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Vocab Word Textbook Definition
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Chapter
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Vocab Word
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A popular but controversial strategy to redistribute land to peasant farmers. Throughout the 20th century, various states redistributed land from large estates or granted title from vast public lands in order to reallocate resources to the poor and stimulate development.
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Latin America
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agrarian reform
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The largest intermontane plateau in the Andes, which straddles Peru and Bolivia and ranges in elevation from 10,000 to 13,000 feet (3000 to 4000 meters).
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Latin America
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Altiplano
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The relationship between elevation, temperature, and changes in vegetation that result from the environmental lapse rate
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Latin America
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altitudinal zonation
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A Brazilian conditional cash transfer program created to reduce extreme poverty. Families who qualify receive a monthly check from the government as long as they keep their children in school and take them for regular health checkups.
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Latin America
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Bolsa Familia
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A trade agreement between the United States and Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic to reduce tariffs and increase trade between member countries.
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Latin America
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Central American Free Trade Agreement
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An exchange of people, diseases, plants, and animals between the Americas (New World) and Europe/Africa (Old World), initiated by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492.
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Latin America
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Columbian Exchange
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The removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use.
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Latin America
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deforestation
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An economic strategy in which a country adopts the U.S. dollar as its official currency.
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Latin America
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dollarization
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A form of tourism oriented to natural environments with the aim of conservation, education, and low environmental impact; it tends to be smaller in scale than mass tourism.
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Latin America
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ecotourism
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An abnormally large warm current that appears off the coast of Ecuador and Peru in December.
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Latin America
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El Niño
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The decline in temperature as one ascends higher in the atmosphere.
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Latin America
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environmental lapse rate
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The conversion of tropical forest into pasture for cattle ranching. Typically, this process involves introducing species of grasses and cattle, mostly from Africa.
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Latin America
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grassification
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A much-debated concept that presupposes a dual economic system consisting of formal and informal sectors.
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Latin America
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dual economy
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A large estate or landholding in Latin America.
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Latin America
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latifundia
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Assembly plants on the Mexican border built by foreign capital. Most of their products are exported to the United States.
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Latin America
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maquiladora
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The Southern Common Market, established in 1991, which calls for free trade among member states and common external tariffs for nonmember states.
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Latin America
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Mercosur/Southern Cone Common Market
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A person of mixed European and aboriginal ancestry.
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Latin America
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mestizo
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A small landholding farmed by peasants or tenants who produce food for subsistence and the market.
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Latin America
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minifundia
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Economic and political strategies by which powerful states indirectly (and sometimes directly) extend their influence over other, weaker states.
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Latin America
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neocolonialism
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Economic policies widely adopted in the 1990s that stress privatization, export production, and few restrictions on imports.
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Latin America
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neoliberalism
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Tropical ecosystems of the Americas that evolved in relative isolation and support diverse and unique flora and fauna.
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Latin America
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neotropics
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Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Washington, DC, an organization that advocates hemispheric cooperation and dialogue.
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Latin America
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Organization of American States
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A business practice that transfers portions of a company’s production and service activities to lower-cost settings, often located overseas.
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Latin America
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outsourcing
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A trade-oriented agreement formed in 2011 which includes Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile; Costa Rica and Panama are in the process of joining the alliance.
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Latin America
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Pacific Alliance
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The largest urban settlement in a country that dominates all other urban places, economically and politically.
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Latin America
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primate city
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Monies sent by immigrants working abroad to family members and communities in their countries of origin.
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Latin America
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remittance
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A large upland area of very old exposed rocks.
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Latin America
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shield
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Makeshift housing on land not legally owned or rented by urban migrants, usually in unoccupied open spaces within or on the outskirts of a rapidly growing city.
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Latin America
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squatter settlement
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An organizing principle for meeting human development goals while at the same time sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the resources and ecosystem services (clean air or water) upon which the economy and society depend.
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Latin America
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sustainable development
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Religions that feature a blending of different belief systems. In Latin America, for example, many animist practices were folded into Christian worship.
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Latin America
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syncretic religion
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A treaty signed in 1494 between Spain and Portugal that drew a north–south line some 300 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde islands. Spain received the land to the west of the line and Portugal the land to the east.
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Latin America
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Treaty of Tordesillas
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A supranational organization that seeks to integrate trade and population movements within South America. Created in 2008, it is modeled after the European Union.
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Latin America
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Union of South American Nations
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A state in which a disproportionately large city (for example, London, New York or Bangkok) dominates the urban system and is the center of economic, political, and cultural life.
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Latin America
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urban primacy
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Migration of the best-educated people from developing countries to developed nations where economic opportunities are greater.
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The Caribbean
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brain drain
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The potential of return migrants to contribute to the social and economic development of a home country with the experiences they have gained abroad.
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The Caribbean
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brain gain
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The gap between the gross receipts an industry (such as tourism) brings into a developing area and the amount of capital retained.
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The Caribbean
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capital leakage
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A regional trade organization established in 1972 that includes former English colonies in the Caribbean Basin as its members.
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The Caribbean
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Caribbean Community and Common Market/CARICOM
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A pattern of migration in which people in a sending area become linked to a particular destination, such as Dominicans with New York City.
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The Caribbean
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chain migration
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Temporary labor migration, in which an individual seeks short-term employment overseas, earns money, and then returns home.
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The Caribbean
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circular migration
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The blending of African, European, and some Amerindian cultural elements into the unique sociocultural systems found in the Caribbean.
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The Caribbean
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creolization
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The scattering of a particular group of people over a vast geographic area.
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The Caribbean
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diaspora
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A duty-free and tax-exempt industrial park created to attract foreign corporations and create industrial jobs.
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The Caribbean
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Free Trade Zones
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Heat energy produced in Earth’s hot interior that can be utilized for generating heat and electricity.
glasnost
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The Caribbean
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geothermal
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The four large Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.
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The Caribbean
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Greater Antilles
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A tropical storm system with an abnormally low-pressure center, sustaining winds of 75 miles per hour (121 km/hour) or higher.
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The Caribbean
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hurricanes
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Foreign workers (generally South Asians) contracted to labor on Caribbean agricultural estates for a set period of time, often several years.
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The Caribbean
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indentured labor
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The arc of small Caribbean islands from St. Maarten to Trinidad.
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The Caribbean
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Lesser Antilles
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Runaway slaves who established communities rich in African traditions throughout the Caribbean and Brazil.
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The Caribbean
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maroons
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Agriculture based on a single crop.
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The Caribbean
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mono-crop production
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A proclamation issued by U.S. President James Monroe in 1823 that the United States would not tolerate European military action in the Western Hemisphere.
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The Caribbean
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Monroe Doctrine
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Economic and political strategies by which powerful states indirectly (and sometimes directly) extend their influence over other, weaker states.
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The Caribbean
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neocolonialism
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Financial services offered by islands or microstates that are typically confidential and tax exempt.
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The Caribbean
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offshore banking
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A cultural region that extends from midway up the coast of Brazil, through the Guianas and the Caribbean, and into the southeastern United States.
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The Caribbean
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plantation America
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Monies sent by immigrants working abroad to family members and communities in their countries of origin.
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The Caribbean
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remittances
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The mainland coastal zone of the Caribbean, beginning with Belize and extending along the coast of Central America to northern South America.
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The Caribbean
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rimland
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Complex social and economic linkages that form between home and host countries through international migration.
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The Caribbean
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transnational migration
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