Mid-Term 1 Review Questions
Geography 101
Spring Semester 2007
David Snyder
The following are a set of questions for you to answer on your own to prepare you for the mid-term exam. Answers to the questions can be found in the Knox & Marston textbook, the course lectures and the following assigned readings: Jihad vs. McWorld; Kennecott Journey; and Malthus in Africa: Rwanda’s Genocide article. Writing out answers to these questions in full sentences or paragraphs is a good way to organize your thoughts and will help you to retain the information. Be as thorough as possible and pay attention how many of these topics tie together to explain the overall picture of what we see across the human landscape.
The exam will be a mixture of multiple choice, short answer and short essay questions. I do my best to ensure that all exam questions are covered by a reasonably decent answer to one of the questions below.
Global Historical Geography
Early Societies
1. Why were early human hunting and gathering societies often nomadic rather than sedentary?
2. What were some of the early agricultural
hearths in Eurasia, Africa and the
3. How did the number of potentially
domesticable animals available to a society assist its future development? Why did societies in
4. What changes in the political structures of societies did agriculture help to bring about? How might these changes have occurred? Consider such issues as power, land tenure, food surpluses and social classes.
5. Discuss the growth of empires from city-states to true empires. Why did some empires engage in colonization? What are hydraulic states?
6. What was the role and status of peasantries in most societies?
The Rise of Colonialism, Capitalism and Imperialism
1. What factors led to
2. What lead the Portuguese to initiate the Age
of Exploration? Why did
3. What were some of the early institutions developed to serve the growing number of merchant capitalists? Where did these institutions arise?
4. What are the core, semi-periphery and periphery? What roles do they play? What are some examples of each?
5. How did colonies gradually develop? What sorts of people generally colonized an area? How did colonies become economically dependent on the colonizer?
6. What influence did changes in technology during the industrial revolution have upon colonization?
7. Review the Kennecott Journey article and
discuss how the
8. What roles did changes in technology such as steam power and electricity play in the development of the Kennecott mines?
9. Review the questions and answers from the Kennecott Journey assignment.
The Industrial Revolution
1. What new social classes arose out of the industrial revolution? How did the division of power between classes change during this time?
2. List some reasons that the industrial
revolution began in
3. Why were canals important to economic development during the early industrial revolution?
4. Discuss the roles of steamships and trains in opening up the American West.
5. Discuss the development of factory production from the beginning of textile production in England to the highly integrated systems perfected by Henry Ford.
6. How did cities change during the Age of Industrialization? What were some of the early problems with the urbanization that occurred as industrialization increased?
7. Discuss some of the opposition to the industrial revolution and the growing bourgeoisie from both the right (usually the aristocracy/nobility) and the left (usually the working class/proletariat).
8. Where did communist revolutions occur and why might they not have occurred in industrialized countries?
9. What are some of the effects of social policies (government spending which intends to mitigate some of the ill effects of free market capitalism) upon the landscape?
10. What were some of the factors that brought about the end of European (and American) imperialism?
11.
What is neocolonialism? How did it arise? What role did 3rd world countries
play in the Cold War?
1. What is globalization? How did it become the dominant system after the Cold War? (We discussed four interrelated causes).
2. What do the terms Fast World and the Slow World refer to?
3. List some of the reasons people living in core countries may be against globalization.
4. List some of the reasons people living in peripheral countries may be against globalization.
5. List some reasons why people may support globalization.
6. How have various issues regarding markets, resources, information and the environment increased the amount of globalization in the world? (see Jihad vs. McWorld)
7. How has increased globalization increased the trend towards parochialism in some places? (see Jihad vs. McWorld)
8. What are the implications for democracy given the trend towards globalization and parochialism? (see Jihad vs. McWorld)
Guns, Germs & Steel
Documentary
1. What were some of the advantages that the Fertile Crescent had over other regions in terms of plants and animals available for domestication?
2. What were some of the environmental problems associated with the earliest agriculture in the Fertile Crescent?
3. What are some of the reasons that New Guinean agriculturalists never developed the technology and power that Middle Eastern agriculturalists did?
4. Once a core set of crops and animals had been domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, why did they spread so easily to Europe, North Africa and eastern parts of Asia?
5. What were some of the factors that gave the Spaniards advantages over the Incas? How had the Spaniards obtained these advantages? Why didn’t the Inca have these advantages? Think about factors such as technology, knowledge, geographic situation and cultural habits.
6. What are some of the reasons that European colonists in Southern Africa had greater difficulty establishing power as they moved northwards from what is now South Africa?
7. Why is malaria such a problem in Zambia today whereas prior to the arrival of Europeans a smaller percentage of people died from it?
8. Why did the first Dutch settlers in South Africa have little trouble settling the land?
Population
1. List some of the factors that influence the distribution and density of human populations.
2. What are some of the implications of the growing Baby Boom generation in the U.S.?
3. What have been some of the influences that have changed fertility rates around the world?
4. What have been some of the influences that have changed mortality rates around the world?
5. List some reasons people voluntarily migrate. What are some of the issues countries receiving immigrants must contend with?
6. Why might some governments force people to migrate either internally or internationally?
7. What is meant by the term ‘Malthusian crisis’? Why haven’t we seen a Malthusian crisis yet?
8. What are some policies some countries implement to control population growth? Why are some countries experiencing a negative population growth?
9. What is the demographic transition model? Where does it succeed? What are its limitations?
10. Why does Jared Diamond think that the Genocide in Rwanda was partially a Malthusian crisis?