GeoJournalAs you read this chapter, use your journal torecord information about aspects of the humanworld. Include details that show how geographersdescribe population, culture, government,resources, and the environment.

Chapter Overview Visit the Glencoe WorldGeography Web site at tx.geography.glencoe.comand click on Chapter Overviews—Chapter 4 topreview information about the human world.

World Population

A Geographic ViewNile Delta in PerilThe black soil of the Nile Delta hasmade it the foundation stone of sevenmillennia of human history. . . .Today Egypt’s battle is to preservethe soil and water that havealways given life to the delta. One hundred fifty years ago thisnation had five million acres of farmland and five million citizens; now it has seven mil-lion acres of farmland and 60 million citizens. And everynine months there are nearly a million more Egyptians tofeed. . . . The Nile Delta . . . hassurvived many challenges from without.Now the challenges it must survive come from its own population. . . .

—Peter Theroux, “The Imperiled Nile Delta,” National Geographic, January 1997

The effects of rapid population growth onEgypt’s fertile Nile Delta reflect the global challenge humans facetoday. How can people maintain conditions favorable to human lifewithout endangering those very conditions through overpopulation?In this section you will learn about the earth’s human population—how it changes and how geographers measure these changes.

Population GrowthAbout 6.2 billion people now live on Earth, inhabiting about 30 per-

cent of the planet’s land. Global population is growing rapidly and isexpected to reach about 7.8 billion by the year 2025. Such rapid growthwas not always the case. The graph of population growth on page 76shows that from the year 1000 until 1800, the world’s population

Guide to ReadingConsider What You KnowThe world’s largest cities are often inthe news. Think about where thesecities are located and what theirlocations have in common. Why doyou think people have settled inthese places?

Read to Find Out• What factors affect a country’s

population growth rate?

• What challenges does populationgrowth pose for the planet?

• Why is the world’s populationunevenly distributed?

Terms to Know• death rate

• birthrate

• natural increase

• doubling time

• population distribution

• population density

• migration

Places to Locate• Nile Delta

• Hungary

• Germany

• Canada

• Bangladesh

• Mexico City

C h a p t e r 4 75

Young and old flock to acarnival in Oruro, Bolivia.

Farmland in the Nile Delta

76 U n i t 1

increased slowly. Then the number of people onEarth more than doubled between 1800 and 1950. By2000 the world’s population had soared to morethan 6 billion. If the population continues to grow atits current rate, it will pass 9 billion by the year 2050.

Growth RatesGlobal population is growing rapidly because

birthrates have not declined as fast as death rates.The death rate is the number of deaths per year forevery 1,000 people. The birthrate is the number ofbirths per year for every 1,000 people. Scientists inthe field of demography, the study of populations,calculate the natural increase, or growth rate, of apopulation as the difference between an area’sbirthrate and its death rate.

Population growth occurs at different rates in var-ious parts of the world. Over the past 200 years,

death rates have gone down in many places as aresult of improved health care, more abundant foodsupplies, advances in technology, and better livingconditions. In many wealthy industrialized coun-tries, a declining death rate has been accompaniedby a low birthrate. These countries have reachedwhat is known as zero population growth, in whichthe birthrate and death rate are equal. When this bal-ance occurs, a country’s population does not grow.

In many countries in Asia, Africa, and LatinAmerica, however, the birthrate is high. Familiesin these regions traditionally are large because ofcultural beliefs about marriage, family, and thevalue of children. For example, a husband andwife in a rural agricultural area may choose tohave several children who will help farm the land.A high number of births combine with low deathrates to greatly increase population growth inthese areas. As a result, the doubling time, or thenumber of years it takes a population to double insize, has been reduced to only 25 years in someparts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In con-trast, the average doubling time of a wealthy,industrialized country can be more than 300 years.

Challenges of Population GrowthRapid population growth presents many challenges

to the global community. As the number of peopleincreases, so does the difficulty of producing enoughfood to feed them. Fortunately, since 1950 world foodproduction has risen on all continents except Africa.Because so many people in various parts of Africaneed food, warfare or severe weather conditions thatruin crops can bring widespread famine.

In addition, populations that grow rapidly useresources more quickly than populations that donot grow as rapidly. Some countries face shortagesof water, housing, and clothing, for example.Rapid population growth strains these limitedresources. Another concern is that the world’spopulation is unevenly distributed by age, withthe majority of some countries’ populations beinginfants and young children who cannot contributeto food production.

While some experts are pessimistic about thelong-term effects of rapid population growth,others are optimistic that, as the number ofhumans increases, the levels of technology andcreativity also will rise. For example, scientists

10

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6

5

4

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1

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pu

lati

on

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illio

ns)

Sources: World Almanac, 2001; Population Reference Bureau, 2001

Year2050*10

00

1200

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1600

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GRAPHSTUDY

World Population Growth

1. Interpreting Graphs What was the earth’spopulation in 1900?

2. Applying Geography Skills When did globalpopulation begin to rise sharply? Describe thistrend in population growth.

C h a p t e r 4 77

continue to study and developways to boost agricultural produc-tivity. Fertilizers can improve cropyields. Irrigation systems can helpincrease the amount of land avail-able for farming. New varieties ofplants such as wheat and rice havebeen created to withstand severeconditions and yield more food.

Economics

Negative PopulationGrowth

In the late 1900s, some countries inEurope began to experience negativepopulation growth, in which the an-nual death rate exceeds the annualbirthrate. Hungary and Germany,for example, show growth rates of–0.4 and –0.1, respectively. This situ-ation has economic consequencesdifferent from, but just as serious as,those caused by high growth rates. Incountries with negative populationgrowth, it is difficult to find enoughworkers to keep the economy going.Labor must be recruited from other countries, oftenby encouraging immigration or granting temporarywork permits. Although the use of foreign labor hashelped countries with negative growth rates main-tain their levels of economic activity, it also has cre-ated tensions between the “host” population andthe communities of newcomers.

Population DistributionNot only do population growth rates vary among

the earth’s regions, but the planet’s populationdistribution, or the pattern of human settlement, isuneven as well. Population distribution is related tothe earth’s geography. Only about 30 percent of theearth’s surface is made up of land, and much of thatland is inhospitable. High mountain peaks, barrendeserts, and frozen tundra make human activityvery difficult. As the population density map onpage 78 shows, almost everyone on Earth lives on arelatively small portion of the planet’s land—a littleless than one-third. Most people live where fertilesoil, available water, and a climate without harshextremes make human life sustainable.

Of all the continents, Europe and Asia are themost densely populated. Asia alone contains morethan 60 percent of the world’s people. Throughoutthe world, where populations are highly concen-trated many people live in metropolitan areas—cities and their surrounding urbanized areas.Today most people in Europe, North America, andAustralia live in or around urban areas.

Population DensityGeographers determine how crowded a country

or region is by measuring population density—theaverage number of people living on a square mileor square kilometer of land. To determine popula-tion density in a country, geographers divide thetotal population of the country by its total land area.

Student Web Activity Visit the Glencoe World GeographyWeb site at tx.geography.glencoe.com and click on Student WebActivities––Chapter 4 for an activity on world population.

War Refugees Warcan cause population shifts by forcing refugees to flee to safety inother countries.

Movement How might population growth rates affect a country’seconomy?

78 U n i t 1

Population density varies widely from countryto country. Canada, with a low population densityof about 8 people per square mile (3 people per sq.km), offers wide-open spaces and the opportunityto choose between living in thriving cities or quietrural areas. The country of Bangladesh, at theother extreme, has one of the highest populationdensities in the world—about 2,401 people persquare mile (927 people per sq. km). In tinyBangladesh even the rural areas are more crowdedthan many of the world’s cities.

Countries that have populations of nearly thesame size do not necessarily have similar popula-tion densities. For example, Niger and Belgium haveabout the same number of people, roughly 10.3 mil-lion. With a smaller land area, Belgium has 872people per square mile (292 people per sq. km).

However, Niger has an average of only 21 peopleper square mile (8 people per sq. km). Belgium,then, is more densely populated than Niger.

Because population density is an average, itdoes not account for uneven population distribu-tion within a country—a common occurrence. InEgypt, for example, overall population density is181 people per square mile (70 people per sq.km). In reality, about 99 percent of Egypt’s peoplelive within 20 miles of the Nile River. The rest ofEgypt is desert. Thus, some geographers prefer todescribe a country’s population density in termsof land that can be used to support the popula-tion rather than total land area. When Egypt’spopulation density is measured this way, itequals about 5,807 people per square mile (2,242people per sq. km)!

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Los AngelesChicago

S˜ao Paulo

Rio de Janeiro

New YorkCity

Kolkata

Delhi

Mexico City

BuenosAires

Caracas

Kinshasa

Cairo

Moscow

Berlin

RomeMadrid

LondonParis

Tehran

Baghdad

Jakarta

Beijing TokyoOsaka

Bangkok

Singapore

Seoul

Shanghai

Lima

Cape Town

Lagos

Istanbul

MumbaiHong Kong

SydneyN

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0 km

MAP STUDY

World Population Density

Per sq. mi.Per sq. kmOver 100

50–100

25–50

1–25

Under 1

Uninhabited

Over 250

125–250

60–125

2–60

Under 2

Uninhabited

Cities(Statistics reflect metropolitan areas.)

Over 10,000,000

5,000,000–10,000,000

2,000,000–5,000,000

Find NGS online map resources @ www.nationalgeographic.com/maps

2. Applying Geography Skills Look at the general population densities for South America.What conclusions can you draw about the conti-nent’s physical geography?

1. Interpreting Maps Which areas of the North-ern Hemisphere are most densely populated?

Checking for Understanding1. Define death rate, birthrate, nat-

ural increase, doubling time, pop-ulation distribution, populationdensity, migration.

2. Main Ideas On a table like theone below, fill in the main pointsabout population growth andpopulation distribution from thissection.

Critical Thinking3. Comparing and Contrasting How

do the effects of zero populationgrowth and negative populationgrowth differ? How are they similar?

4. Drawing Conclusions How mightthe population growth rates ofdeveloping countries be affectedas they become increasinglyindustrialized?

5. Predicting Consequences Whatwill happen to the standard of living in cities as urbanizationincreases? How might the standardof living differ between cities inthe developing world and cities in the developed world?

Analyzing Maps6. Human-Environment Interaction

Look at the population densitymap on page 78. Identify three of the most densely populatedareas on Earth. What physical fea-tures do they have in common?

7. Influences of Physical Geog-raphy What geographic features might be present in countries that have largenumbers of people concen-trated in relatively smallareas? Write a paragraphwith supporting details toexplain your answer.

Applying Geography

Population MovementMigration is the movement of people from place

to place. The earth’s human population is moving ingreat numbers. Some people are moving from city tocity or from suburb to suburb. Large numbers ofpeople are migrating from rural villages to cities.

“ Migration is the dynamic undertow ofpopulation change. . . . It is, as it hasalways been, the great adventure ofhuman life. Migration helped createhumans, drove us to conquer the planet,shaped our societies, and promises toreshape them again.”Michael Parfit, “Human

Migration,” National Geographic, October 1998

The resulting growth of city populationsbrought about by migration and the changes thatcome with this increase in population are calledurbanization. Urbanization has many causes. Theprimary cause is the desire of rural people to findjobs and a better life in more prosperous urbanareas. Rural populations certainly have grown, butthe amount of land that can be farmed has not

C h a p t e r 4 79

Population PopulationGrowth Distribution

• •• •• •

increased to meet the growing number of peoplewho need to work and to eat. As a result, manyrural migrants find urban jobs in manufacturing orin service industries, such as tourism.

About half of the world’s people live in cities—afar higher percentage than ever before. Between 1960and 2000, the population of metropolitan MexicoCity rose from about 5 million to about 18 million.Other cities in Latin America, as well as cities inAsia and Africa, have seen similar growth. Some ofthese cities contain a large part of their country’sentire population. For example, about one-third ofArgentina’s people live in the city of Buenos Aires.

Population movement also occurs between coun-tries. Some people emigrate from the country oftheir birth and move to another. They are known asemigrants in their homeland and are called immi-grants in their new country. In the past 40 years,millions of people have left Africa, Asia, and LatinAmerica to find jobs in the wealthier countries ofEurope, North America, and Australia. Some peo-ple were forced to flee their country because ofwars, food shortages, or other problems. They arerefugees, or people who flee to another country toescape persecution or disaster. In the next section,you will learn how the movement of peoples hasinfluenced the development of cultures.

Guide to ReadingConsider What You KnowYou probably know that, as a coun-try of immigrants, the United Statesincludes people from a great variety of cultural backgrounds.How do you define your own cultural background?

Read to Find Out• What factors define a culture?

• What are the major cultureregions of the world?

• What developments have affectedinteraction between cultures inrecent years?

Terms to Know• culture

• language family

• ethnic group

• culture region

• cultural diffusion

• culture hearth

Places to Locate• Egypt

• Iraq

• Pakistan

• China

• Mexico

Global Cultures

A Geographic ViewBeijing Construction Boom[T]oday’s Beijing is awash with change,where the old Confucian ideals of personalcultivation and family values clash witha new emphasis on money and the mar-ket, . . . where a construction boom isreshaping Beijing’s low-slung profileand cramped alleys with soaring sky-scrapers of glass and steel, where cartraffic clogs streets that once rangwith bicycle bells. . . . Over the cen-turies the people of Beijing havebecome expert at adjusting. Like thewillows planted around the capital,people have survived by being flexi-ble, yielding to strong winds, thenspringing back as stillness returns.

—Todd Carrel, “Beijing: New Face for the Ancient Capital,” National Geographic, March 2000

The Chinese people have shown a remarkable ability toadapt to changes over time. The evidence of change in Chinese andother societies is apparent in such areas as architecture, family cus-toms, and economic activities. These factors and many others expressthe values that a group of people share and pass down from one gen-eration to another. In this section you will read about how the world’speople organize communities, develop their ways of life, and copewith their differences and similarities.

Elements of CultureIn addition to population trends, geographers study culture,

the way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs andcustoms. A particular culture can be understood by looking at vari-ous elements: what languages the people speak, what religions they

80 U n i t 1

Beijing, China

C h a p t e r 4 81

follow, and what smaller groups form as parts oftheir society. The study of a culture also includesexamining people’s daily lives. Still other factorsare the history the people have shared and the artforms they have created. Finally, culture includeshow people govern their society and how theymake a living.

LanguageLanguage is a key element in a culture’s devel-

opment. Through language, people communicateinformation and experiences and pass on culturalvalues and traditions. Sharing a language is one ofthe strongest unifying forces for a culture. Even

within a culture, however, there are languagedifferences. Some people may speak a dialect, or alocal form of a language that differs from the mainlanguage. These differences may include varia-tions in pronunciation and the meaning of words.

Linguists, scientists who study languages, organizethe world’s languages into language families—largegroups of languages having similar roots. Seeminglydiverse languages may belong to the same languagefamily. For example, English, Spanish, Russian, andHindi (spoken in India) are all members of theIndo-European language family. The world mapbelow shows where languages from the differentlanguage families are spoken.

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World Language Families

Find NGS online map resources @ www.nationalgeographic.com/maps

Indo-European

Sino-Tibetan

Afro-Asian

Uralic-AltaicJapanese andKorean

Dravidian

Malayo-Polynesian

Niger-Kordofanian

Nilo-Saharan

Khoisan

All others1. Interpreting Maps Where are Niger-Kordofanian

languages spoken?

2. Applying Geography Skills Do people within the same language family necessarily speak the same language?Explain your response.

82 U n i t 1

ReligionAnother important part of culture is religion. Reli-

gious beliefs vary significantly around the world,and struggles over religious differences are a sourceof conflict in many countries. In many cultures,however, religion enables people to find a sense ofidentity. It also influences aspects of daily life, fromthe practice of moral values to the celebration of hol-idays and festivals. Throughout history, religioussymbols and stories have shaped cultural expres-sions such as painting, sculpture, architecture,music, and dance. Some of the major world religionsare Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity,and Islam. The map above shows the areas of theworld where these religions are practiced.

Social GroupsEvery culture includes a social system in which

the members of the society fall into varioussmaller groups. A social system develops to helpthe members of a culture work together to meetbasic needs. In all cultures the family is the mostimportant group, although family structures varysomewhat from culture to culture. Most culturesare also made up of social classes, groups of peo-ple ranked according to ancestry, wealth, educa-tion, or other criteria. Moreover, cultures mayinclude people who belong to different ethnicgroups. An ethnic group is made up of peoplewho share a common language, history, place oforigin, or a combination of these elements.

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World Religions

Find NGS online map resources @ www.nationalgeographic.com/maps

Roman CatholicProtestantEastern Churches

Christianity

SunniteShiite

Islam

Hinduism

Localreligions

Others

BuddhismJudaism

1. Interpreting Maps Which areas of the world are largelyProtestant?

2. Applying Geography Skills In what ways might religioninfluence other aspects of culture?

C h a p t e r 4 83

GovernmentA society‘s government reflects the uniqueness

of its culture. Despite differences, governments ofthe world share certain features. Each govern-ment, for example, maintains order within thecountry, provides protection from outside dan-gers, and supplies other services to its people.Governments are organized according to levels ofpower—national, regional, and local—and by typeof authority—a single ruler, a small group of lead-ers, or a body of citizens or their representatives.

Economic ActivitiesPeople in every kind of culture must make a liv-

ing, whether in farming or in industry or by pro-viding services such as preparing food or designing

Web pages. In examining cultures, geographerslook at economic activities. They study how a cul-ture utilizes its natural resources to meet suchhuman needs as food and shelter. They also ana-lyze the ways in which people produce, obtain,use, and sell goods and services.

Culture RegionsTo organize their understanding of cultural

development, geographers divide the earth intospecific areas called culture regions. Each cultureregion includes many different countries that havecertain traits in common. They may share similareconomic systems, forms of government, andsocial groups. Their histories, religions, and artforms may share similar influences. The food,

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World Culture Regions

Find NGS online map resources @ www.nationalgeographic.com/maps

United Statesand CanadaLatin AmericaEuropeRussiaNorth Africa, Southwest Asia,and Central Asia

Africa South ofthe SaharaSouth AsiaEast AsiaSoutheast AsiaAustralia, Oceania,and Antarctica

1. Interpreting Maps Which culture regions are locatedmostly in the Tropics?

2. Applying Geography Skills Refer to the language mapon page 81. In which three culture regions do languagesin the Indo-European family dominate?

84 U n i t 1

AUSTRALIA

ASIAEUROPE

AFRICA

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AMERICA

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AMERICA

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YellowRiverValley

IndusValley

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Mesopotamia

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World Culture Hearths

Find NGS online map resources @www.nationalgeographic.com/maps

Early culture hearths

1. Interpreting Maps Wherein Asia were the first majorsettlements located?

2. Applying GeographySkills What water featuredo most of the culturehearths have in common?

clothing, and housing of people in these countriesmay all have common characteristics as well. Themap on page 83 shows the various culture regionsthat you will study in this textbook.

Cultural Change No culture remains the same over the course of

time. Internal factors—new ideas, lifestyles, andinventions—create change within cultures.

Change can also come to a culture through out-side influences, such as trade, the movement ofpeople, and war. The process of spreading newknowledge and skills from one culture to anotheris called cultural diffusion.

The Agricultural RevolutionCultural diffusion has been a major factor in cul-

tural development since the dawn of human history.The earliest humans were nomads, groups of herderswho had no fixed home but who moved from placeto place in search of food, water, and grazing land. Asthe earth’s climate warmed about 10,000 years ago,many of these nomads settled in river valleys and onfertile plains. They became farmers who lived in per-manent villages and grew crops on the same landevery year. This shift from gathering food to produc-ing food is known as the Agricultural Revolution.

By about 3500 B.C. some of these early farming vil-lages had evolved into civilizations, highly organized,city-based societies with an advanced knowledge offarming, trade, government, art, and science.

Culture HearthsThe world’s first civilizations arose in what are

known as culture hearths, early centers of civi-lization whose ideas and practices spread to sur-rounding areas. As you can see from the mapabove, the most influential culture hearths devel-oped in areas that now make up the moderncountries of Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, China, andMexico. In Mexico the Olmec culture

“ . . . flourished along Mexico’s Gulf Coast between 1200 and 400 B.C. . . .Because of early achievements in art,politics, religion, and economics, theOlmec stand for many as a kind of‘mother culture’ to all the civilizationsthat came after, including the Mayaand the Aztec.”George E. Stuart, “New

Light on the Olmec,” National Geographic, November 1993

Checking for Understanding1. Define culture, language family,

ethnic group, culture region, cultural diffusion, culture hearth.

2. Main Ideas Fill in the main fea-tures of global cultures on a webdiagram like the one below.

Critical Thinking3. Making Generalizations Explain

the factors that influence a coun-try’s power to control territory.

4. Identifying Cause and Effect Whatcultural changes have resultedfrom the Information Revolution?

5. Analyzing Information How do factors, such as trade, war,migration, and inventions, affectcultural change?

Analyzing Maps6. Place Study the map of world

religions on page 82. What fac-tors are related to the diffusionof world religions?

7. Culture and EnvironmentResearch the Internet tomake a list of examples inwhich varying cultures viewparticular places or featuresdifferently.

Applying Geography

These five culture hearths had certain geo-graphic features in common. They all emergedfrom farming settlements in areas with a mild cli-mate and fertile land and were located near amajor river or source of water. The peoples of theculture hearths made use of these favorable envi-ronments. They dug canals and ditches in order touse the rivers to irrigate the land. All of these fac-tors enabled people to grow surplus crops.

Economics

Specialization and CivilizationSurplus food set the stage for the rise of cities and

civilizations. With more food available, there wasless need for everyone in a settlement to farm theland. People were able to develop other ways ofmaking a living. They created new technology andcarried out specialized economic activities, such asmetalworking and shipbuilding, that spurred thedevelopment of long-distance trade.

In turn, the increased wealth from trade led to therise of cities and complex social systems. The ruler ofa city needed a well-organized government to coor-dinate harvests, plan building projects, and managean army for defense. Perhaps most importantly, offi-cials and merchants created writing systems thatmade it possible to record and transmit information.

Cultural Contacts Cultural contact among different civilizations pro-

moted cultural change as ideas and practices spreadthrough trade and travel. Permanent migration, in

which people leave one land to seek a new life inanother, also has fostered cultural diffusion. Peoplemigrate to avoid harsh governments, wars, persecu-tion, and famines. In some cases, such as that ofenslaved Africans brought to the Americas, massmigrations have been forced. Conversely, positivefactors—a favorable climate, better economic oppor-tunities, and religious or political freedoms—maydraw people from one place to another. Migrantscarry their cultures with them, and their ideas andpractices often blend with those of the peoplealready living in the migrants’ adopted countries.

Industrial and Information RevolutionsCultural diffusion has increased rapidly during

the last 250 years. In the 1700s and 1800s, somecountries began to industrialize, using power-driven machines and factories to mass-producegoods. New production methods dramaticallychanged these countries’ economies, since goodscould be produced quickly and cheaply. This devel-opment, known as the Industrial Revolution, alsoled to social changes. As people left farms for jobsin factories and mills, cities grew larger. Harshworking and living conditions at the outset of theIndustrial Revolution eventually improved.

At the end of the 1900s, the world experienced anew turning point—the Information Revolution.Computers now make it possible to store hugeamounts of information and to send information allover the world in an instant, thus linking the cul-tures of the world more closely than ever before.

Global Cultures

C h a p t e r 4 85

Elements of Culture Cultural Change

Guide to ReadingConsider What You KnowPolitical and economic systems helpdefine a people’s culture, or way oflife. Think about the political andeconomic systems in your ownregion. How do they impact your culture?

Read to Find Out• What are the various levels of

government?

• What are the major types of gov-ernments in the world today?

• What are the major types of eco-nomic systems in the world?

Terms to Know• unitary system

• federal system

• autocracy

• oligarchy

• democracy

• traditional economy

• market economy

• mixed economy

• command economy

Places to Locate• United States

• Saudi Arabia

• United Kingdom

• China

• Vietnam

Political andEconomic Systems

A Geographic ViewGlobal ConnectionsGeographic location of resources, labor, and capital means less as scattered coun-tries use information technologies to worktogether. Many cars have parts made in a half dozen countries; stores sell look-alike clothes sewn on four continents. . . .Money moves most easily. Stocks, cur-rency, and bonds traded on worldwideelectronic markets amount to an esti-mated three trillion dollars each day,twice the annual U.S. budget.

—Joel L. Swerdlow, “Information Revolution,”National Geographic, October 1995

As information technology continues to link theworld’s cultures, the governments and economies of countries aroundthe globe become increasingly interconnected. Government is theinstitution through which a society maintains social order, providespublic services, ensures national security, and supports its economicwell-being. An economy is the way a society produces, distributes,and uses goods and services. In this section you will study the majorpolitical and economic systems found in the world today.

Features of GovernmentToday the world is made up of nearly 200 independent countries that

vary in size, military might, natural resources, and world influence.Each country is defined by characteristics such as its territory, its popu-lation, and its sovereignty, or freedom from outside control. All of theseelements are brought together under a government. In carrying out itstasks, a government must make and enforce policies and laws that arebinding on all people living within its territory.

86 U n i t 1

Mercantile Exchange, Chicago

Levels of GovernmentThe government of each country has unique char-

acteristics that relate to that country’s historicaldevelopment. To carry out their functions, govern-ments have been organized in a variety of ways.Most large countries have several different levels ofgovernment. These usually include a national or cen-tral government, as well as the governments ofsmaller internal divisions such as provinces, states,counties, cities, towns, and villages.

Unitary SystemA unitary system of government gives all key

powers to the national or central government. Thisstructure does not mean that only one level of gov-ernment exists. Rather, it means that the centralgovernment creates state, provincial, or other localgovernments and gives them limited sovereignty.The United Kingdom and France both developedunitary governments as they gradually emergedfrom smaller territories during the late MiddleAges and early modern times.

Federal SystemA federal system of government divides the

powers of government between the national gov-ernment and state or provincial governments.Each level of government has sovereignty in someareas. The United States developed a federal sys-tem after the thirteen colonies became independent.

Another similar type of government structure is aconfederation, a loose union of independent territo-ries. The United States at first formed a confedera-tion, but this type of political arrangement failed toprovide an effective national government. As aresult, the U.S. Constitution made the national gov-ernment supreme, while preserving some stategovernment powers. Today other countries withfederal or confederal systems include Canada,Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and India.

Types of GovernmentsThe governments of the world’s countries also

differ in the way they exercise authority. Govern-ments can be classified by asking the question:“Who governs the state?” Under this classificationsystem, all governments belong to one of the threemajor groups: (1) autocracy––rule by one person;(2) oligarchy––rule by a few people; or (3) democ-racy––rule by many people.

AutocracyAny system of government in which the power

and authority to rule belong to a single individual isan autocracy (aw•TAH•kruh•see). Autocracies arethe oldest and one of the most common forms ofgovernment. Most autocrats achieve and maintaintheir position of authority through inheritance or bythe ruthless use of military or police power.

Several forms of autocracy exist. One is anabsolute or totalitarian dictatorship. In a totalitariandictatorship, the decisions of a single leader deter-mine government policies. The government undersuch a system can come to power through revolutionor an election. The totalitarian dictator seeks to con-trol all aspects of social and economic life. Examplesof totalitarian dictatorships include Adolf Hitler’sgovernment in Nazi Germany (from 1933 to 1945),Benito Mussolini’s rule in Italy (from 1922 to 1943),

UltimateAuthority Though an absolute monarch, King Fahdof Saudi Arabia is assisted by a cabinet, or group ofadvisers.

Place Describe the powers of an absolute monarch.

and Joseph Stalin’s regime in the Soviet Union (from1924 to 1953). In such dictatorships, the governmentis not responsible to the people, and the people haveno power to limit their rulers’ actions.

Monarchy (MAH•nuhr•kee) is another form ofautocratic government. In a monarchy, a king orqueen exercises the supreme powers of govern-ment. Monarchs usually inherit their positions.Absolute monarchs have complete and unlimitedpower to rule their people. The king of SaudiArabia, for example, is an absolute monarch.Absolute monarchs are rare today, but from the1400s to the 1700s kings or queens with absolutepowers ruled most of Western Europe.

Today some countries, such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Jordan, and Thailand,have constitutional monarchies. Their monarchsshare governmental powers with elected legisla-tures or serve as ceremonial leaders.

OligarchyAn oligarchy (AH•luh•GAHR•kee) is any sys-

tem of government in which a small group holdspower. The group derives its power from wealth,military power, social position, or a combinationof these elements. Sometimes religion is the sourceof power. Today the governments of communistcountries, such as China, are mostly oligarchies. Insuch countries, leaders in the Communist Partyand the armed forces control the government.

Both dictatorships and oli-garchies sometimes claim they rulefor the people. Such governmentsmay try to give the appearance ofcontrol by the people. For example,they might hold elections but offeronly one candidate or control theelection results in other ways. Suchgovernments may also have sometype of legislature or nationalassembly elected by or representingthe people. These legislatures,however, only approve policies

88 U n i t 1

The Right to Vote In the United States, voters such as this man in Mississippi elect their officials.

Place How do direct democracies and representative democracies differ?

and decisions already made by the leaders. As in adictatorship, oligarchies usually suppress all polit-ical opposition––sometimes ruthlessly.

DemocracyA democracy is any system of government in

which leaders rule with the consent of the citi-zens. The term democracy comes from the Greekdemos (meaning “the people”) and kratia (mean-ing “rule”). The ancient Greeks used the worddemocracy to mean government by the manyin contrast to government by the few. The keyidea of democracy is that people hold sovereignpower.

Direct democracy, in which citizens themselvesdecide on issues, exists in some places at local lev-els of government. No country today has anational government based on direct democracy.Instead, democratic countries have representativedemocracies, in which the people elect representa-tives with the responsibility and power to makelaws and conduct government. An assembly of thepeople’s representatives may be called a council, alegislature, a congress, or a parliament.

Many democratic countries, such as the UnitedStates and France, are republics. In a republic, voterselect all major officials, who are responsible to thepeople. The head of state––or head of government––is usually a president elected for a specific term. Not every democracy is a republic. The United

Kingdom, for example, is ademocracy with a monarch ashead of state. This monarch’srole is ceremonial, and electedofficials hold the power to rule.

EconomicSystems

Governments around theworld deal with many kindsof economic systems. Alleconomic systems, however,must make three basic eco-nomic decisions: (1) what andhow many goods and servicesshould be produced, (2) howthey should be produced, (3)who gets the goods and ser-vices that are produced. Thethree major types of theseeconomic systems––traditional,market, and command—makedecisions differently.

Traditional EconomyIn a traditional economy, habit and custom deter-

mine the rules for all economic activity. Individualsare not free to make decisions based on what theywould like to have. Instead their behavior is definedby the customs of their elders and ancestors. Forexample, it was a tradition in the Inuit society ofnorthern Canada that a successful hunter wouldshare the spoils of the hunt with the other families inthe village. This custom allowed the Inuit to survivethe Arctic climate for thousands of years. Today, tra-ditional economic systems exist in very limited partsof the world.

Market EconomyIn a market economy, individuals and private

groups make decisions about what to produce.People, as shoppers, choose what products theywill or will not buy, and businesses make more ofwhat they believe consumers want. A market econ-omy is based on free enterprise, the idea that privateindividuals or groups have the right to own prop-erty or businesses and make a profit with onlylimited government interference. In a free enterprise

C h a p t e r 4 89

system, people are free to choose what jobs theywill do and for whom they will work. Anotherterm for an economic system organized in this wayis capitalism.

No country in the world, however, has a puremarket economy system. Today the U.S. economyand others like it are described as mixed econ-omies. A mixed economy is one in which the gov-ernment supports and regulates free enterprisethrough decisions that affect the marketplace. Inthis arrangement the government’s main economictask is to preserve the free market by keeping com-petition free and fair and by supporting the publicinterest. Governments in modern mixed economiesalso influence their economies by spending tax rev-enues to support social services such as health care,education, and housing.

Command EconomyIn a command economy, the government

owns or directs the means of production—land,labor, capital (machinery, factories), and busi-ness managers—and controls the distribution

California EntrepreneurThe owner of a bicycle shop uses a telephone and laptop computer toconduct business.

Region How does a market economy affect the economic activities in a region?

90 U n i t 1

Checking for Understanding1. Define unitary system, federal

system, autocracy, oligarchy,democracy, traditional economy,market economy, mixed economy,command economy.

2. Main Ideas Copy the outlinebelow, and complete it with information from the section.

Critical Thinking3. Comparing and Contrasting What

different roles might local citizenshave in government decision mak-ing under a unitary system, a fed-eral system, and a confederation?

4. Making Generalizations Whatfunctions do all types of govern-ments carry out?

5. Categorizing InformationDescribe the characteristics of traditional, command, and marketeconomies.

Analyzing Maps6. Region Study the map of world

religions on page 82. Then writetwo generalizations about the dis-tribution of the world’s religions.

7. Political Systems Researchpolitical systems and geog-raphy. What geographic factors influence a country’sforeign policy? Use Iraq,Israel, Japan, and the UnitedKingdom as examples.

Applying Geography

Political and Economic Systems

I. Levels of GovernmentA. Unitary System

1.

of goods. Believing that such economic decisionmaking benefits all of society and not just a fewpeople, countries with command economies try todistribute goods and services equally among allcitizens. Public taxes, for example, are used to sup-port social services, such as housing and healthcare, for all citizens. However, citizens have novoice in how this tax money is spent.

Government

Socialism and CommunismA command economy is called either socialism

or communism, depending on how much the gov-ernment is involved. In theory, communism requiresstrict government control of almost the entire soci-ety, including its economy. The government decideshow much to produce, what to produce, and how todistribute the goods and services produced. Onepolitical party—the Communist Party—makes deci-sions and may even use various forms of coercion toensure that the decisions are carried out at lowerpolitical and economic levels.

Supporters of the market system claim, however,that without free decision making and incentives,businesses will not innovate or produce productsthat people want. Customers will be limited in theirchoices and economies will stagnate. As a result ofthese problems, command economies often decline.An example is the former Soviet Union, as describedby a Russian observer.

“ In 1961 the [Communist] party predicted. . . that the Soviet Union would have theworld’s highest living standard by 1980. . . .But when that year came and went, theSoviet Union still limped along, burdenedby . . . a stagnant economy.”Dusko Doder, “The Bolshevik

Revolution,” National Geographic,October 1992

By 2000, Russia and the other countries thatwere once part of the Soviet Union were develop-ing market economies. China and Vietnam haveallowed some free enterprise to promote economicgrowth, although their governments tightly con-trol political affairs.

An economic system called socialism allows an even wider range of free enterprise alongsidegovernment-run activities. Socialism has threemain goals: (1) the equal distribution of wealthand economic opportunity; (2) society’s control,through its government, of all major decisionsabout production; and (3) public ownership ofmost land, factories, and other means of produc-tion. Politically, some socialist countries, espe-cially those in western Europe, are democracies.Under democratic socialism, people have basichuman rights and elect their political leaders, eventhough the government controls certain industries.

C h a p t e r 4 91

Guide to ReadingConsider What You KnowPeople are dependent on the world’sresources for survival. Yet you mayhave heard that certain economicactivities threaten humans’ futureaccess to these resources. What aresome actions people can take to pre-serve the world’s natural treasures?

Read to Find Out• What types of energy most likely

will be used in societies in thefuture?

• What factors determine a coun-try’s economic development andtrade relationships?

• How do human economic activi-ties affect the environment?

Terms to Know• natural resource

• developed country

• developing country

• industrialization

• free trade

• pollution

Places to Locate• Malaysia

• European Union

Resources, Trade,and the Environment

A Geographic ViewGlobalization in High GearHumans have been weaving commer-cial and cultural connections sincebefore the first camel caravan ventured afield. In the 19th centurythe postal service, newspapers,transcontinental railroads, andgreat steam-powered ships[brought about] fundamentalchanges. . . . Now computers, theInternet, cellular phones, cableTV, and cheaper jet trans-portation have acceleratedand complicated these con-nections. Still, the basic dynamic remainsthe same: Goods move. People move. Ideas move. And cul-tures change. The difference now is the speed and scope of these changes.

—Erla Zwingle, “A World Together,” National Geographic, August 1999

At the start of the twenty-first century, techno-logical advances such as the Internet were connecting people aroundthe globe. These connections continue to make the world’s peoplesincreasingly interdependent, or reliant on each other. In this sectionyou will learn about the growth of a global economy and the ways inwhich the world’s peoples use—and misuse—natural resources.

ResourcesEarth provides all the elements necessary to sustain life. The ele-

ments from the earth that are not made by people but can be used bythem for food, fuel, or other necessities are called natural resources.People can use some natural resources as much as they want. These

Buddhist monks in California restaurant

92 U n i t 1

renewable resources cannot be used up or can bereplaced naturally or grown again in a relativelyshort amount of time. Wind, sun, water, forests,and animal life are examples of renewableresources. The earth’s crust, however, containsmany nonrenewable resources that cannot bereplaced, such as minerals and fossil fuels.

Resource Management Because fossil fuels, like coal and oil, and other

nonrenewable resources cannot be replaced, theymust be conserved. The immediate goal of con-servation is to manage vital resources carefullyso that people’s present needs are met. Anequally important long-term goal is to ensurethat the needs of future generations are met.

With these future needs in mind, environmentalexperts have encouraged people to replace theirdependence on fossil fuels with the use of renew-able energy sources. Many countries, for example,already produce hydroelectric power—a renewableenergy source generated from falling water.Another renewable energy source is solar energy—power produced by the sun’s heat. Unfortunately,harnessing solar energy requires large, expensiveequipment, so it is not yet an economical alternativeto other energy sources.

Still another renewable source is electricity createdby nuclear energy, the power made by creating a con-trolled atomic reaction. Many concerns, however,surround the use of nuclear power because of thedangerous waste products it produces.

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MAP STUDY

World Economic Activity

Land UseCommercial farmingSubsistence farmingLivestock raisingNomadic herdingHunting and gatheringForestsManufacturing and tradeCommercial fishingLittle or no activity

Find NGS online map resources @ www.nationalgeographic.com/maps

Resources

Coal

Iron ore

Petroleum

Gold

Silver

1. Interpreting Maps Where are the world’s centers of manufacturing andtrade generally located?

2. Applying Geography Skills How does the distribution of global resourcesaffect the location and movement of people, capital, and products?

EconomicDevelopment

Most natural resources are notevenly distributed throughout theearth. This uneven distributionaffects the global economy, as yousee from the economic activitiesmap on page 92. As a result, countries specialize in the economicactivities best suited to theirresources. Those having much technology and manufacturing,such as the United States, are calleddeveloped countries. There, mostpeople work in manufacturing orservice industries and enjoy a highstandard of living. Farmers indeveloped countries engage incommercial farming, raising cropsand livestock to sell in the market.Because of modern techniques, only a small percentage of these countries’ workers is needed togrow food to feed entire popula-tions. Those countries workingtoward greater manufacturing and technology use are calleddeveloping countries. In many developing countries, which are mainly in Africa, Asia, andLatin America, agriculture remains dominant.Despite much commercial farming, most farmersin these countries engage in subsistence farming,growing only enough food for family needs. As a result, most people in developing countriesremain poor. Industrialization, or the spread ofindustry, however, has transformed once largelyagricultural countries, such as China andMalaysia.

Despite advances, the global influence of developed countries has sparked resentment insome developing countries. Feeding on this discontent, militant groups have tried to strikeback by engaging in terrorism, or the use of violence to create fear in a given population. Small in size and often limited in resources, these groups seek to use the fear unleashed by violence to heighten their influence to promotechange.

World TradeThe unequal distribution of natural resources

promotes a complex network of trade among coun-tries. Countries export their specialized products,trading them to other countries that cannot pro-duce those goods. When countries cannot produceas much as they need of a good, they import it, orbuy it from another country. That country, in turn,may buy the first country’s products, making thetwo countries trading partners.

A major stimulus to world trade has come frommultinational companies. A multinational companyis a firm that does business in many places through-out the world. Multinationals are usually headquar-tered in a developed country and often locate theirmanufacturing or assembly operations in develop-ing countries with low labor costs. In recent decadesmany developing countries have allowed multina-tionals to buy property and build factories or formpartnerships with local companies.

Importing GoodsMany multinational companies import clothes for sale in the United States.

Place Why do some U.S. firms locate factories in developing countries?

C h a p t e r 4 93

Free Trade In recent years governments

around the world have movedtoward free trade, the removal oftrade barriers so that goods canflow freely among countries. TheGeneral Agreement on Tariffs andTrade (GATT) was the first inter-national agreement to promotefree trade. In 1995 GATT becamethe World Trade Organization(WTO), to which most countriesnow belong.

In various parts of the world,several countries have joinedtogether to create regional freetrade agreements. For example,the United States, Mexico, andCanada have set up the NorthAmerican Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) to eliminate all tradebarriers to one another’s goods.The European Union (EU), thelargest trading bloc, includesmany of the countries of Europe.Many members of the EuropeanUnion have adopted a regionalcurrency, the euro, to extend theircooperative efforts. Referring todecreasing trade restrictions, aU.S. trade official observed that

$billion GDP

World GDP

World Trade

$billion Trade

5000

6000

7000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0 $bn

30,000

35,000

40,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5000

$bn 0

1980 1990 2000

Sources: World Trade Organization; IMF World Economics Outlook, 2001

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the value of goods and services produced within a country in a year.

World Trade

94 U n i t 1

GRAPH STUDY

Economics

Barriers to TradeA government tries to manage its country’s trade

to benefit its own economy. Some governmentsadd a tariff, or a tax, to the price of goods that areimported. Because tariffs make imported goodsmore costly, governments often use them to influ-ence people to buy products made in their homecountry instead of imported goods.

Governments sometimes create other barriersto trade. They might put a strict quota, or num-ber limit, on the quantity of a particular productthat can be imported from a particular country. A government may even impose an embargo,banning trade with another country altogether asa way to punish that country for political or eco-nomic differences.

“ . . . an opening world economy has allowedtrade to expand fifteen-fold, sparking asix-fold increase in world economic pro-duction and a three-fold increase inglobal per capita incomes.”Charlene Barshefsky, remarks on

trade policy at the National Press Club,Washington, D.C., October 19, 2000

People and theEnvironment

In recent decades human economic activitieshave drastically affected the environment. A majorenvironmental challenge today is pollution—therelease of unclean or impure elements into the air,water, and land.

1. Interpreting Graphs By how much has world trade increasedsince 1980? Develop a hypothesis to explain this increase.

2. Applying Geography Skills Explain the relationship betweenworld trade and world GDP.

Checking for Understanding1. Define natural resource, devel-

oped country, developing country,industrialization, free trade, pollution.

2. Main Ideas Copy the chart belowonto a sheet of paper. Fill in thechallenges that each categorypresents to the world’s countries.

Critical Thinking3. Evaluating Information Evaluate

the impact of innovations, such as fire, steam power, dieselmachinery, and electricity, on the environment.

4. Making Inferences What might be the advantages and disadvan-tages to a developing country ofjoining a free trade agreement?

5. Making Comparisons Research andcompare two countries in the waysthey depend on the environmentfor products that they export.

Analyzing Maps6. Region Look at the world eco-

nomic activity map on page 92.What regions of the world producethe most oil? The most coal?

7. Effects of Trade PoliciesThink about the reasonscountries use quotas andembargoes. How are quotasand embargoes different?What unintended conse-quence do you think quotasand embargoes might haveon a country’s economy?

Applying Geography

Water and Land PollutionEarth’s bodies of water are normally renewable,

purifying themselves over time, but this naturalcycle can be interrupted by human activity. Tankersand offshore rigs can cause oil spills and industriesmay dump chemical waste that enters and pollutesthe water supply. Fertilizers and pesticides fromfarms can seep into groundwater and cause harm,as can animal waste and untreated sewage.

Land pollution occurs where chemical waste poi-sons fertile topsoil or solid waste is dumped in land-fills. Radioactive waste from nuclear power plantsand toxic runoff from chemical processing plantscan also leak into the soil and cause contamination.

Air PollutionThe main source of air pollution is the burning of

fossil fuels by industries and vehicles. Burning fuelgives off poisonous gases that can seriously damagepeople’s health. Acidic chemicals in air pollutionalso combine with precipitation to form acid rain.Acid rain eats away at the surfaces of buildings,kills fish, and can even destroy entire forests.

Forests provide animal habitats, prevent soilerosion, and conduct photosynthesis (FOH•toh•SIHN•thuh•suhs)––the process by which plantstake in carbon dioxide and, in the presence of sun-light, produce carbohydrates. The oxygen released

during photosynthesis is vital for human and ani-mal survival. Decreasing pollution-causing acid rainwill preserve a region’s environmental balance.

Some scientists believe that rising levels of pollu-tants in the atmosphere are contributing to a generalincrease in the earth’s temperatures, a trend they callglobal warming. Although not all experts agree thatglobal warming is occurring, scientists who study itwarn that the increase in temperature may have dis-astrous effects, causing glaciers and ice caps to meltand raising the level of the world’s oceans. Higherwater levels in oceans, they claim, could floodcoastal cities and submerge smaller islands.

The Fragile EcosystemAs humans expand their communities, they

threaten natural ecosystems, places where the plantsand animals are dependent upon one another andtheir environment for survival. Ecosystems can befound in every climate and vegetation region of theworld. Because the earth’s land, air, and water areinterrelated, what harms one part of the systemharms all the other parts—including humans andother living things. As people become more awareof how their actions affect this delicate balanceof life, they are starting to manage resources morewisely, by improving water treatment, preserv-ing wilderness areas, and developing alterna-tives to fossil fuels.

C h a p t e r 4 95

Economic WorldResources Development Trade Environment

Learning the SkillAn electronic database is a col-

lection of facts that are stored in afile on the computer. The infor-mation is organized into differentfields. The table, for example,contains three fields: Language,Speakers (in millions), and MainAreas Where Spoken.

A database can be organizedand reorganized in any waythat is useful to you. By usingspecial software developed forrecord keeping––a databasemanagement system (DBMS)––you can easily add, delete,change, or update information.You give commands to the com-puter that tell it what to dowith the information, and it fol-lows your commands. When youwant to retrieve information,the computer searches throughthe files, finds the information,and displays it on the screen.

Follow these steps to create adatabase:

• Determine what facts youwant to include in your database.

• Follow the instructions in the DBMS you are using toset up fields.

• Determine how you want toorganize the facts in the data-base––alphabetically, chrono-logically, or numerically.

• Follow the instructions in theDBMS to sort the informa-tion in order of importance.

Practicing the SkillEnter the data in the table

above into an electronic data-base. Then use the DBMS com-mands to answer the followingquestions.1. In what order is the informa-

tion in the table displayed?2. Sort the data alphabetically

by language. Which recordappears first?

3. Request the database to dis-play only those languageswith more than 200 million

speakers. Which records willnot appear?

4. Sort your records using Africaas the main area where spo-ken. How many languagesappear? What are they?

Creating an ElectronicDatabaseAcomputerized database program can help you organize and

manage a large amount of information. Once you enterdata in a database, you can quickly locate a record according to key information.

96 U n i t 1

Language Main Areas Where SpokenSpeakers

(in millions)

Source: National Geographic Desk Reference

China, Taiwan, Singapore

Northern India

Spain, Latin America, southwestern United States

Bangladesh, eastern India

Southwest Asia, North Africa

Portugal, Brazil, southern Africa

Japan

Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg,eastern France, northern Italy

Russia, Kazakhstan, parts of Ukraine and otherformer Soviet republics

British Isles, Anglo-America, Australia, NewZealand, South Africa, former British colonies intropical Asia and Africa, Philippines

Hindi

Spanish

Bengali

Arabic

Portuguese

Japanese

German

Russian

English

Han Chinese(Mandarin)

874

366

358

341

207

206

176

167

125

100

Study the world religion andworld cultures maps on pages82 and 83. Combine the infor-mation into an electronic data-base showing which religions arepracticed in the world’s cultureregions. Write three questionsthat require sorting these records.

SUMMARY & STUDY GUIDE

Key Points• Population growth rates vary, posing different

problems for different countries.• The world’s population is unevenly distributed.• Large numbers of people are migrating from

rural villages to cities.• People emigrate because of wars, food short-

ages, persecution, lack of jobs, or other problems.

Organizing Your NotesUse a graphic organizer like theone below to help you organizeyour notes for this section.

Terms to Know• culture• language family• ethnic group• culture region• cultural diffusion• culture hearth

Key Points• Language, religion, social groups, government,

and economic activities define cultures.• Geographers divide the earth into specific

culture regions.• Trade, migration, and war change cultures.• The world’s first civilizations arose in culture

hearths.

Organizing Your NotesCreate an outline using the for-mat below to organize your notes.

Terms to Know• death rate• birthrate• natural increase• doubling time• population

distribution• population density• migration

SECTION 1 World Population (pp. 75–79)

SECTION 2 Global Cultures (pp. 80–85)

C h a p t e r 4 97

World Population

PopulationGrowth

PopulationDistribution

PopulationMovement

I. Elements of CultureA. Language

1.

Global Cultures

Terms to Know• unitary system• federal system• autocracy• oligarchy• democracy• traditional economy• market economy• mixed economy• command economy

Key Points• A country’s different levels of government may

be organized as a unitary system, a federal sys-tem, or a confederation.

• An autocracy, an oligarchy, and a democracydiffer in the way they exercise authority.

• The three major economic systems are tradi-tional economy, market economy and com-mand economy.

Organizing Your NotesCreate a chart like the onebelow to organize your notesfor this section.

SECTION 3 Political and Economic Systems (pp. 86–90)

Political andEconomic Systems Characteristics

Features of Government

Trade Resources Development Environment

Terms to Know• natural resource• developed country• developing country• industrialization• free trade• pollution

Key Points• Peoples are increasingly interdependent.• Because natural resources are not evenly dis-

tributed, countries must trade.• Governments can create or eliminate trade barriers.• Human economic activities have led to pollution.

Organizing Your NotesCreate a chart like the onebelow to organize your notes.

SECTION 4 Resources, Trade, and the Environment (pp. 91–95)

Critical Thinking1. Analyzing Information Explain the oper-

ation of a traditional economy, using Canada’sInuit as an example.

2. Making Inferences Why do you thinkgeographers find it useful to divide the worldinto culture regions? Identify the human factors that constitute a region.

3. Predicting Consequences On a sheet ofpaper, create a graphic organizer like the onebelow to list the possible challenges faced bythe citizens of a country whose governmenthas changed from an autocracy to a democ-racy. Then suggest ways that people mightaddress these challenges.

Reviewing Key TermsOn a sheet of paper, classify each of the termsbelow into one of the following categories:

• Population • Political and Economic Systems• Cultures • Resources, Trade, and Environment

a. death rate i. developed countryb. culture j. autocracyc. population k. cultural diffusion

distribution l. market economyd. free trade m. mixed economye. language family n. federal systemf. culture region o. developing countryg. democracy p. birthrateh. culture hearth

Reviewing FactsSECTION 1

1. How does population growthaffect the global community?

2. Why are large numbers of peo-ple moving to cities?

SECTION 23. What are the elements of a

culture?

4. What influences may change aculture?

SECTION 35. Name two forms of autocratic

government.

6. What kinds of benefits do peo-ple receive in a market econ-omy system? In a commandeconomy system?

SECTION 47. What is the difference between

a renewable and a nonrenew-able resource?

8. What factors make the world’scountries increasingly interde-pendent?

Locating PlacesThe World: Cultural Geography

Match the letters on the map with the appropriate world culture regions. Write your answers on a sheet of paper.

1. United States and Canada

2. Latin America3. Europe4. Russia

5. North Africa, South-west Asia, and Cen-tral Asia

6. Africa South of theSahara

7. South Asia8. East Asia9. Southeast Asia

10. Australia, Oceania,and Antarctica

A

B

C

D

E

GH

J

I

F

C

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ASSESSMENT & ACTIVITIES

98 U n i t 1

Challenges Ways to Address Them• •• •• •• •

Autocracy to Democracy

C h a p t e r X 99

Read the questions carefully to deter-mine what is being asked. Look forthe key words and phrases that will

help you eliminate incorrect answers, such as theword not in question 1 and the word autocratic inquestion 2. Then compare the answer choices youhave not eliminated. Sometimes more than oneanswer choice seems correct. You must find theanswer choice that is the best.

Self-Check Quiz Visit the Glencoe WorldGeography Web site at tx.geography.glencoe.comand click on Self-Check Quizzes—Chapter 4 toprepare for the Chapter Test.

Thinking Like a Geographer Based on what you know about cultural diffusion,research the role that diseases such as the bubonicplague have played in this process over the courseof time. Create a map that traces the disease’sspread from its point of origin to other areas.Write a paragraph that describes the disease’seffects on regions of contact.

Problem-Solving ActivityGroup Research Project Work with a groupto find out more about the North American FreeTrade Agreement (NAFTA). Research the impor-tant elements of the agreement, the supportingand opposing opinions, and the costs and bene-fits to participating countries. Decide whetherNAFTA might be used as a model agreement forother regions, and present your decision andsupporting reasons as a letter to a national newsmagazine. Include charts, graphs, or tables tosupport your ideas.

GeoJournalCreative Writing Choose one of the world’sculture regions. Use the notes in your GeoJournaland other sources to research and analyze theeffects of human geographic patterns on theregion’s environment. Write a description of specific human activities that have positively ornegatively changed physical features and naturalresouces there.

Technology ActivityCreating an Electronic Database

Choose several developed and developing coun-tries and create a database of their trading activi-ties. Include data about products they import andexport and the amount of income each countryearns from trade. Then write a paragraph explain-ing what the data show about developed anddeveloping countries. Consider the differencesamong countries related to the kinds of productseach category of country produces and theamount of income each kind produces. Whataccounts for the differences?

Choose the best answer for the following multiple-choice questions. If you have troubleanswering the questions, use the process ofelimination to narrow your choices.

1. Which of the following is NOT a chal-lenge that rapid population growth presents to the global community?

A Shortages of foodB Shortages of metropolitan areasC Shortages of waterD Shortages of housing

2. What is the most accurate description ofan autocratic government?

F Power is divided among the national government and state or provincial governments.

G A small group of people have the powerto govern, often because of wealth, mili-tary power, or social position.

H Leaders rule with the consent of the citizens.

J One person holds the power to rule andmay use military or police power tomaintain authority.

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