Economic Geography Test Questions – Flashcards

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Be able to define capitalism; most importantly, know the KEY element of that definition that makes capitalism unique
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Capitalism is the economic, social, political, and geographic system characterized by the private ownership of the economic means of production—the key component is PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
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Know and be able to briefly define the fundamental institution in capitalism
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The market, where buyers and sellers interact through supply and demand on the basis of price
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Know what the guiding force is in the capitalist market
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Profit: which is the difference between revenue and cost
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Be able to generally describe who are the "survivors" in a competitive market economy
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The most efficient producers are the survivors
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Be able to distinguish between the definitions of gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP)
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GDP: the sum of the value of goods and services produced in a given country in one year. GNP: includes the value of activities of domestic companies in other countries as well
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Know what figure is often used as the key measure in determining standard of living around the globe; know how this figure is calculated.
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Per Capita GDP: GDP divided by population
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Be able to define laissez-faire capitalism
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Free markets without government intervention
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Be able to explain the concept of relative distance and how globalization is impacting it presently
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Relative distance: the time it takes us to communicate between places. The globalization of our economy has shrunk our relative distance on the planet
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Be able to broadly define which groups of countries were classified as First World, Second World, and Third World countries in that international economic order
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First World: US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Europe Second World: Soviet Union and communist allies Third World: Mexico, South America, Africa, South Asia, Cuba, Greenland
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Be able to broadly define core and periphery; be able to indicate which of the previous international economic order groups would fit into either classification.
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First World becomes the core and Third World become the periphery The Core: economic growth and strength; a leader, influencing other economies--Ex: US, Western Europe, Eastern China, Japan The Periphery: weaker, dependent on decisions made elsewhere--Ex: formally apart of the second world
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Be able to identify the country or empire that was the dominant world power in the 1800s (hint: this was also the first one to industrialize)
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Britain
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Know which national culture has been the dominant one in the globalization of culture (meaning which culture's aspects and products are most represented in that process)
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The U.S.
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Be able to explain in broad terms how telecommunications access often coincides with manifestations of wealth
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telecommunications require technology and infrastructure, which is a manifestation of wealth
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Be able to define transnational corporation and explain the role they play in the globalization of the economy.
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Transnational corporation: is a corporation that manages production or delivers services in more than one country ; The role in globalization: They are able to provide goods and services at a reasonable cost to the poorest people in the poorest countries. Many local businesses and economies suffer because they cannot compete with the prices TNCs are able to offer.
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Know the general category of countries in which transnational corporations are headquartered.
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While global in reach, these corporations' home bases are concentrated in the Northern industrialized countries, where ninety percent of all transnationals are based. More than half come from just five nations: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States.
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Be able to explain the general purpose of development; know the two critical issues that must be considered when studying development.
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The purpose of development is to improve people's standard of living or "quality of life". Two issues: 1. Environmental constraints: developing world destroys the environment in order to stay alive. Developed world destroys the environment because of consumerism. 2. Disparities of Wealth and Well-Being: Poverty is more concentrated in the developing world, but it is everywhere.
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know the general lifestyle human beings havevlived for about 95% of our existence on Earth.
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feudalism
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Be able to generally describe the nature of feudalism in Europe, including the atmosphere it created toward change, and people's outlook on life and potential socioeconomic progress.
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wascthe dominant form of social and economic relations in Europe. Quite stable, highly conservative system. An environment that discouraged experimentation and innovation; What you were born into was where you belong: progress was inconceivable.
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Know which organization was the dominant political/ideological institution in feudal Europe (BE SPECIFIC).
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the Catholic church with the Pope being the head and holding most of the wealth. Preachers served as judges, teachers, etc, and were often the only literate members of the society: they had control of information and communication. Corruption within the church, papacy.
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Know the name of the major trade route that brought innovations to feudal Europe from Arabia, India, and China.
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The Silk Road
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Know the name of the disease that wiped out a quarter of Europe's population in just 4 years in the mid-1300s; be able to generally describe how some believe this epidemic helped bring an end to feudalism in Europe.
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The Bubonic plague or "Black Death". When the serfs died, the foundation on which feudalism relied upon was broken. The pyramid of power broke. Serfs were free to leave the lands of the lords to seek higher wages with the vast labour shortages. The land that had usually been the primary source of wealth was now worthless. As Europe evolved away from relying on land as the main source of prosperity, a rising middle-class claimed more and more wealth and prestige, as the once-noble began to quickly lose both.
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Know where capitalism in Europe is thought to have originated.
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Born in the northern Italian city states of Venice, genoa, Pisa, and Florence
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Know the group that, having been the middle class in feudal Europe, became the ruling class under capitalism; know which feudal group became the working class in capitalism.
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Merchant class became the ruling class; Peasants and serfs became the working class
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Know what industry was born due to money becoming the standardized measure of value in capitalist Europe.
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Financial Industry
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Know the invention that brought literacy (or the possibility of it) to the masses after its invention in 1450.
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The printing press
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Know the event that significantly diminished the power of the Catholic Church by de-emphasizing the role of priests as intermediaries in one's relationship with God.
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The Protestant Reformation
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Know the peace treaty (signed in 1648) that legitimized the nation-state as the primary unit of international relations and law.
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The Peace of Westphalia
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Be able to compare and contrast animate sources of energy and inanimate sources of energy; be able to explain the general early progression of the inanimate sources.
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Animate: human and animal muscle power (Pre-Industrial; mercantilism; labor-intensive); Inanimate: energy from non-living sources (Industrial; complex process of inputs, outputs, and technologies)--Ex: 1. Hydraulic power, 2. Steam power (wood burning), 3. Steam power (coal burning), Later joined by petroleum and natural gas as fuel sources
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Be able to define productivity and explain how increasing productivity has historically affected wages paid to labor.
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Productivity: the level of output generated by a given volume of inputs
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Be able to generally explain the progression of the dominant industries in the Kondratiev waves through the Industrial Revolution.
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1. Textiles - first manufacture present, easy industry to enter, few capital requirements—machine is inexpensive, labor is not extensive 2. Heavy Industry - massive capital investments, more expensive, more labor intensive, difficult to enter market 3. Heavy Industry II - massive technological change, capital requirements more intensive, introduction of economic change, local markets give away to national markets 4. Petrochemicals/Automobiles 5. Electronics/Information Technology - growth of service sector
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Be able to explain what the creation of the industrial working class made into a commodity (hint: think about how we typically get paid in terms of wages).
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Commoditization of time—your time can be bought or sold; time = money
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Be able to compare and contrast the attitudes of early industrializers versus those of the later industrializers in regard to government intervention in the economy.
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Early industrializers are the British and US who have the attitude of government keep their hands off—if we didn't need government help then we don't need it now; Later industrializers, Japan and Germany, have a much more favorable view of government help, symbiotic relationship, government and economy help each other out
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Know the time periods and some of the major participants of the two major waves of imperialism.
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Age of Exploration Overseas Empires (1400s - early 1800s) Major players: Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, Netherlands, Most important are the Spanish and Portuguese; Post-Napoleonic Wars Overseas Commercial Empires (post-1815 - late 20th century) Major players: U.S., Germany, Italy, Japan
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Know what economic sector (or group of activities) the Europeans developed in their colonies.
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the primary sector where they extracted raw materials such as agriculture, mining, forestry, and fishing
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Know what country showed the rest of the world that industrialization and imperialism was not just something Europeans could do.
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Japan
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Know the approximate amount of people Earth could support if we were all hunter-gatherers.
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50 million people
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Know how population density is calculated; be able to explain how it can be deceiving, especially using the country we gave as an example of this deception.
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Population density: people per unit area deceitful: egypt (205 ppl/sq. mi.), but most of the population live on 4% of land
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Know what continent has the highest rates of population growth currently.
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Africa
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Be able to calculate doubling time.
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Divide 70 by the growth rate--Example: 1.2% growth rate. 70/1.2 = 58 years
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Be able to differentiate between natural growth rate (NGR) and net migration rate (NMR).
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NGR: Natural growth represents the births and deaths in a country's population and does not take into account migration (Births - Deaths); NMR: The difference between the number of migrants entering and those leaving a country in a year, per 1,000 midyear population. (In-Migration - Out-Migration)
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Be able to calculate growth rate or rate of natural increase using crude birth rates and crude death rates.
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Example: U.S. CBR = 14 ; U.S. CDR = 8 ; 14-8=6 ; 6/1000 = .006 or 0.6% growth rate
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Be able to summarize Thomas Malthus's view of the consequences of population growth, particularly who he believed was at fault, why human beings reproduced, and the differences between the rate of population growth and the growth of food production.
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Consequences: he blamed the poverty in Britain's cities on population growth. Who's at fault: the poor, attributes population growth to social ills. Rate of population growth grew exponentially; growth of food production grew linearly
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Know an example of a "preventative check" and a "positive check" to population growth in Malthusianism.
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Preventative Checks: contraception (which Malthus rejected on religious grounds), moral restraint/abstinence; Positive Checks: war, famine, disease, death
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Know the 3 major problems that resulted in Malthus being proved wrong.
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1. He didn't foresee the impacts of the Industrial Revolution, 2. He didn't foresee the opening up of large grasslands in N. America, Argentina, and Australia, 3. The Industrial Revolution saw birth rates decline; fertility is socially constructed, not a biological inevitability
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Know the key difference between Malthusians and Neo-Malthusians.
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The Neo-Malthusians did advocate birth control
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Know why the developing world is going through a longer stage of "population explosion" than what Europe and North America experienced.
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In the developed world we made the technology and were used to how it worked; with the developing world we introduced the technology so it caught them all off guard—liberalization of women really made birth decline; introduction of technology
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Be able to define dependency ratio.
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Dependency ratio = non working population divided by working population You want a 1:1.5 or 1:2 ; You do NOT want a 1:1 or 1.15:1
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Be able to differentiate between push factors and pull factors using economic examples.
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Push factors: cause you to leave a place--Example: lose your job, natural disaster, environmental impact (crop failure) Pull factors: draw us to a particular area--Example: higher wages, cost of living, real estate, taxes
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Be able to briefly explain Labor Migration Theory; also, be able to provide a few reasons why there is no equilibrium throughout the world in regard to wages according to the theory.
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Labor Migration Theory: The greater the difference between wages in A and B, the greater the amount of migration from the low-wage region to the high-wage region; Migration only happens if the wage difference exceeds the cost of migration. No Equilibrium: knowledge of opportunities isn't always available in low wage areas AND there are restrictions to movement
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Know how migrants can contribute to the economies of the countries they migrated FROM.
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Remittances
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Be able to give an example of a large intercontinental migration from the past.
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1. Slave trade-involuntary, 2. Europeans coming to North America in the 1800's—voluntary 3. Chinese going to SE Asia in 1980-1990s
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Be able to explain the intrastate migration that has been going on in the United States over the past 50 years.
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Sun belt migration: people moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West
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