GEO: Europe and Russia – Flashcards
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What is the Gulf Stream?
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The Gulf Stream is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current Also known as North Atlantic Drift
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Where does the Gulf Stream come from and where does it go?
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Starts in the Gulf of Mexico and goes up to Northern Europe
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What causes the Gulf Stream's location and motion?
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Its location is determined by the North American coastline, and its motion is caused by trade winds
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How does the Gulf Stream affect European climate, agriculture, and population?
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It brings warm water and air up towards western Europe and makes climate cooler/good agriculture due to warm air and rainfall/population is denser near Europe's coast due to the Gulf Stream
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Where are Europe's three main farming regions and why are they located where they are?
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They are located to the west coast and through the middle due to the gulf stream and good soil
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How have water bodies affected urban location in Europe?
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Big cities are built around popular water sources for transportation of goods.
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In what ways is Europe's physical geography fragmented by water bodies and mountains?
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Broken up into different parts from water and mountains
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How does Europe's fragmentation compare to the two other great Old World population centers (India and China)? How might this have shaped European political borders?
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Both are broken up by water and mountains Has political unity
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What sort of vegetation used to characterize Europe?
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Forests
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Where are its main forests located?
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Northern mid forests cover across Europe
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Why has the Northern European Plain been an important invasion route?
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It's an important because it's flat so troops don't have to go across obstacles so they travel faster.
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What does it mean to say that Europe is centrally located in relation to other regions?
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Its an advantage because they are in the middle of all countries and continents
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What advantages did this have historically?
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They have a shorter distance to all countries by water and air.
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Where is Europe's major oil producing region?
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They get their oil from the north sea
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How much oil does it have left?
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Oil production is decreasing
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What characteristics separate Eastern and Western Europe?
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Western Europe is more urbanized, higher populations, stronger economies.
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What characteristics separate Northern and Southern Europe?
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Southern Europe is more urban
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Where is the "core area" of Europe's population (where is population most dense)?
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middle The core is made up of UK Ireland France the benelux countries (belgium the netherlands and luxembourg) spread across north and central europe. these countries have the largest population and economic political roles
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What is an age structure diagram (or "population pyramid")?
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A population pyramid predicts the future population using past and current ages
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What does it mean to say a country has an aging population?
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An aging population means that the population is living longer which means people will retire at an older age which makes for less jobs for younger people.
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Why are many European countries' populations aging?
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Because of low birth rates after Baby Boomer era, lower birth rates, means older population.
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What problem does this create, what is a "baby boom"?
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A baby boom is when a large populations has babies all around the same time period
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Why do population changes occur in Europe, how do they compound the problem of aging populations?
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Because there is often high birth rates after industrialization, genocide, or war. However that makes parts of the population more dense than others causing waves of aging population until the birth rate picks up again.
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Which countries have the oldest populations?
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Italy, Greece, Germany, Spain, Sweden
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Which countries have shrinking populations? How much are they predicted to shrink by 2050?
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Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine Russia and Ukraine 25-40% Italy and hungary 20-25% Germany 10-15% Europe is shrinking 20%
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What policies are European countries adopting to address this overall problem?
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Europe is enforcing pro natalist policies (Encourages people to have more babies) and immigration
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Where do European immigrants come from? Which countries have the most and the fewest immigrants?
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Ireland, U.S.A., Germany, Italy Ireland 14% Italy 4%
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How does immigration relate to aging/shrinking populations?
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Because many poor immigrants are old and are too poor to have children to revitalize the low birth rate.
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What is a language family and subfamily?
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a major division of a language family, above a branch: the Balto-Slavic subfamily of Indo-European languages
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What is Europe's major language family?
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Indo-European (Germanic Branch)
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Where did Europe's major language family originate?
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Viking invasion of British Isles
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Where else is Europe's major language family located now?
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Central Europe
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What are Europe's main language subfamilies? Where are they located, how did they get there?
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Slavic Eastern Europe
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What are examples of languages from each sub-family?
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Ex. Russian. Romance western Europe Ex. French. Germanic Mid & northern Europe Ex. English
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What language did modern English come from? What other languages contributed?
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Old English (Germanic branch of Indo-European) Latin, German
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What is linguistic revival?
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Its when they are learning their native language because it is dying and they want to preserve their heritage.
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Where/why is linguistic revival taking place?
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It is taking place in Wales currently It was not passed down and declined
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What are the three main branches of Christianity in Europe, where are they located?
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Protestant (Northern), Roman Catholic (Western), Eastern orthodox (Eastern)
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In what parts of Europe is atheism most common?
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Area of Europe under Uk is most believed in/It's also in eastern Europe/France
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Which region of Europe has the most Muslims?
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Turkey
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How do European incomes overall compared to the rest of the world?
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Europe's income average higher than our local avg.
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Where are the highest and lowest income in the region?
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Norway: highest at 64,000 annually/Ukraine: lowest at 1,700 annually
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Where is Europe's biggest manufacturing/industrial region?
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Central Europe
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Which region is growing fastest economically?
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Eastern Europe
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What is the European Union?
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The European Union is a politico-economic union of 28 member states
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What is the rationale behind the European Union?
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Solved problem of economic competition, solve problems of WWI and WWII, prevents conflict
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Who are the European Union's members?
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Major 3: Germany, France, Italy
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Who is not a member of the European Union and does not want to be?
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Norway
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What were the problems associated with adding Eastern European members?
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Many are in debt and need to be bailed out (Greece) by other members. And many want protection from Russian aggression.
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What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)?
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A military defense treaty signed by North Atlantic Allies, in an effort to join forces against a potential Soviet offensive.
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Who are NATO's members?
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UK and US, Belgium, France, Italy, Canada
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What was NATO's historic role?
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It unified the west and western Europe against the USSR, and in turn sparked Russia to create the Warsaw Pact.
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What was the Warsaw Pact and who led it?
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Alliance between Eastern Countries led by NATO
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What happened to Germany during the Cold War?
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It was split up into East German (Russian) and West Germany (Allies from ww2), and the Berlin wall was put up to separate the two new countries. Also, east Germany starved and many tried to escape to west Germany, so the Russians built Berlin wall and US dropped supplies into East Germany.
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Where are most separatist movements taking place today?
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Ukraine, and the slavic states (old soviet territories)
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Why did Yugoslavia split up in civil war?
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1991- splits up into several different countries after USSR breaks up and poor economy
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Why is the ethnic map so complicated in Yugoslavia?
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In the Balkan Region
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What are the UK's parts and their political status?
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Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, Wales
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Where is Europe's "urban banana"?
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Starts in London, curves near the Netherlands, West Germany, Belgium, and Northern Italy
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What are Europe's biggest cities?
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Moscow, Paris, London
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How did Europe's biggest cities formerly rank in size compare to other major world cities and what is happening to their ranking?
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It is quite urban but Europe's largest city, Moscow, comes in at 17th on the world's list of largest cities.
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What is a "primate city" and what are some geographic factors that cause countries to have them?
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A primate city is a major city that works as the financial, political, and population center of a country and is not rivaled in any of these aspects by any other city in that country
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What is Poland's population and is it shrinking?
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38 million/shrinking
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Where in the Northern European Plain within Poland?
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Goes through the north part of country
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What are Poland's two main rivers?
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Vistula river and Oder River
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Where are Poland's mountains?
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In the south (Poland is mostly flat)
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What is Poland's main language and language family?
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Polish
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How ethnically unified is Poland and was it this way before WWII?
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Poland is extremely ethnically unified today. Their population with Polish heritage is almost 97%, up from ww2 stats of only a 70% ethnic majority.
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What is Poland's main religion?
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Roman Catholic
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Is Poland a high-income country?
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yes
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Is Poland growing economically?
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yes
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Is Poland an EU member?
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yes
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Where is the most industry in Poland located?
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South
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Where is Poland's agriculture located?
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North
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How urban is Poland?
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62% urban (very low)
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What is Poland's largest city? Is it a primate city? Why or why not?
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Warsaw Yes, it has the largest population
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Have Poland's borders changed much in the last 100 years? Why or why not?
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Yes they have changed a lot because there is no distinct divisions and the redrawing of borders after WW1, WW2, and the Cold War.
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Where are the Ural and Caucus Mountains?
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Ural Mountains are northern, separating moscow and western russia from eastern russia. The Caucasus mountains separate Southern Europe from the Middle East.
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Where is the Russian Plain?
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In the western part of Russia near Poland and the satellite countries.
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How has the Russian Plain affected modern Russian history and borders?
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It is made defense against the Germans in WW2 and Napoleon in the Napoleonic wars, much easier. Russia has been able to keep that border consistently.
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What is the Russian climate like?
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Cold, and barren especially on the plain and siberia and gets warm to hot in the summer
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Why does Russia lack good ports?
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Most of the ports freeze/lacks warm water ports and most of them are not near major passable oceans.
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What is the main vegetation type in Russia, why is it there?
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forests
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Where is Russia's main farming area, why is it there?
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Western section
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Does Russia have extensive oil and gas deposits? How important are these to Europe?
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Large oil deposits (not as large as Middle East World's largest natural gas deposits Europe depends on it
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What are the long term economic problems with reliance on oil and gas for economic growth?
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The reliance on them does not spawn research for alternative energy sources. Therefore, less money is being reinvested in energy. Also as oil prices rise and fall unpredictably, the economy can be shaky.
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Where is population most dense in Russia? Why is this the case?
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In the West, most urbanization
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Roughly how many people live in Russia?
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140 Million
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Roughly how many people will live in Russia in 2050?
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110 million (predicted to lose 30 million)
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What factors caused Russian death rates to rise and life spans to shorten?
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Diseases made comebacks/health care system poorly managed, starvation
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What is the main language in Russia? What sub-family does it belong to? Where is it not the main language, how does this relate to ethnicity?
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Russian: Indo-European Slavic languages still spoken in some areas
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What is Russia's main religion?
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Eastern Orthodox Very/ tribal religions
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Where is it not the main religion and why is this the case?
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Sunni Muslim in South
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Where is the main economic and industrial part of Russia?
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Western Russia
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What happened to the Russian economy after the Cold War?
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It was almost non-existent, with very little exports, but started to revitalize in the 2000's with the natural gas industry.
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Is the Russian economy growing today?
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yes
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How does Russia's economy compare to Western and Eastern Europe?
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Not as strong, but growing slowly, because of US and allied sanctions of defense industry in Russia.
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What is Russia's largest city?
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Moscow
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Where are most Russian cities located?
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In the South Western part
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What was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)?
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A communist dictatorship created under the proletariat regime lead by Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky.
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Where are the USSR's former republics located? How did they differ from Russia?
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Baltic and Slavic States and Russia. They were basically communist puppet states.
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What are the main cultural divisions within Ukraine and how do these relate to the current conflict there?
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Ukraine = largest of the former USSR countries Separatists in Ukraine want to rejoin the Russians, there is still fighting today over land annexed by the Russians.
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What type of climate and vegetation does Uzbekistan have?
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Lots of desert
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What is Uzbekistan's population? it is growing or shrinking?
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30 million/growing
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What is the main language and family of Uzbekistan?
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Uzbek/Turkic
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What is the main religion?
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Muslim
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How does Uzbekistan's income compare to its neighbors and to the world as a whole?
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Exports goods/low income
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Which exports in Uzbekistan are important?
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cotton
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When did Uzbekistan gain independence?
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1785
