-where?

• PKK- Kurdish people in Turkey, Kurdistan Workers’ Party

• Berbers: Northern Africa, also Tunisia, Libya

-Saudi Arabia: the Kingdom/host to the Haj

-From Stone Age to Space Age: how?

• #1 in oil production and oil reserves

• OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

-Aramco/ gender issues in Saudi

• Saudi Aramco: petroleum and natural gas company, $401 billion/yr.

-TCNs/expatriates/differences/sources

• Third Country Nationals: not Saudi and not global north

o Cartel to maintain oil prices

o Mostly from: South Asia, SE Asia, Africa, oil have-not middle east

countries

The UAE/origins/UK role in region

• Unified by UK in 1820 as “Trucial States”

• British “protected” them from foreign powers, while gaining trade monopoly with

-Abu Dhabi/importance to UAE

• One of 7 emirates

• Abu Dhabi is the largest, richest, with the most oil

• Dubai is second largest emirate

• Has more diverse, commercial economy

• Tourism destination

-Sharjah/Fujairah (emirates) – new role

• Sharjah: most traditional, but has a visionary sheikh

• Fujairah: has built a container port and oil storage tanks

-Guest worker population/issues/language

• Population is 80% foreign guest workers and most don’t speak Arabic

o Sheikdom states created by British (emirates)

• Guest workers are essentially a segregated population

-Environmental sustainability issues

• Unsustainable model has been pursued

o Urban sprawl: city is spread out

o Near total dependence on private vehicles and carbon-based fuels

o High per capita carbon emissions

Arab-Israeli conflict: roots of conflict

-Balfour Declaration/Arab Revolt

• Balfour: 1917, UK. Promised to support Jewish homeland in middle east, but

didn’t keep promise

• Arab revolt: fomented by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) defeated Ottoman

empire and Britain took control

-Post-WW I mandates – who? Where?

• British Mandate of Palestine: included present day Israel, West Bank and Gaza

-Four wars/outcomes of each. Each war pits Israel against its 4 neighbors- Egypt,

Jordan, Syria and Lebanon

• 1948 - Arab-Israeli War: After British mandate was terminated, 4 neighbors

attacked IDF. Israel won

• 1956 – Suez Crisis: Suez Canal, Arabs attack but don’t succeed.

• 1967 – Six-Day War: Israel takes over West Bank, Sinai, Gaza, Golan Heights

• 1973 - Yom Kippur War: Syria and Egypt surprise attacked Israel on Yom Kippur.

Oil crisis in West – OPEC enforced oil embargo to gain support against Israel

-Intifadas/who? Where?

• First intifada: 1987. Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in Palestinian

territories. IDF responded with extreme force

• Second intifada: series of suicide bombings and attacks that led to Israel creation

of Operation Defensive Shield

-Costs of conflict?/solutions to the conflict?

• Israel has to maintain large military and live in fear of attack

• Its neighbors: lack of security, pawn of other Arabs, no one really helps

• USA: don’t hold Israel accountable, has affected US diplomatically, has given

Israel a lot of money

• Two state solution not viable anymore

Turkey: significance of location

• Land bridge between Asia and Europe

-Turkey since fall of the Ottoman Empire

-A War of Independence

-Greco-Turkish War/population exchange

• Following WWI when Allies tried to split Turkey

• 400,000 to Turkey and 1,200,000 to Greece

-Ataturk/Turkish Revolution/secularism

• Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: Father of modern Turkey and architect of the revolution

-Elements of Turkey’s modernization

• Modernization = westernization, made religious clothes illegal

• Defined a Turkish state, didn’t recognize minorities

• 4 times military had to step in to overthrow corrupt government

-Turkey as a model for the Middle East?

-Iraq: creation of the Iraqi state

-3 major peoples/components of Iraq

• Established in 1920 out of Ottoman Empire

• Kurds in the north, Sunni Arabs in the center, Shia Arabs in the south & east

Africa: Africa's Triple Heritage – sources?

-Pangaea/Africa’s position/mountains?

• Heart of Pangaea – less mountains and not affected by plate tectonics very much

-4 major biomes of Africa: characteristics

• Rainforests and broadleaf forests

• Deserts & semi-deserts

o Straddle equatorial zone

o Big game animals

o Found north, south & east of rainforests

o Mix of trees and grasslands

o Grasslands – Sahel is the largest

o North and south of the savannas

o Sahara is world’s largest

o Kalihar and Namib are the major deserts of the south

-The Sahel/desertification/causes?

• Desertification: spread of deserts or creation of new ones

• Sahel is most vulnerable

o Ongoing drought

o Population growth = increased stress on land use

o Over cultivation of marginal lands

o Overgrazing – down to crop roots

o Increased salinization due to irrigation

-African Rift Valley: why? Where?

• Tectonic plate separation

• Leads to Red sea

• Eastern Africa

-Pre-colonial Africa: characteristics/diversity

• Sustenance economies: producer is consumer

• Extended family system: all families live together, family members take care of

children and elderly

• Communally held land that could not be sold

-Nucleated village/gender roles/communal landholdings/subsistence/extended family

• Women as primary agriculturists, Men as hunter and gatherers

• Nucleated village rural settlement pattern (houses all together, separated from

-Africa’s indigenous language families

• 800 indigenous languages, 4 main families

o Bantu: largest # of speakers and most geographically widespread. Ex.

Zulu (SA), Yoruba (Nigeria)

o Khoisan: click languages, mostly in southern Africa. Ex. The Bushmen

o Nilotic: origins lie in today’s Sudan. Ex. Maasai... Kenya-Tanzania border

o Cushitic: from the horn of Africa. Ex. Somali

-Non-indigenous languages: where –

• Hamitic-Semitic family (aka Afro-asiatic)

• Austronesian family

• Afrikaans (related to Dutch)

• Link languages: reflect colonial ties

-Colonial impacts on Africa/African diaspora

• The slave trade

• Monetization of the economy

• Land and labor become commodities

• Land alienation – private ownership

• Settlement patterns change – forced to move onto plantations, by mines, etc.

-Berlin Conference: changing the map

• Europeans draw boundary lines. Ignore ethnicity and culture creating multi-ethnic

-African political vs. cultural boundaries

• Political boundaries created by Europeans in Berlin conference that did not

reflect cultural patterns which caused many problems that Africa still faces today

(language patterns reflect this)

-Food crops vs. export crops: examples

• Export: cotton, indigo

• Food: coffee, tea, cocoa

-Landlessness/monetization/settlement patterns change/colonial transport system

• Colonial transport system focused on port city (exploitation)

-Post-colonial Africa: characteristics

- Rapid population growth

- Political independence without economic independence – still dependent on global

-Underdevelopment and poverty

-Pawn in east-west conflict

-Multi-ethnic states/single party states

• Does not fit nation state model because such a mixed population will not

recognize state

o Arabic (northern Africa), Swahili (Eastern Africa), Amharic (Ethiopia)

o Malagasy (Madagascar)

o English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian

o A landless peasantry emerges

o Designed to facilitate the extraction of wealth to Europe

o Does not have Africans in mind

• State-building process cause civil strife

• One-party political systems: frequent dictatorships, cult of personality

-Africa’s medical geography/malaria

• Malaria making a comeback because of mosquito tolerance to insecticide

-Trypanopsomiasis/bilharzia/Ebola/NTDs

• Neglected tropical diseases

-HIV/AIDS: impacts on Africa

• Globally, most victims of AIDS are in Africa (2/3 in sub-Saharan Africa)

• Most are labor force age – increased number of orphans

• Females outnumber male victims

-Cape Verde/uniqueness/US link/baseball?

• Uninhabited until Portuguese arrive in 1453

• Predominantly roman catholic

• Overwhelmingly mulatto (mixed white and black ancestry)

• Earning more from remittances and aid than exports

• Many cape Verdean people live in Northeast US – Many Yankees and red sox

-South Africa's human geography: 4 groups

• Indigenous (black) majority (74%)

• White South Africans (14%)

o Easy to impose order

o Not unified, divided into 10 major ethnic groups

o Afrikaaners: descended from early Dutch, German and French Huguenot

settlers

o English-speaking whites: came with British colonialism in early 1800s

• Coloureds (9%) – mixed race group

• Asians (3%) – Mostly south Asians, brought in by British

-Boers/Afrikaaners/Great Trek/Boer War

• Boers: Huguenots and Germans migrate, mix with Dutch

• Trek of Boers: east and northeast beyond British control

-Apartheid in South Africa: “homelands”

• System of racial segregation

• Homelands granted “independence”, but were unrecognized

-The African National Congress/Mandela

• Led resistance for true independence

Latin America + the Caribbean: peoples

-Indigenous people: 3 major pre-Columbian civilizations – examples? Where?

• Mayan city states: rose and collapsed before arrival of Spanish

• Aztecs: empire in central Mexico

• Incas: empire in the Andes

o Now foreigners in SA

o Yucatan theocracies

o Never invented wheel

o Great builders, no written language

-Conquista/conquistadores/RC Church role

• “Sword and bible”: violence/conflict and missionaries

-Post-1492 demographic debacle – causes

• Demographic debacle: 90-95% of indigenous people die off in 100 years

-Colonialism: people - Europeans/Africans

o European diseases, malnutrition, enslavement

o Peninsulares: born in Europe

o Criolos: born in Latin America

• Africans: slave trade

Colonial Caribbean

• Spanish: Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba

• French: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti

• Dutch: Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Suriname

• British: Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, many smaller islands, Guyana, Belize

• Danes: virgin islands

• Africans: everywhere (export crops)

-Social pyramid - criollos/peninsulares, mestizos/mulattos

• Criollos and peninsulares at the top

• Mestizos, ladinos, people of African descent and unassimilated indigenous

people at bottom

-Land tenure: haciendas/ estancias/plantations

• Ranches, large properties, land grants gifts from Portuguese/Spanish kings to

-Neocolonial LA: changes/RRs/fútbol?

• Railroads facilitated export of coffee, minerals, cocoa

• Futbol comes with British railroads

Refrigeration- 2 regions transformed by which products?

• Central America, Colombia: bananas

• Argentina, Uruguay: meat (pampas)

-New immigration sources

• Italians: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil

• Germany: Chile, Brazil, Small #s everywhere

• Slavic people: Brazil, Argentina, Chile

• Japanese: Brazil

-Major export crops from L.A.

• Cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, bananas, silver/gold

-The Caribbean: major ethnic/racial groups

-Indentured workers – from where? Why?

• South Asians: Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname

• Indonesians: Suriname

• Chinese: small numbers everywhere

-Economic Nationalism in LA: breaking the mold/ISI/protectionism

• ISI – Import Substitution Industrialization – replacing foreign imports with

domestic production

• Protection strategy: tariffs, quotas, subsidies

• Industrialization occurs unevenly

• Middle class expands

-L.A.’s foreign debt crisis/impacts

• Began with collapse of Mexican peso – default on loan payments

• Millions emigrate to N. America, Europe

-Globalization/neoliberalism: priorities

• Free trade comes to LA

• Focus on production for export to pay of debt

-Examples of regional integration in LA NAFTA/MERCOSUR/CAFTA members

• Mercosur: a customs union established with 4 members (Argentina, Brazil,

Paraguay and Uruguay). Venezuela and Bolivia joined later

• NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement

• CAFTA: Central America Free Trade Agreement (Central America, US,

Dominican Republic)