Impact of Colonization and Global Economy

Impact of Colonization

• Increased efficiency of coal production: Colonizers utilized existing resources, like coal, more effectively.
• New Goods and Manufacturing: Advanced manufacturing methods led to the production of new goods and increased output.
• Steam Engine and Transportation: The development of the steam engine fostered the rise of locomotives and railroad systems, leading to increased connectivity.
• Global Economic Interdependence: Colonization facilitated the spread of global trade and economic systems. However, the benefits were not equally distributed, resulting in power concentration in Europe and North America.
• Uneven Development: Colonization's lasting impact includes global inequality, underdevelopment, and dependency of the Global South on the Global North.

Core-Periphery Model

• Core Regions: Dominant in global trade, possessing high productivity and economic power.
• Peripheral Regions: Dependent on core regions for trade, characterized by underdeveloped economies and disadvantageous trade relationships.
• Semi-Peripheral Regions: Experience exploitation and exploitation, often serving as a bridge between core and peripheral regions.

Political Economy

• Uneven Development: Political economy theories attribute unequal development to the inherent nature of capitalism.
• State and Global Economy: Understanding the relationship between states and the global economy is crucial for analyzing economic disparities.

World Systems Theory (Wallerstein)

• Core: Characterized by wealth generation, high per capita incomes, advanced technology, education, and productivity.
• Periphery: Depicted as regions with low levels of education, unskilled labor, lower wages, and limited technology.

Population Density in Canada

• Low Population Density: Canada is known for its vast land area and relatively low population density.

Megalopolis

• East Coast Urban Concentration: The Megalopolis stretches from Washington D.C. to Boston, representing a merged urban area encompassing multiple cities.

Population Composition

• Demographic Characteristics: Understanding population composition provides insights into a population's characteristics and future needs.
• Age Structure: A high proportion of elderly individuals can lead to an increase in the demand for medical services.

Population Pyramid

• Age and Sex Distribution: Population pyramids illustrate the age and sex distribution of a population.
• Population Dynamics: Pyramids reveal information about growth rates, birth rates, mortality rates, and life expectancy.
• Gender Differences in Life Expectancy: Population Pyramids often show that females tend to have longer life expectancies than males.

Population Change Over Time

• Natural Increase: Population change is influenced by the difference between births and deaths.
• Immigration: Migration can also contribute significantly to population growth.

Rate of Natural Increase (RNI)

• Population Growth Indicator: RNI measures population change by subtracting deaths from births over a specific period.
• Calculation: RNI is calculated using the difference between crude birth rate and crude death rate.

Fertility Rate

• Average Births per Woman: Fertility rate measures the average number of children born per woman of childbearing age.
• Replacement Level: A fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman is considered the replacement level for a stable population.
• Declining Fertility Rates: Factors contributing to declining fertility rates include increased female participation in the workforce, higher education attainment, and later marriages.

Health and Population Dynamics

• Mortality Rates: High infant mortality rates are an indicator of health challenges in a society.
• Life Expectancy: Life expectancy varies significantly across different regions, with lower average life expectancies often found in the Global South.

Migration

• Forced Migration: Migration driven by external forces, such as war, persecution, or natural disasters.
• Repatriation: The return of refugees to their home countries.
• Voluntary Migration: Migration based on individual choice.

Push Factors

• Motives for Leaving: Push factors are conditions or perceptions that motivate people to leave their current location.
• Examples: Unemployment, cost of living, unsafe conditions, environmental degradation.

Pull Factors

• Attractive Destinations: Pull factors are conditions or perceptions that attract migrants to a new location.
• Examples: Job opportunities, family connections, better living standards, political stability

Undocumented Migrants

• Illegal Immigration: Refers to people residing in a country without legal authorization.
• Government Policies: Policies regarding undocumented migrants can include deportation and border control measures.

Environmental Impacts of Economic Activity

• Resource Degradation and Depletion: Economic activities can lead to environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources.
• Pollution: Smog is a common example of air pollution resulting from economic activity in urban areas.

Economic Growth, Consumption & Resources

• The environment provides resources for the economy
• Economic growth often comes at the expense of the environment
• Consumption patterns have a significant impact on the environment, measured through the ecological footprint

Population Growth

• The population is expected to grow, leading to increased demand for resources
• Greater competition for resources will arise due to population growth

Defining Natural Resources

• Resources from nature that are beneficial to humans
• Typically classified as renewable or non-renewable

Renewable Resources

• Resources replaced by environmental processes
• Continuously meet human demands as long as they are not used faster than they are replaced

Non-Renewable Resources

• Finite and replaced very slowly
• Can lead to environmental damage during extraction

Natural Capital

• Resources used for manufacturing and economic activities
• A sustainable approach helps maintain revenue flow

Nature's Utility

• The environment is a source of income, livelihoods, material goods, and economic activity
• Sustainable resource use is crucial for continued revenue from a utilitarian perspective

Ecological Footprint

• Measures the amount of land and resources used to sustain a population
• Average ecological footprint: 2.6 hectares per year
• Countries with high consumption have larger footprints
• If everyone consumed at the US rate, we would need 5.1 Earths
• Currently, we need 1.8 Earths to sustain current resource usage
• This situation emphasizes the unsustainable nature of current consumption and resource use

Sustainable Development

• Balancing a healthy human society and healthy environment with growth and development
• Represents a responsible approach to development
• Can be a solution for avoiding environmental degradation and poverty

Nature's Non-Monetary Value

• The environment holds intrinsic value beyond monetary worth
• Trees provide oxygen and are essential for human life
• Two aspects of conservation:
  • Conservation: sustainable use and management of resources
  • Preservation: protecting areas from human intervention
• Environmental ethics explores the non-monetary values of the environment
  • Land ethic: humans are citizens and protectors of the environment
  • Responsibility towards the environment requires limits to individual freedoms

Power, Cultural Term

• Religion has a distinct impact on a society
• Migration brings cultural elements from an individual's old home, contributing to a sense of belonging
• Commodification: transforming a place into a marketable product

Tourism and Commodification

• Tourism can be interpreted as the consumption of place
• A place needs to be a commodity before a tourist can consume it
• Tourism is intimately connected to place
• Place promotion creates meaning around a destination and relies heavily on images

Images in Tourism

• Tourism is intangible and can't be physically tested beforehand
• Destination advertisers use attention-grabbing images because perceptions drive consumer action
• Images play a more significant role than tangible resources in motivating consumers

Destination Advertisements

• Construct a sense of place
• Aim to drive consumers to purchase the experience

Imagined Geographies

• Images and stories can influence perceptions of places
• These imagined geographies are formed by media like TV and news
• Tourist destinations can be idealized, omitting realities like poverty
• Advertisements disconnect consumers from the realities of places and how products are made

Theming

• Involves giving an identity to a place through physical design and cultural narratives
• Creating themed environments, like themed restaurants and theme parks

Las Vegas: Postmodern City

• Characterized by dominant popular culture and mass media, shaping our sense of reality
• Pastiche: mixing incompatible genres, styles and spaces
• Hyperreal: deliberate confusion between reality and the artificial
• Simulacra: representations of originals that don't exist

Defining Culture

• Culture is a shared system of meanings, beliefs, norms, and values practiced by a group of people, shaping their way of life.

Local/Folk Culture

• Local/folk cultures are the traditional beliefs, customs, and norms dominant within a specific location.
• These cultures exhibit unique traits in dance, dress, food, sporting events, architecture, music, customs, art, festivals, and aesthetics.

Popular Culture

• Popular culture is widely commercialized and disseminated through mass media, often driven by corporations and advertising agencies.
• It can be practiced by diverse groups of people.

Culture and Place

• Place is a crucial component of culture.
• Cultural geographers investigate the interplay between culture and place.
• Cultural regions are areas where specific values, beliefs, and practices dominate, shaping the identity of the region.
• The meanings attributed to place are socially constructed, highlighting the potential for change by human actions.

The New Cultural Geography

• The New Cultural Geography challenges the traditional 'Cultural Landscape Approach.'
• It recognizes the political nature of culture, acknowledging diverse perspectives within a place.
• It highlights the contested nature of cultural meanings, as they are influenced by power dynamics and social divisions.
• It considers the wider social and political context in which culture is shaped and expressed.

Place Meanings and Power

• Place acquires meaning within a context of power relations.
• Dominant groups establish rules and define norms, shaping the meanings attributed to places.
• It raises questions about whose meanings are given precedence and how those meanings are determined.

Reading Symbols in the Landscape

• Symbolic landscapes hold special meanings, reflecting the values and experiences of the people who shape them.
• Iconography examines symbols embedded in the landscape.
• Derelict landscapes reflect abandonment, misuse, disinvestment, or vandalism.
• Urban landscapes reveal economic development and prosperity or poverty and overcrowding.
• The built environment reflects and reinforces certain values.

Theming Environments

• Theming involves shaping the identity of a place through physical design and cultural narratives.
• This involves creating a theme-based experience through physical design, naming places, and creating related businesses.
• Theme parks offer self-contained entertainment complexes with themed landscapes, rides, performances, and related services.
• Theming can be disaggregated, creating smaller themed areas within a larger space.

Las Vegas: Postmodern City

• Postmodernism emphasizes the dominance of popular culture and mass media in shaping our sense of reality.
• Las Vegas embodies postmodern principles like pastiche, hyper-real, simulacra, and time-space compression.
• Pastiche involves mixing dissimilar styles and spaces in a collage of seemingly incompatible features
• Hyper-real blurs the lines between reality and artificiality, presenting simulations that are more real than reality itself.
• Simulacra are representations of originals that never actually existed, creating a world of illusions.
• Time-space compression refers to the perceived shrinking of space between places due to advancements in transportation and communication.

Las Vegas: Fantasy City

• Las Vegas is a postmodern city where popular culture and mass media dominate the experience of place.
• The city's themed environments and fabricated experiences contribute to its fantastical atmosphere.

Explore the profound effects of colonization on global trade, production efficiency, and technological advancements. This quiz covers topics like the core-periphery model, uneven development, and the resulting economic interdependence. Understand how historical patterns continue to influence modern global dynamics.