World Geography
Chapters 9, 10, and 11.
Terms
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- Mestizo
- people of mixed Spanish and Native American heritage.
- caudillo
- a military dictator or political boss.
- Inca
- a member of the Quechen peoples of South America who built a civilization in the Andes Mountains in the 15th and 16th centuries.
- Push factor
- a factor that causes people to leave their home-lands and migrate to another region.
- Tenochtitlan
- the ancient Aztek capital, site of Mexico city today.
- Reggae
- a style of music that developed in Jamaica in the 1960s and is rooted in African, Caribbean, and American music, often dealing with social problems and religion.
- Orinoco River
- a river mainly in Venezuela and part of South America's northernmost river system.
- Slash-and-burn
- a way of clearing fields for planting by cutting trees, brush, and grasses burning on them.
- Pull factor
- a factor that draws or attracts people to another location.
- Parana River
- a river in central South America andone of its three major river systerms, originating in thehighlands of southern Brazil, traveling about 3,000 miles south and west.
- samba
- a Brazilian dance with African influences.
- Maquiladora
- a factory in Mexico that assembles imported materials into finished goods for export.
- Spanish, African, and Native Americans
- Who blended to form the culture of South America?
- oligarchy
- a government run by a few persons or a small group.
- junta
- a government run by generals after a military take-over
- capoeira
- a martial art and dance that developed in Brazil from Angolans who were taken there by the Portugese from Africa.
- Calypso
- a style of music that began in Trinidad and combines musical elements from Africa, Spain, and the Caribbean.
- biodiversity
- the variety of organisms within an ecosystem.
- Andes Mountains
- a large system of mountain ranges located along the Pacific coast of Central and South America.
- NAFTA
- an important trade agreement creating a huge zone of cooperation on trade and economic issues in North America.
- Infastructure
- the basic supposer systems needed to keep an economy going, including power, communications, transportation, water, sanitation, and education systems.
- Atacama Desert
- dryest area in the world.
- global warming
- the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, preventing heat from escaping into space and causing rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns.
- Llanos
- a large, grassy, treeless area in South America, used for grazing and farming.
- Insitutional Revolutionary Party
- the political party introduced in 1929 in Mexico that helped to introduce democracy and maintain stability formuch of the 20th century.
- United Provinces of Central America
- the name of central America after the region declared independence from Mexico in 1823.
- Cultural hearth
- the heartland or place of origin of a major culture; a site of innovation from which basic ideas, materials, and technology diffuse to other cultures. (Mayan)
- Amazon River
- the second longest river in the world, and one of South America's three major river systems, running about 4,000 miles from west to east, and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.
- land reform
- the process of breaking up large landholdings to attain a more balanced land distribution among farmers.
- Quechua
- the language of the Inca Empire, now spoken in the Andes highlands.
- Rainforest
- a forest region located in the Tropical Zone with a heavy concentration of different species of broadleef trees.
- Spanish conquest
- the conquering of the Native Americans by the Spanish.
- Pampas
- A vast area of grassland and rich soil in south-central South America.
- Panama Canal
- a ship canal cut through Panama connecting the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.
- Farming, trade, sugar plantations, and tourism
- What are major sources of income in the economies of Central America and the Caribbean?
- Terraced farming
- an ancient technique for growing crops on hillsides or mountain slovpes, using step-like horizontal fields cut into slopes.
- Treaty of Tordesillas
- a treaty between Spain and Portugal in 1494 that gave Portugal control over the land that is present day Brazil.
- Cerrado
- a savanna that has flat terrain and moderate rainfall, which make it suitable for farming.
- deforestation
- the cutting down and clearing away of trees and forests.
- debt-for-nature swap
- a debt-reducing deal wherein an organization agrees to pay off a certain amount of government debt in return for government protection of a certain portion of rain forest.
- Carnival
- the most colorful feast day in Brazil.