North America, Ho! Notes
geography: It's about the world around us and how we live in it. It involves studying resources, climate, and is everything that appears on a map. This is the study of physical attributes of a place. Physical and human are two types of geography.
physical: This doesn't involve people. It deals with the characteristics of places like rivers and mountains. Human geography deals with the involvement of people.
maps: A cartographer studies or makes maps. Geographers use maps as tools to communicate information. A compass is usually on a map and provides navigational information.
latitude: These lines go left and right or east and west on a map.
longitude: These lines go up and down or north and south on a map.
United States: America can be divided into the West, Midwest, South, and Northeast. New England is a subregion of the Northeast. Lower 48 States refers to States connected by a common border or in a sequence. Alaska is way North and Hawaii is southwest of the mainland.
Canada: This is second largest country in the world and has 3,851,800 square miles. It has ten provinces and three territories. They are divided into three Maritime and four Prairie groups. British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec are stand-alone provinces and the area most Canadians live. The territories are located in northern Canada and few Canadians live in this region because it is very cold. Canada had a population of 35 million in 2013. It gained its independence in 1867.
development: People can purchase more material wealth or stuff in developed nations. America and Canada usually rank in the top ten for economic development. There were only about 4 million people once in America.
climate: There is a variety of climates in North America that helps grow a lot of different things. This affects the development of a region and can affect what people can grow. A variety of climates means a variety of crops.
water: North America has a lot of rivers and lakes. A few waterways include the St. Lawrence, Columbia, Mississippi, Colorado, and the Great Lakes.
agriculture: Climate is directly related to farming because of the growing seasons. The North grew enough food for their families, but could not produce large enough crops for export.
Jamestown: This is the first British settlement and was founded in 1607.
South: It has a warm climate and rich farmland. Southerners grew Cash Crops that included cotton, tobacco, and peanuts. These crops were labor-intensive and required workers, which is the reason the importing of African slaves and slavery was common in this region.
Midwest: The Ohio River Valley is in this region and farmers farm Staple Crops like corn and wheat. The crops were not as labor intensive as in the South.
waterways: Rivers and canals were once used as the roadways for shipping raw goods like cotton and grains to the Northeast.
Northeast: It became the industrial center of America where raw goods were turned into finished goods for export.
Confederacy: The South seceded from the Union and formed its own country. Slavery ended after the war.
machines: People needed to replace human labor on the farms with these devices. A variety of devices increased the productivity of farmers and industrial workers throughout the United States. Factories were built throughout the North to quickly convert raw products into finished goods for export.
services: Most North Americans provide services like banking, law, advertising, retail sales, education, and entertainment. Agriculture now makes up less than 3% of the jobs in North America.
language: All government business in America is conducted in English, but there is no official language. About 14% of Americans speak another language other than English in their homes, with Spanish making up half of this percentage. Canada has two national languages: English and French.