Jacqueline Neal February 9, 2014 GEO 234 Patick Ehland

Population (2012 est.): 35,406,303

Nearly four times the size of Texas and the largest country on the continent, Algeria is bordered on the west by Morocco and Western Sahara and on the east by Tunisia and Libya. The Mediterranean Sea is to the north, and to the south are Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. The Saharan region, which is 85% of the country, is almost completely uninhabited. The highest point is Mount Tahat in the Sahara, which rises 9,850 ft (3,000 m).

 Algiers is the largest city and the capital of Algeria.

Geography affects the economic development through its effect on disease Burden, agricultural productivity and availability of natural resources.

The majority of African nations with a closed political system have adopted a principle of democratic governance. Many countries are still governed by authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes.

 “High Africa”  Mostly East and Southern Africa  Most of East Africa is over 2,000 ft; some over 5,000  Steep escarpments  Victoria Falls  Great Escarpments  The Rift Valley and The Ethiopian Highlands  “Low Africa” West Africa, parts of the Northern and Eastern coast.

 There are four major river systems:  Nile  Niger  Congo  Zambezi There are a number of regionally important river basins as well.

Sub-Saharan Africa has enormous areas of desert including the Sahara And Namib deserts and semi deserts. North Africa The Horn of Africa Southwestern Africa

Civilization in Sub-Saharan Africa began in Nubia. Kerma was the first Sub-Saharan city.

 Sub-Saharan Africa roughly constitutes black Africans.  Sub-Saharan Africa also features the world’s most genetically diverse human population.  Contact between Sub-Saharan Africa and Eurasia was greatly limited by the Sahara Desert.

North Africa/Southwest Asia (also known as the Mideast) is an excellent example of a region: although is made up of countries on two continents, it is still considered a region because the people in the area share many things, especially religion.

 North Africa/Southwest Asia holds around 60% of the world’s petroleum reserves (used to make oil, gas, plastic, and other things).  Most of the economies in North Africa/Southwest Asia are dominated by the production of petroleum.

 The region is the birthplace of three major world religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.  This has caused conflict because sometimes the different religions will consider the same places as holy and then fight over them  People have fought over Jerusalem because of religion basically forever.

The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 broke out when five Arab nations invaded territory in the former Palestinian mandate immediately following the announcement of the independence of the state of Israel on May 14, On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’sPartition Resolution former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948.