AP Human Geography

AP Human Geography Key Concept Review

Geography as Field of Study • Geography - • “geo” - “the earth” • “graphein” - “to write” • Cartography - art & science of map-making • Developed early by Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Arabs

Names in Geography • Eratosthenes - Greek scholar • Used geometry; accurately calculated circumference of earth • Ptolemy - Greek scholar • Developed global grid system forerunner to latitude & longitude • Idrisi - Arab geographer • Gathered maps, consulted mariners & travelers, went on scientific expeditions

Names in Geography • Immanuel Kant - defined geography as study of interrelated spatial patterns • Description & explanation of similarities & differences between regions • George Perkins Marsh • Focused on impact of human actions on natural environment • Carl Sauer - cultural landscapes • C.L.=product of interactions between humans & their environments

Types of Geography • Physical • Political • Human - Where are people? How are they alike and different? How do they interact? How do they change the natural landscapes, and how do they use them? • Urban • Environmental

Key Geographical Skills • Spatial Perspective - the way places and things are arranged and organized on earth’s surface • Absolute Location • Meridians, parallels, latitude, longitude • Greenwich, England • Relative Location

Use of Maps • Reference Material - tool for storing information • Communications/education - often thematic - can explain spatial perspective to others - ex. Soil types • Contour Map - topography

Map Projections • Globe - only accurate representation of earth • “All maps lie flat and all flat maps lie.” • distortion • Mercator - created for navigating ships across Atlantic Ocean; direction is true; distortion towards poles • Robinson - good projection for general use; distortion greatest at poles • Peters - keeps land masses equal in area; shapes distorted

Scale • Size of unit studied - local, regional, global? Ex. drought • Map Scale • Mathematical relationship between size of area on map & actual size on surface of earth • Large scale maps = more details • 1/24 • Small scale maps = less details • 1/24,000

Time Zones • Use longitude to determine • 180 degrees east and west of prime meridian, runs through Greenwich, England (set by international agreement) • 15 degrees apart - 24 sections - 1 hour each • Encouraged by creation of railroads

“Place” • =unique location of a geographic feature • Place name - toponyms • Site - • Situation • Absolute location - • Pattern = linear vs. centralized vs. random vs. grid/rectilinear • Ordinance of 1785

Regions • Formal/Uniform - similarities in physical or cultural features • Functional/Nodal - organized around nodes or cores • Core vs. periphery • Perceptual/Vernacular - places people believe to exist a part of their cultural identity

Space-Time Compression • Describes changes that rapid connections among places and regions have brought • First transportation and communication • Now television and computers • Impact of globalization

Geographic Technologies • GIS - Geographic Information System • computer system that can layer captured data • GPS - Global Positioning System • Uses series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers to determine precise absolute locations on earth

Population Unit Two

Demography • Study of population • Population geography = number, composition, & distribution of human beings on earth’s surface • Follow growth and movement of population

Distribution, Density & Scale • Distribution - arrangement of locations on earth where people live • Dot maps • Population density - # of people in a given area of land • 90% of people live north of equator • More than 1/2 of all people live on 5% of land and 9/10 on less than 20% • Most people live close to sea level • 2/3 of world lives within 300 miles of ocean

Density • Arithmetic (crude) • Total number of people divided by total land area • Physiological population • Total number of people divided by arable land

Carrying Capacity • Number of people an area can support on a sustained basis • Farmers using irrigation & fertilizers support more people • Industrial societies import raw materials & export manufactured goods

Population Pyramids • Represents a population’s age & sex composition • Factors affecting shape: • Health care • War • Availability of birth control • Cultural values • Level of economic development

Population Concentrations • 2/3 of world pop in 4 regions: • East Asia - 1/5 of world • South Asia - 1/5 of world • Southeast Asia - 500 million • Europe - primarily urban

Race and Ethnicity • Race - category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important • Ethnicity - less based on physical characteristics & emphasizes a shared cultural heritage, such as language, religion, and customs • Important because people tend to live in areas with people of same race or ethnicity

Population Growth & Decline • Little pop growth until mid-18th century • Agricultural or Neolithic Revolution • Until then, doubling rate was very long • Birth rates and death rates were high • 1750 Industrial Revolution - England • Population explosion • Doubling time has dropped fast

Theories of Population Growth • Zero population growth movement - goal to level off world’s pop growth to ensure earth can sustain its inhabitants • Thomas Malthus • Food growing arithmetically vs. pop growing exponentially • Neo-Malthusians, The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich, drove international efforts using birth control and family planning

The Vocabulary of Population Theory • CBR • TFR • Demographic momentum • CDR • IMR • NIR • Life expectancy

Demographic Transition Theory • Stage 1 - pre-industrial, agrarian societies • High CBR and CDR • Stage 2 - industrialization • High CBR, lower CDR • By mid19th century - epidemiological revolution aka mortality revolution • Stage 3 - mature industrial economy • CBR drops, CDR low • Stage 4 - post-industrial economy • CBR continues to fall and CDR low • More women in workforce • Children expensive • Extensive education needed to fill post-industrial jobs

Population and Natural Hazards • Climate, drought, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis • Malthus’“negative checks” - famine and disease • Globalization has increased spread of communicable diseases • AIDS • Asian bird flu • Pandemic = widespread epidemic • Swine flu

Population Policies • Expansive policies - like Mao Zedong’s • Restrictive policies • China - Deng Xiaoping • One child policy • Female infanticide • India - democracy’s problems • Family planning • Rural families • Indira Gandhi

International Policy Efforts • 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt - agreed that improving the status of women is essential to population control • 1995 UN Fourth World Conference in Beijing, China - agreed that women needed to control fertility allowing them to take advantage of educational and employment opportunities

Population Movement • Circulation = our short-term repetitive movements in our days • Migration = involves a permanent move to a new location, within a country or to another country • Demographic equation = summarizes population change over time in an area by combining natural change (death rate subtracted from birth rate) and the net migration • Emigration - migration FROM a location • Immigration - migration TO a location

Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration • British demographer • Wrote 11 migration laws • Most immigrants move short distance • Distance decay - decline of activity or function with increasing distance from point of origin • Step migration - long-distance migration done in stages • Intervening opportunities - those planning to go long distances find other opportunities before reaching final destination

Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration • Migrants moving longer distances tend to choose cities as destinations • Each migration flow produces a counter-flow; ex. When one group moves in to neighborhood, another group moves in • Families less likely to make international moves; single males more likely

Gravity Model • Inverse relationship between the volume of migration and the distance between source and destination • A large city has a greater gravitational pull than a small one, but it still tends to pull people that live closer rather than farther away

Reasons for Migration • Push factor = encourages people to move • Pull factor = attracts people to a region

Push Pull Economic Push-Pull Factors

Push Pull Cultural Push-Pull Factors

Push Pull Environmental Push-Pull Factors

Major Migrations at Different Scales • Asia, Latin America and Africa have net out-migration • North America. Europe, and Oceania jave net in-migration • Largest flows are: • Asia to Europe • Asia to North America • South America to North America

U.S. Immigration Patterns • Three Main Eras: • Initial settlement of colonies • Emigration from Europe • Immigration since 1945

Initial Settlement of Colonies • About 1 million Europeans came before 1776 • Another 1 million by 1840 • Majority from Britain • Others from Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, Iberian Peninsula • 18th century - 400,000 African slaves brought over

Emigration from Europe • 19th-20th century migration one of most significant in history • 75 million departed for Americas between 1835-1935 • Largest number to USA • Three waves: • 1840s-1850s - 2 largest groups Irish & Germans • Late 1800s - 1870s-1890s - 75% NW Europe; Germans & Irish continued & Scandinavians; pull factor Industrial Revolution • Early 1900s- peak levels 1910; many from Southern and Eastern Europe, esp. Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary

Immigration since 1945 • Restrictions against Asians lifted in 1960s: China, Philippines, India, Vietnam • Many came as refugees • Many went to Canada • Another major source is Latin America with Mexico topping 8 million • 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act - government issued visas to several hundred thousand people who had previously entered illegally

Intraregional Migrations • Within USA, African-Americans began migrating from South to North during WWI and in the 1940s; 1970s countertrend of African Americans moving back South • Dislocation due to ethnic strife, war, or natural disasters • South Asia - Afghanistan - Pakistan • Southeast Asia - Vietnam - Cambodia • Balkans - collapse of Yugoslavia • Sub-Saharan Africa - Rwanda, Sudan

Migration Selectivity • =Tendency for certain types of people to move influenced by • 1. Age - young people, 18-30 and their children • 2. Education - higher levels of education more likely to migrate long distances; follow one’s career in professions; danger of brain drains • 3. Kinship and friendship ties - chain migration; ethnic neighborhoods such as “Little Italies” and “Chinatowns”

Short Term Circulation & Activity Space • Activity Space - area in which an individual moves about as he or she pursues regular, day-to-day activities • Factors affecting activity spaces: • Age group - younger by foot/bicycle; older by car; retired activity space shrinks • Ability to travel - suburbs vs. city; LDC vs. MDC; income level • Opportunities to travel - self-sufficient families, poverty, & physical isolation reduce awareness space

Space-Time Prism • All people live within a space-time prism that sets the limits for their activities • They have only so much time to be mobile and their space is limited by their ability to move

Cultural Patterns and Processes Unit Three

Basic Definitions: • Cultural landscape - modification of the natural landscape by human activities • Cultural geography - transformation of the land and ways that humans interact with the environment • Cultural ecology - studies relationship between natural environment and culture

Schools of Thought in Cultural Geography • Environmental determinism - physical environment actively shapes cultures so that human responses are almost completely molded by environment • Possibilism - cultural heritage is at least as important as physical environment in shaping human behavior • Environmental perception - emphasizes importance of human perception of environment rather than actual character of the land; shaped by culture • Cultural determinism - human culture ultimately more important than physical environment in shaping human actions

Concepts of Culture • Culture = mix of values, beliefs, behaviors, & material objects that together form a people’s way of life • Non-material culture = abstract concepts of values, beliefs, behaviors • Values =culturally-defined standards that guide way people assess desirability, goodness and beauty & serve as guidelines for moral living • Beliefs = specific statements people hold to be true, almost always based on values • Material Culture = includes wide range of concrete human creations = artifacts

AP Human Geography