 Pick a country, write down important facts that you know about their culture, climate, religion.

 Human Geography: Study of languages Religions Customs Economic & political systems

 Demography: the study of populations; birth, marriage, migration and death.  Culture: beliefs and actions that define a group of people’s way of life.  Where People Live: Population density: the average number of people in a square mile or a square kilometer is very high.

 Where people live: People live on a small area where the soil is fertile enough, water is plentiful and climate is mild enough to grow crops. Earth: two thirds are covered by water and the other half bitterly cold, rugged mountains, and harsh deserts.

 People & Environments People always adapt to their climate, surroundings Environments that seem hostile to human life we are able to live there because we adapt. Human activity has altered the earths physical landscape. Example: cutting down trees, plowing soil, damming rivers.

 Population Density: divide the total population of a region by the region’s land area.  Geographers tell the country’s population density in terms of its arable land (land that can be farmed)

 Population Growth: Effects of growth:  Increase in famine  Disease  Natural resources depletion

 Comparing Growth Rate: World population growth is uneven. Different balances between the birthrate. Birthrate- the number of live births each year per 1,000 people and the death rate. Death rate- the number of deaths each year per 1,000 people. Immigration- number of people who move to the country. Emigrants- people who leave the country to live elsewhere.

 Patterns of population Urbanization- the growth or city populations Rural- population (countryside)  Urbanization is growing twice as fast as the rural. Culture: different population patterns are in part reflection of differences in culture. Culture changes!

 Material culture : things that people make, food, clothing, architecture, arts, crafts and technology.  Nonmaterial culture: religion, language, spiritual beliefs, and patterns or behavior.

 Social organization: Family is most important in all cultures. Most cultures have social classes: that rank people in order of status. May be based off of:  Money, occupation, education, ancestry  In the past people were born into a class and stayed there for life.

 Language: Cornerstone of culture. All cultures have a language but all might not have a written language.  India has more than 700 languages,.

 Religion:  Culture Landscape: Farming in Kansas might be different then farming in China.  Culture Change: Diffusion- or spread of cultural traits from one culture to another. (happens through travel or migration) Acculturation- process of adapting traits from other cultures.

 Culture hearth- refers to a place where important ideas begin and from which they spread to surrounding cultures.  Example: southwest Asia, first people learned to tame and herd animals and to grow crops from wild grasses.

 Worlds Countries: Countries vary in size, military power, natural resources, economic importance, and many other ways. Four characteristics that define it as a country  Territory  Population  Sovereignty- freedom from outside control  government

 Territory: land, water within its boundaries and all of its natural resources.  Natural resources are not distributed around the world evenly.

 Sovereignty: Country is one that can rule itself by establishing its own political and determining its own course of action. Countries sovereignty entitles it to act independently.

 Types of Government: Every country contains smaller units: provinces, or republics, or states.  Unitary  Federal  Confederation  Authoritarian  Dictatorship  Totalitarianism  Monarchy  Democracy  Capitalist  Communism  socialism

 Unitary:  Central government makes laws for the entire nation: local governments have only those powers that the central government gives to them.  Example: Great Britain and Japan

 Federal: Some powers given to the national government and other powers are reserved for the states.  Confederation- system, smaller political units keep their sovereignty and give the central government only very limited powers, typically in fields such as defense and foreign.  Authoritarian- leaders held all or nearly all political power. Some take different forms: Today most common is a dictatorship

 Dictatorship- power is concentrated in a small group or even a single person.( most use military force or political terror to gain and exercise power.  Totalitarianism- government tries to control every part of society- politics, the economy and peoples personal lives. Example Nazi Germany

 Monarchy- kings, queens, pharaohs, shahs, sultans, inherit their positions by being born into the ruling family. (British monarchy, constitutional monarchies)  Democracy- people choose their leaders and have the power to set government policy.

 Capitalism-people answer the questions, people as consumers help determine what will be produced by buying or not buying certain products.  Communism- requires the state to make all economic decisions.  Socialism- for the good of society as a whole the state should own and run basic industries such as transportation, communication, banking, coal mining.