Sacred Space

A sacred space is a location that has acquired an elevated, often spiritual status for a specific group. This status may truly be religious, or it may be more connected to territoriality and cultural identity. This is in contrast to profane space, which does not carry the same status, and which is the location where everyday activities take place. Generally speaking, a place identified as belonging to sacred space requires a special reverence and behavior of those who recognize it, which is usually expressed in the form of ritual or sanctity. Sacred space can be created by human activity, or it can consist of a natural setting that acquires mystical, religious, or nationalistic importance.

There are thousands, and probably millions, of examples of sacred spaces that have been constructed by human activity. These range in size and significance from a single tomb or gravesite to entire cities, such as the city of old Jerusalem, almost all of which may be considered sacred either by Jews, Christians, or Muslims (or in some cases, by all three faiths). Conflict can arise when more than one group claims a space as sacred. The Temple Mount of Jerusalem is a prime example, which both Jews and Muslims claim to be a vital part of their exclusive religious tradition, but other conflicts abound. In 1992 in the Indian city of Ayodhya a mosque was destroyed by a mob of Hindu believers because they believed that the building occupied land on which the Hindu god Rama was born, and thus considered the Muslim structure to be intrusive and offensive. Before the mosque was built in the 1500s, a Hindu temple had stood on the site. In some cases rather than being destroyed, the sacred space of one faith may be adopted and converted by another. A good example is the Haghia Sophia in Istanbul, which functioned as a Christian church for over 1,000 years, and since 1453 has served as a mosque. 

Locations may be considered sacred that are tied to historical events that are especially important to the identity of an ethnic group or country. Serbians, for example, have a special reverence for the region of Kosovo, because they suffered   a dramatic loss there in 1389 at the hands of the Turks. For Serbians, the plain of Kosovo represents a tragic, costly, but heroic sacrifice, and similar places may be found across the world. In the United States, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Alamo in Texas, and Pearl Harbor in Hawaii would all qualify in a similar way as sacred space for many Americans. Natural features may also function as sacred space.

Transhumance

A seasonal migration among nomadic herders between regions of different elevations. Transhumance is a type of pastoralism, but is specific to topography and should not be confused with more general nomadic herding or migration with animals. In the process of transhumance, the migration of humans and animals takes place as movement between pastures located at varying altitudes. Typically, during the warmer summer months, when temperatures are warmer and vegetation is available, herds are moved to higher locales. Herders, often with their entire extended families, move with their animals and take up residence at these places, living in either temporary shelters that may be relocated from pasture to pasture, or in more permanent buildings that are used at the same location from year to year. 

In late summer or early fall, again depending on the elevation of the pasture being utilized, the herd is moved downslope to a lower elevation, where temperatures at night are still tolerable to both human and beast, and sufficient plant material is available to maintain the herd. This process may continue over several weeks or even months, as pastureland at progressively lower altitudes is used in a step-by-step fashion, until the lowest land is reached during the coldest period of the year. The animals are kept at this location until warming temperatures in the spring allow for the use of higher grazing land, at which time the cycle begins anew. The most common animals involved in the process of transhumance are sheep and cattle, but other grazing animals may also be moved between elevations. 

Many people across the globe practice transhumance, and pastoralists continue to employ this process even in technologically advanced economies—it is not strictly confined to developing regions of the world. In France and Spain sheep and goats are moved seasonally, and transhumance involving dairy cattle remains quite common in some European countries, especially Switzerland, Austria, and the Scandinavian countries. The historical record indicates that the practice of transhumance was common by the early Middle Ages and may have originated in alpine Europe as early as the Bronze Age. Some famous elements of the cultural geography of this region are connected to the use of mountain pastures, such as the use of the alphorn and yodeling, both of which almost certainly originated as means of communication between shepherds separated by wide distances. 

Only later did these forms of long-distance communication acquire artistic musical expression, with numerous melodies and songs emerging as part of the folk culture of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and other alpine areas of Central Europe. Modern technology has altered some of the characteristics of transhumance in developed regions. For example, in some economically developed countries, those keeping flocks at high elevations during the summer are supplied via helicopter deliveries, whereas for centuries the traditional system relied on a supply system of mounted riders, who would periodically bring provisions to the herdsmen in the mountain pastures. Despite modern adaptations, the basic characteristics of transhumance remain a way of life for thousands of people across the globe.

Transculturation

A concept that holds that the cultural identity of subjugated peoples during the era of imperialism was transformed, with the indigenous culture absorbing and modifying characteristics of the imposed European identity. In other words, colonized peoples or minorities construct cultural histories for themselves that at least partially incorporate the perspectives and logic of the dominant culture, resulting in a self-representation that is partially rooted in cultural constructs imposed from above. The term was first used in the 1940s and 1950s by Latin American intellectuals like the Cuban ethnographer Fernando Ortiz and the Uruguayan writer Angel Rama, who focused on the role indigenous culture played in shaping the character of national identity. 

A common manifestation of transculturation is religious syncretism, with the resultant faith sometimes gaining recognition as a new religious movement, as in the case of voodoo, Santeria, or the so-called “cargo cults” of the South Pacific. Transculturation is related to the process of modernization, but where the latter term implies an abandonment of cultural values and practices in favor of uniform, contemporary standards, transculturation suggests an adaptation based on the interaction and interpretation of social and historical evaluations from all the included cultural influences. The process of crafting a national identity in a multinational state that may eventually lead to the evolution of a nation-state, may be seen as a variation of transculturation. Such identity to be successfully constructed involves the adaptation and reconstruction at some level of values and mores of all member groups, who must by default constitute and recognize its legitimacy.

Some post-modern scholars of literature, such as Mary L. Pratt, have argued that transculturation is in reality a form of resistance to the ethnocentrism of the colonizing power, and that the process is most pronounced in so-called “contact zones.” Such zones are fundamentally a geographic construct, because they represent the space in which the process of transculturation transpires, and in which elements of a cultural hybridization are incubated and ultimately expressed. In purely geographical terms, such spaces represent the reduction of distance in a core and periphery relationship linked to cultural diffusion. In a post-colonial context, globalization may be viewed as an expression of transculturation. This situation is more complex than the colonial example, in that globalization does not transpire via exclusive binary relationships, nor is there a single “hegemonic” culture, to borrow Pratt’s term, that dominates, although some commentators would contend thatWestern culture itself serves as the hegemonic element in globalization.

Tragedy of the Commons

This phrase is the title of an article by the biologist and social commentator Garrett Hardin, first published in 1968. The article and the concepts regarding the conservation of resources it presents are still widely debated by scholars in the social sciences. The problem that Hardin describes, the proper management of resources held in common, represents a dilemma that has been addressed by philosophers and economists since ancient times. Hardin uses the metaphor of a “commons,” a communal pasture, to illustrate how individual self-interest may be in conflict with community interests when utilizing a common resource.

In Hardin’s example, a pasture is held in common by a group of farmers, where each farmer is allowed to graze as many cows as he/she wishes. Because there is no cost to any farmer to graze an animal, each will attempt to place the maximum number of animals on the land to gain the greatest amount of “profit” in the form of additional livestock. As each user adds additional cows, the quality of the pasture steadily declines due to overgrazing, but because none of the farmers actually owns the land, and there is no greater authority that can limit the pasture’s exploitation, the land is degraded to the point that it can no longer support livestock. This occurs because the users of the resource (the pasture) have no motivation to conserve it, only to maximize their individual gain from it, and the damage from placing additional cows on the land is shared with the other users. According to Hardin, such abuse of a common property is in the rational economic interests of each individual farmer, because the advantage each receives, even after the pasture has been badly overgrazed, is still greater than any costs associated with using the “commons.” The “tragedy” in Hardin’s title refers to his view that such behavior is inevitable when humans attempt to utilize a “common” resource for which there are no associated costs.

Toponymy

The sub-branch of cultural geography that studies the location, use, and origin of  place names. A toponym is the name used to identify a specific location on the landscape. An examination of place names in a region can provide a great deal of information about the cultural landscape, both past and present, and may provide clues regarding sequent occupance. The etymology of a place name may reveal much about those who imposed it. For example, migrants sometimes name their place of settlement after some characteristic of the “home” they left, maintaining a sense of a familiar place, although the actual physical setting may be far different than the original. Hermann, Missouri, for example, was founded by German immigrants in the 1800s, and is named for a German hero who defeated the Roman Empire. 

Lawrence, Kansas, was founded in the 1850s by abolitionists from Massachusetts, who named the new settlement after a famous anti-slavery Massachusetts politician, Amos Adams Lawrence, reinforcing the status of Kansas as a free state. The influence of Spanish culture and settlement in southern California is evident in place names such as San Louis Obispo, San Diego, and Santa Barbara, along with dozens more. Across the United States, the ubiquitous presence of Native American place names for towns, counties, major cities, and states themselves indicates the lasting cultural impact of the region’s original inhabitants. The specific language used in such naming indicates the home territory of individual groups—Tallahassee, Florida is derived from the language of the Muskogee people who lived in the region, while the name of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, comes from the Algonquin languages, spoken by several Native American groups who occupied the northern United States. 

The origin of many place names is not as obvious as the examples mentioned above. Toponyms typically have two components, a specific portion and a generic element. In the case of Cartersville, Georgia, “Carter” is the specific part of the name, while “ville” is the generic segment. The use of certain generic components is sometimes unique to specific languages and/or ethnic groups, and linguistic geographers can often trace the origins of migrants through an examination of these patterns. For example, the generic suffixes of boro, shire, and ford used for town names (Foxboro, Wiltshire, Milford) are typical of English and Scottish settlements in New England. These generic components of place names have been transplanted to other areas of the United States, usually by migrants from the northeast. A suffix of dorf or burg in a city place name often indicates settlement by German immigrants. Studies of toponyms can uncover cultural relict boundaries in the landscape, because the toponyms used by a people often persist on the landscape long after the group has disappeared or moved on, or new boundaries have been formed. Of course, a toponym may provide descriptive information about the physical characteristics of a place as well. The qualities of Death Valley, California, and Pleasant Valley, Iowa, are reflected in their respective toponyms, at least according to those who named them.

Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES IS the largest city in ARGENTINA, and as part of a federal district, it serves as the country’s capital. The city’s name means “good airs” and derives from the name of a patron saint of navigators known as Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire. Measuring 77 square mi (199 square km), the city is located in eastern Argentina, near the South ATLANTIC OCEAN, just south of Argentina’s border with URUGUAY. 

In 1536, the Spanish explorer Pedro de Mendoza led an expedition that founded the city of Buenos Aires on the banks of the Río de la Plata. This initial settlement failed after five years because of a lack of supplies and conflicts with the native inhabitants. The Spanish settlers fled Buenos Aires for the fortified city of Asunción. In 1580, Juan de Garay led a new expedition from Asunción that reestablished Buenos Aires. The new settlers began to exploit the pastoral animals that had multiplied since being left by the earlier settlers. For more than 200 years, Buenos Aires grew slowly. While the city possessed a good port, it was largely excluded from the highly regulated Spanish colonial system of trade. Spain permitted only trade through certain ports in the New World and in SPAIN.

As a part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Buenos Aires was governed from Lima and its port of Callao. Thus, to obtain European goods, porteños, as residents of Buenos Aires are known, had to wait for them to be shipped through Callao and then by oxcart to Buenos Aires, which could take six months. To export their goods, residents of Buenos Aires also had to ship them through Callao and then to spain.

Before the second half of the 18th century, Buenos Aires had little contact with the silver mining regions of the viceroyalty. Instead it developed an economy based on ranching and contraband trade. This contraband trade, especially with Brazil and the Caribbean islands, allowed porteños to thrive. In 1618, the city became the seat of an imperial governorship. By the 18th century, they were exporting cereals, hides, and dried beef. By the mid-1700s, the city’s population had reached 20,000. In 1776, as part of a series of reforms implemented by the Spanish government, Buenos Aires became the capital of the new Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. The city now had administrative authority over much of southern South America. With its new status, legal trade greatly expanded and Buenos Aires prospered from direct trade with Spain and with the mining regions of South America. Economic prosperity also led to increased population, which reached 42,500 in 1810.

In 1806 and 1807, British forces attacked the city. Local militias succeeded in repelling the attackers, contributing to the porteños’ sense of pride and nationalism. In 1808, city residents opposed Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, and in 1810, the town council cut its formal ties with Spain, replacing the Spanish viceroy with a colonial-dominated junta. For the next decade, the city was a center of revolutionary activity. However, the interior provinces did not immediately follow the lead of Buenos Aires. Finally, in 1816, the provinces also declared their independence and Buenos Aires became the capital of the newly independent United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata. Much of the first half of the century was marked by political and military conflict between unitarios and federales. The unitarios were those who favored a strong central government at Buenos Aires, while the federales preferred provincial autonomy. Buenos Aires generally dominated the struggle. In 1880, the city separated from the province of Buenos Aires and became Argentina’s national capital as part of a federal district.

In the second half of the 19th century, Buenos Aires prospered and grew. By 1860, the city had more than 100,000 residents, and by the early 20th century, the population had surpassed one million. Several factors contributed to the transformation of the city, all of which were reflections of the economic prosperity of the surrounding countryside. One change was the arrival of massive numbers of immigrants from Europe and elsewhere. About 80 percent of the immigrants came from Spain and ITALY. By 1914, half of the city’s population was foreign born. Often unable to buy land in the countryside, many immigrants settled in Buenos Aires, as there was a need for labor in the city’s port, industries, and service sectors. Many older sections of the city came to be dominated by foreigners.

A second change was the flow of wealth into the city. This wealth can be seen in the construction of numerous great mansions in the city. Indeed, Buenos Aires came to be a symbol of great wealth and the phrase “to be rich as an Argentine” could be heard on the streets of Paris. A third change was the spatial change that took place. Buenos Aires sought to copy the model of PARIS, especially as it began to prepare for its centennial celebration in 1910. Thus, the city constructed a subway system and broad avenues like those in the French capital. Other improvements included sanitation, gas, electricity, and water.

By 1914, Buenos Aires had reached a population of over 1.5 million, making it one of the 10 largest cities in the world. About one-fourth of Argentina’s entire population lived in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, which was seven times larger than the second biggest city in the country. Several key developments marked the 20th century. First was a change in the source of newcomers to the city. After about 1930, European immigration virtually ended. Migrants from the interior provinces of Argentina filled the city’s labor demands. Others came from the neighboring countries of Uruguay, PARAGUAY, and BOLIVIA. Most of the new arrivals were mestizos. This racial difference led to frequent social conflict. Most of the migrants were poorly educated and had few job skills, making it difficult for the urban economy to employ them. Many of these migrants became supporters of Juan Peron, often viewed as the champion of the poor.

A second, related, change was growing urban poverty. Despite the support of politicians such as Juan

Perón, the new migrants remained poor. Most found the inner city too crowded. Instead, they chose to live in the growing shantytowns that surrounded Buenos Aires, known as villas miserias. A third key development in the 20th century was a change in urban transportation. Like many other modern

cities, Buenos Aires came to be dominated by automobiles and buses, replacing the electric streetcar

system. However, Buenos Aires lacks a major freeway system. A network was planned after World War II, but it was never built. The building of the Metropolitan Railroad in 1979 helped somewhat. However, by the end of the 20h century, traffic problems and urban gridlock were commonplace in the Argentine capital.

A final development was industrialization. In 1914, the city had 17,000 industrial establishments that employed some 300,000 people. By the 1960s, there were more than 70,000 establishments providing jobs to more than 700,000 porteños. Some 40 percent of all Argentine industry was located in the city. Such industrialization reinforced the flow of migrants to the city. By the end of the 20th century, the metropolitan area had more than 11 million inhabitants, making it one of the largest cities in the world.

Brunei

THE SULTANATE of Brunei is one of the world’s smallest countries, but also one of the world’s richest. A major landpower in the 15th century, the territory ruled directly by the sultan is now smaller than LUXEMBOURG, but its economic impact in the region is far greater due to the blessings of abundant petroleum and natural gas reserves. Its full name, Brunei Darussalam, is a compound of a Sanskrit name (possibly meaning “sea people” or the name of a local tree that also gave its name to the entire island of Borneo), plus the Arabic for “abode of peace,” added to the name by Muslim sultans in the 15th century.

Brunei is one of the four political components that make up the island of Borneo, along with Kalimantan (part of INDONESIA), and Sabah and Sarawak, two states of the federation of MALAYSIA. Sarawak surrounds Brunei and in fact divides it into two pieces. Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei were at one time all component parts of the British East Indies colonies, but Brunei declined to join the Malay federation in 1961 and remained a British protectorate until 1984, preferring to rely on its own natural resources. These resources, in combination with a relatively small population, make Brunei’s per capita income one of the highest in the developing world. The sultanate has been ruled by the same family for six centuries, and the sultan is considered one of the richest individuals in the world: It is said he earns $100 per minute from oil. Brunei’s oil production is estimated at 163,000 barrels a day; its output of liquefied natural gas is the fourth largest in the world.

The country consists of a flat coastal plain along the South China Sea in the western part of the country, with some hills further inland. Mountains rise in the eastern segment of Brunei, which is also the most undeveloped and inaccessible part of the sultanate. An equatorial climate gives the area abundant rainfall, and most of the country remains heavily forested, with mangrove swamps along the coast. Most of the people live in the capital of Bandar Seri Begawan, along with its chief port of Maura, 25 mi (41 km) to the northeast. The other major town is Seria, the center of the oil and gas industry, in the western part of the country. Bandar includes great contrasts, between the sultan’s palace and the glittering Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque and the world’s largest stilt village, Kampung Ayer. This village, in existence for 400 years and providing housing for about 30,000 people, was declared a national monument in 1987 and is the most popular tourist attraction in the country.

His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Muiz’zaddien Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Dipertuan of Brunei Darussalam, leads a relatively extravagant life, but is generally ignored by the religiously conservative Islamic population. The sultan is the sovereign in more than just name: Elections have been suspended since 1962, and there is little sense of change in the near future. At its height in the 15th century, the sultanate controlled the entire north and west coast of Borneo, plus the Sulu archipelago (now in the Philippines). After its first encounter with European colonial powers—it was briefly occupied in 1580 by Spain—Brunei entered a long period of decline, and by the 18th century was a principal center for piracy and slave trade. Labuan, an island commanding the entrance to Brunei Bay, was ceded to Great Britain in 1846 chiefly to protect against this, and by 1888 the entire state was a British protectorate. Economically, Brunei was known only for its exports of gambier, a dye produced from mangrove trees used in dying of leather.

Then, in the early 20th century, large oil reserves were discovered, first onshore in the region of Seria and Kuala Belait, but mostly offshore by the 1990s. The British Malayan Petroleum Company was the greatest producer of crude oil of any British colony in the post-World War II era, but it is Royal Dutch Shell that has become the major company involved in Brunei’s oil industry. Revenues derived from this company alone have been significant in what is sometimes called the “Shellfare State,” in which all local residents enjoy free education, health care, and no taxation.

Local residents (mostly of Malayan extraction) are less willing to work in industry, so there is a sizable immigrant community of Filipinos and Thais. Oil reserves are expected to last 40 years, but the sultan’s government is already implementing a National Development Plan to reduce Brunei’s dependence on oil-based industries; $7.2 billion has reputedly been allocated for this plan, investing in production of rice, fruit, fisheries, and livestock—in 1981 the government purchased a cattle ranch in northern Australia that is larger than the entire country—with an equal push to boost tourism.

British Indian Ocean Territory

THE BRITISH Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an archipelago in the INDIAN OCEAN, south of INDIA, about one-half of the way from Africa to INDONESIA. On No- British Indian Ocean Territory 121 vember 8, 1965, the British government created the (BIOT). The BIOT consisted of the Chagos Archipelago, excised from the British Crown Colony of Mauritius; and the Aldabra and Farquhar islands and Île Desroches, excised from the British Crown Colony of the Seychelles. Both MAURITIUS and the SEYCHELLES later claimed that these actions were in contravention to the United Nations declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries. Approximately 1,200 residents of the islands, living as agricultural workers, were relocated by the British government to Mauritius and the Seychelles. Upon independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius made immediate claim to the Chagos Archipelago and requested the resettlement of all indigenous populations. Subsequently, Britain transferred a number of the BIOT islands to the Seychelles when it attained independence in 1976. BIOT now consists of the six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago.

The largest island of the Chagos Archipelago is Diego Garcia, reportedly named by Portuguese explorers in the 1500s. Portugal’s claim lapsed and in the early 1700s the French claimed the islands. They administered them from Mauritius and eventually established copra plantations with slave labor. Britain obtained these islands along with several French claims in 1814. Britain leased the island of Diego Garcia to the UNITED STATES in 1966. The lease is for a 50-year period until 2016, with a 20-year extension available if both parties agree to continuation.

In 1971, the United States began to transform Diego Garcia into a naval support facility that soon included deepwater docks and an expanded runway. In the 1980s, the United States increased its presence on Diego Garcia by building new airfield facilities, and an air force satellite detection and tracking station, initiating long-range bomber operations, improving navigational aids, and increasing the port capabilities. The United States maintains a large amount of ground combat equipment on maritime prepositioning ships (MPSs) stationed in Diego Garcia. The United States has built an extensive military support complex that is operated jointly with the British. The facility and its capabilities are operationally invaluable to the U.S. military doctrine of global force projection and its current military operations in the MIDDLE EAST, South Asia, and throughout the INDIAN OCEAN.

Diego Garcia is a coral atoll with a near continuous land rim of approximately 40 mi (60 km). The Chagos Archipelago is made up of some 50 sand cays scattered along a large shoal area known as the Great Chagos Bank. The whole feature covers some 22,000 square mi (56,995 square km) of the Indian Ocean. A wet tropical climate characterizes the area. Diego Garcia is a near pristine coral atoll ECOSYSTEM.

British Empire

IN THE 15th and 16th centuries, English trading ships were already sailing to JAPAN via Africa, INDIA, and CHINA, but there was no English sovereignty in these places. The term empire then designated the association between England, Scotland, IRELAND, and Wales.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, a network of territories stretching from America to Southeast Asia came under British control. The British Empire had been founded. In spite of the loss of the American colonies in 1783, the 19th century saw the rise of empire as British rule was extended to other regions. Over the next century, weakened by two world wars and changing global economics, Britain forfeited most of its possessions and granted independence to lands that had formed the cornerstone of British prosperity and identity for more than three hundred years.

British East India

IT CAN BE ARGUED that Portuguese, Dutch, and French merchants exploited India; Britain remade the subcontinent. British East India grew from a series of coastal trading posts to encompass the part of the Indian subcontinent taken by the current states of INDIA, BANGLADESH, and PAKISTAN. The subcontinent’s southern peninsula extends to the HIMALAYAS mountains that separate the subcontinent culturally and geographically from the colder CHINA and MONGOLIA and Asia proper.

Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan cover 1.5 million square mi (3,885,820 square km ) of land. The climate ranges from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north. Geographical features include the Deccan Plateau, the Baluchistan Plateau, the INDUS and GANGES Plains, as well as mountains and deserts. The Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies received its charter from Queen Elizabeth on December 31, 1600. The first East India Company ship reached Surat in 1608, where the company established a factory in 1615. Along India’s east and west coasts, English communities were settled in Madras (1639), Bombay (1668) and Calcutta (1698.) The company used alliances and treaties with hundreds of local princes to control more of India while also exploiting the East Indies. Mostly, it left the people to themselves, except when it exploited or mismanaged laborers.

In 1717, the company won exemption from customs duties in Bengal. In 1748, the British defeated the French, removing their last European rival. At the Battle of Plassey (1757), Robert Clive bested the nawab of Bengal and became ruler of India instead of its trading partner. The company mismanaged Bengal, alienating the people. Military expenses became almost overwhelming, so the British government implemented Lord North’s India Bill, the Regulating Act of 1773, which established a British governor-general, the first of whom was Warren Hastings. The company continued to collect revenues, negotiate agreements, and expand its territory. The British took territory they considered poorly ruled. Sometimes a remaining native ruler had a British adviser. Under the practice of lapse, British India acquired all states with no successor on the death of their rulers. British India absorbed Sambalpur (1849), Baghat (1850), Jhansi (1853), Nagpur (1854), and Awadh (1856). Annexation, taxation, and desperation provoked the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857–58.

The wars ended company rule as the British occupied the 750,000 square mi (1,942,481 square km) inherited from the East India Company. By 1900, 100,000 British ruled 250 million Indians. Under the Raj (1858–1954), Queen Victoria promised to work for the welfare of the native people. The doctrine of lapse ended. The British recognized the princely states, roughly 562 of them with 40 percent of the territory and 20 to 25 percent of the population. In practice, outside British India, the states could not escape British political, cultural, and economic influence.

Territoriality

The claiming and controlling of space by animal species, including humans. The space is defined by boundaries, and such delimitations may be clearly indicated, or may be indistinct and alter with changing circumstances. The dimension of territorial space ranges from personal space claimed bymost individuals to sovereign political space represented by the nation-state or even supranational organizations. The dominance of territoriality in the organization of human political space is clear from the fact that almost all of the Earth’s land surface, and at least a portion of the oceans and seas, are separated by legal borders into territorial states, all of which claim complete sovereign authority over the space contained within those limits. 

People encounter the concept of territoriality on a daily basis in the form of personal space. Everyone possesses what political geographer Martin Glassner labels an “envelope” of territory immediately around his or her person, which varies in size according to culture. Latin Americans, for example, tend to have smaller personal spaces and stand much closer to one another when communicating than North Americans typically do, and females in most societies generally establish smaller personal spaces than males, especially when interacting with other females. This personal territory may be violated only by friends, relatives, and lovers, and strangers who intrude into an individual’s personal domain will be judged to be aggressive and possibly threatening, often resulting in either flight or a hostile response on the part of the “owner” of the space. The concept of “private property” extends territorial space further, and this formof territorial claim is supported by law in most societies. Unlike personal space, the boundaries of our claims to private ownership of space are supported by clearly demarked divisions shown on property deeds, and often reinforced by structures that signal the limits of the space and inhibit violation of the territory, such as fences or walls. Unauthorized and deliberate trespassing into this territory is considered a criminal act in many countries, another indication of

the serious nature of territorial control in human culture.

Temperature

All matter contains heat (whether or not it is hot to the touch). How much heat is present relates to a combination of the mass of an object, its temperature, and how that mass is arranged. “Heat” and “temperature” are commonly used as synonyms. Instead, they are related but separate concepts. Heat is the aggregate internal energy of an object and is transferred by conduction, convection, and radiation; these mechanisms are examined in the heating and cooling article. The rate at which heat is transferred is expressed in watts (joules per second) and is maximized as temperature differences between objects become large. The net transfer of heat is always from the hotter to the colder object.

All molecules in the Earth system vibrate and as they gain heat they vibrate more rapidly. This energy of motion is kinetic energy and is responsible for radiation of electromagnetic energy. Temperature is an expression of the average kinetic energy of a substance and this measurement provides a ready determination of how much and which wavelengths of energy are being emitted. There are three common ways by which temperature is measured. The first dates back to Renaissance Europe and is the liquid-in-glass thermometer. In this device, a liquid is placed in a sealed glass tube with a bulbous reservoir on the bottom. The liquid volume visibly expands on heating and contracts on cooling. The first thermometers contained water, but now have liquids with freezing temperatures below freezing. Mercury was used for many years but its toxicity and cost has caused it to be largely replaced by red-dyed alcohol. The other two devices became quite common in the late 20th century because of their abilities to measure temperature without a human being present. The second device is a thermistor, which is based on precise calibration of electrical resistance in a metal probe. Small—

typically a centimeter or less long—thermistors are frequently made of parallel platinum alloy wire heads together with semiconductor paste. A small current is passed from a source to the thermistor and the resistance measured. The amount of resistance decreases considerably over small increases in atmospheric temperatures so it is a simple matter to calibrate the thermistor to known temperatures. The third type of device is a radiometer, which is a remote sensing device that detects invisible thermal infrared energy. By noting the most plentiful emitted wavelengths from a target, its surface temperature can be determined. Satellite radiometers are able to “take the temperature” of clouds, Earth’s water and land surfaces, and vertical atmospheric temperature profiles.

There are three scales of temperature in common use. They are Celsius, Kelvin, and Fahrenheit. The Celsius scale has 100 degrees between the freezing and boiling of pure water at sea level pressure. This is the scale in the most common use in the world and is the International System of Units (metric system) official scale. A Kelvin is the same “size” as a degree Celsius but the Kelvin scale has different zero point. Kelvins are based on absolute temperature. Every molecule vibrates until it is as cold as absolute zero (−273°C), which is defined as 0 Kelvins. Average room temperature is 293K (22°C). Kelvins are used heavily in the sciences, especially physics, chemistry, and the atmospheric sciences. The Fahrenheit degree is about 5/9 the “size” of a Celsius degree and there are 212 degrees between freezing and boiling with 0°F being considerably colder than 0°C. Very few countries besides the United States use Fahrenheit as their primary temperature scale.

Urbanization

The process whereby an increasingly larger percentage of a given population lives in spatial clusters considered to be “towns” and “cities.” The criteria that qualify a settlement as “urban” frequently vary from country to country, meaning that what is considered an “urban place” in one location may not be defined as such in another nation-state. In the United States, the U.S. Bureau of the Census considers any place having a concentrated population greater than 50,000 inhabitants to be an “urban area,” and any population center of at least 2,500 residents outside of an urban area and having a community identity and name to be “urban.” Urbanization is typically associated with a number of related processes: industrialization, economic development, declining average family size, rising levels of literacy and education, and others. In some cases a single urban place will come to dominate a country’s urban geography in terms of both population size and economic function— this city serves as the primate city. In 2008 the United Nations estimated that for the first time in history, more than half of humanity lived in urban areas, and that the fastest rates of urbanization are occurring in the developing world. Urban places are not located on the landscape randomly. Many factors may affect the rate of growth of an urban area, including transportation linkages, natural resources located nearby, economic opportunities, and even the local physical geography can play a role in urbanization. Geographers have developed a number of approaches to explain the patterns of urbanization and to determine the characteristics that may influence urban growth and development. Central Place Theory holds that urban places are spatially arranged in a hierarchical framework, based on the sophistication of economic functions offered by each city or town.

Urbanization on a significant scale first took place in ancient Sumeria, along the course of the Tigris-Euphrates river system. The rich soils of these river valleys allowed for the production of an agricultural surplus, which in turn led to a differentiation of labor, development of social classes, and the emergence of more sophisticated economic and political systems than had previously been the case. The morphology of many early cities was haphazard and chaotic, but some urban areas in the ancient world were surprisingly organized and well planned. The city of Mohenjo Daro, established around 2500 BCE in the Indus River Valley, was clearly a planned settlement with streets and buildings constructed following a grid system, covered sewers, and a municipal garbage collection system! But in general, cities for much of history were places of squalor, congestion, and disease until the late 19th century. Pestilence typically spread quickly in urban areas, due to high population densities and poor sanitation. Industrialization and the agricultural revolution that accompanied it initiated a surge in urbanization that continues in many parts of the world, as thousands of rural workers migrated to the cities seeking employment. By the mid-20th century, zoning legislation, urban decentralization, the development of green belts, and other factors had lowered population densities and improved the quality of life in many urban areas in developed countries, while large cities in the developing world continued to struggle with the problems of pollution, overburdened transportation networks, and shortages of adequate housing and basic services.

Urban Decentralization

The diffusion of urban structures and functions outward from the urban core, or Central Business District (CBD). This process has occurred to some degree in metropolitan areas in the economically advanced countries because the advent of mass-transit systems in the 19th century, when trams, street cars, railways, and early subways allowed workers to live much greater distances from their places of work than had previously been the case. The development of such lines of transport allowed those with the economic wherewithal to relocate their places of residence further from the compact city center, along the various radiuses of the transportation network, resulting in a dispersion of city dwellers over a greater space. 

Residential clusters on the outskirts of the city were labeled “sub urban areas,” or simply suburbs. As the customer base decentralized in urban areas, businesses also began to relocate to the suburbs, especially those that offered goods and services that were low cost and purchased frequently, such as grocery stores, barbers, clothing, etc. Land developers frequently worked in coordination with transit companies, planning residential communities that would have ready access to the transportation system, because many residents continued to work in the CBD and therefore commuted into and out of the city on a daily schedule. In North America, urban decentralization was spurred after the 1880s by rising standards of living, advances in transportation technology, and rapid population increases. 

The period of greatest urban decentralization in the economically developed world occurred from the late 1920s to the 1970s. The affordability and convenience of the automobile, especially in the United States, resulted in an intensification of decentralization in metropolitan areas. After World War II, this movement became even more pronounced due to several factors, including a high rate of family formation, the availability of relatively inexpensive loans for home mortgages, and most importantly, the construction of the federal interstate highway system. Interstate highways were originally conceived as conduits for troops and supplies to major cities in the event of war, so the roadways were typically constructed directly through the heart of the city, adjacent to the CBD. 

By the 1970s, interstate bypasses, forming a loop around the city center, were common in many locations. This transportation geography led to the emergence of edge cities, so-called asylum suburbs, and related features of a decentralized urban landscape. Economic functions were also decentralized, and businesses that relocated toward the suburbs tended to cluster together in a single, concentrated space, the shopping mall, effectively displacing some of the benefits offered by the CBD. In the densely populated eastern seaboard of the United States, urban decentralization has resulted in an almost continuous band of urban development, the megalopolis. Some of the negative effects of urban decentralization include the economic decline of the inner city in many instances in the 1950s and 1960s; the appearance of so-called urban sprawl, characterized by vast tracts of land containing nearly identical homes; and greater social isolation of families and communities. Slowed somewhat by gentrification and other counter trends, urban decentralization continues to occur in many urban areas.

Brazil

BRAZIL IS THE LARGEST and most populous country in South America. The country occupies almost half of the continent. Slightly smaller than the UNITED STATES, it is the fifth-largest country in the world. Brazil has become the leading economic power in South America, due to its vast natural resources, a large labor force, and impressive developments in industry and agriculture. At the same time, income distribution in the country is highly unequal.

The ATLANTIC OCEAN borders Brazil to the east. The country shares a border with every country in South America except for CHILE and ECUADOR. A majority of Brazil is tropical, as it is located between 5 degrees north and 33 degrees south latitude. A small percentage of the country is below the TROPIC OF CAPRICORN.

By the end of the 20th century, the population of Brazil had reached about 180 million. The population has grown extremely fast since 1950, with annual growth rates greater than 2.2 percent. Because of the recent and rapid population growth, Brazil possesses a young population, with two-thirds of the people under age 25. The population is unevenly distributed, as it concentrates along the coast. Coastal areas have a population density of about 12 inhabitants per square mile, while in the interior that figure is a mere 2 people per square mile. Brazil is also a highly urbanized country, with two-thirds of the population living in cities.

Population growth has been accompanied by significant rural-to-urban migration. The population of Brazil is a mixture of Native American, European, African, and Asian peoples. Brazil had no large Native American civilizations as in MEXICO or PERU. At the time of the arrival of Europeans in 1500, there were perhaps 1 million indigenous people in Brazil. These native inhabitants can be divided into two main categories: the Tupí-Guaraní and the Tapuya. In 1500, the Portuguese became the first Europeans to encounter Brazil, which became a Portuguese colony until 1822. In the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous European immigrants came to Brazil from countries such as PORTUGAL and ITALY. Brazil also possesses a large African population as a result of the slave trade. Brazil received more African slaves than any other New World colony. In 1888, Brazil became the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery.

The Guyana Highlands in northern Brazil extend into the neighboring countries of VENEZUELA, GUYANA, SURINAME, and FRENCH GUIANA. The region is rugged and transportation is difficult. Many parts are still very inaccessible, and the Guyana Highlands are one of the world’s last natural and cultural preserves. The highest peak in the region is Mount Roraima, which reaches 9,432 ft (2,875 m). While the area is rich in mineral resources, few have been exploited until recently. Some

parts of the northern highlands are now heavily mined for gold, diamonds, iron-ore, and bauxite. 

There are also many rapids and waterfalls in the Guyana Highlands, most of which drain into the AMAZON system. The Amazon is the dominant river system in Brazil. The river is so large that it is often referred to as the “river-sea” in Portuguese. The Amazon River has a greater volume of water than any river, containing 14 times the volume of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. The river’s width varies from 1.9 to 8.8 mi (3 to 14 km), making it impossible to see from shore to shore at many points. The Amazon begins high in the ANDES mountains in Peru and flows eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean for some 4,000 mi (6,437 km). More than 1,000 tributaries join the river along the way. The Amazon and its tributaries provide more than 25,000 mi (40,233 km) of navigable routes. At 200 mi (322 km) across and 200 ft (61 m) deep, the mouth of the Amazon is so wide that it holds the Ilha de Marajó, an island the size of SWITZERLAND. Ocean-going ships can reach the city of Manaus, located 1,000 mi (1,609 km) inland.

Bouvet Island

BOUVET ISLAND, a territory of NORWAY, is known as one of the peri-Antarctic islands, small uninhabited rocks and volcanic islands that circle the frozen continent. It was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, a lieutenant in the French East Indies Company, on New Year’s Day, 1739, but not found again until nearly a century later. Located at one of the most remote spots on the globe, it has rarely been visited and little is known about its landscape. It has been administered by Norway since 1928, which designated it a nature reserve in 1971. Norway also maintains an automated meteorological station.

The island is located about 1,800 mi (2,900 km) north of ANTARCTICA. The island is volcanic and forms the southern terminus of the submarine Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Three volcanic peaks rim an ice-filled plateau (the Wilhelm II Plateau), which is the collapsed center of an older volcano. Two large glaciers descend from this plateau, sharply on the west, and more gradually on the east. Steep cliffs, up to 1,650 ft (500 m) high, encircle the island and add to its inaccessibility. Most of the island is covered with ice several hundred meters thick. Bouvet de Lozier had originally hoped to find a convenient provisioning spot for French trading vessels but was discouraged by the island’s climate.

It was claimed by Britain in 1825 and renamed Liverpool Island. Whalers and seal hunters visited its waters, but this was never a huge industry since the island lies within the Antarctic convergence zone (unlike other islands of the South Atlantic or South Indian oceans) and is therefore trapped by sea ice for much of the year. Since the 1970s, there has been little human activity, with the exception of a mysterious nuclear bomb test to the northeast in 1979, which remains unclaimed (suspicions fell on South Africa).

Botswana

BOTSWANA IS a LANDLOCKED country in southern Africa, approximately 310 mi (500 km) from the nearest coastline to the southwest. Although two-thirds of Botswana is within the tropics, the landscape is dominated by the KALAHARI DESERT (after the Setswana name Kgalagadi), a sand-filled BASIN averaging 3,607 ft (1,100 m) above sea level. Botswana is bordered by ZAMBIA and ZIMBABWE to the northeast, NAMIBIA to the north and west, and SOUTH AFRICA to the south and southeast. At Kazungula, four countries—Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia—meet at a single point midstream in the Zambezi River in the extreme northeast. If it were not for an interesting strip of land in the north, the Caprivi Strip, Botswana might also have a border with ANGOLA. 

The Caprivi is a narrow strip of land in the far northeast of Namibia that is about 250 mi (400 km) long and forms the Namibian part of the border with Botswana. Germany exchanged the area (together with Helgoland) with the UNITED KINGDOM for Zanzibar in 1890. It was named after the German chancellor of the time, Graf von Caprivi, who signed the contract with the British.

BOTSWANA RIVERS

The Chobe River runs along part of Botswana’s northern boundary; the Nossob River at the southwestern boundary; the Molopo River along the southern boundary; and the Marico, Limpopo and Shashe rivers at its eastern boundaries. Like the Okavango and Zambezi rivers, the Chobe’s course is affected by fault lines, which are extensions of East Africa’s Great Rift Valley.

Taken together, these three rivers carry more water than all other rivers in southern Africa combined. Except for the Okavango and Chobe areas in the north, the country has little permanent surface water.

The eastern hardveld (hard-surfaced grazing area), where 80 percent of the country’s population lives and where its three largest urban centers are situated, is a wide strip of land running from the north at Ramokgwebane to the south at Ramatlabama. It has a more varied relief and geology with inselbergs (outcrops of resistant rock) and koppies (rocks that have been weathered into blocks) dotting the landscape. The southeastern hardveld has a slightly higher and more reliable rainfall than the rest of the country, and the natural fertility and agricultural potential of the soils, while still low, are greater than in the Kalahari sandveld (sand-surfaced grazing area).

THE KALAHARI

The Kalahari Desert stretches west of the eastern hardveld, covering 84 percent of the country. The word desert, however, is a misnomer. Most of the Kalahari is covered with vegetation, including stunted thorn and scrub bush, trees and grasslands. The largely unchanging flat terrain is occasionally interrupted by gently descending valleys, sand dunes, isolated hills in the extreme northwest, and large numbers of pans that fill with water during the rainy season. These pans are of great importance to wildlife, which obtain valuable nutrients from the salts and the grasses of the pans.

In the northwest, the Okavango River flows in from the highlands of Angola and soaks into the sands, forming a 5,791 square mi (15,000 square km) network of water channels, lagoons, swamps and islands. The Okavango is the largest inland DELTA system in the world, just slightly smaller than ISRAEL in size. Although Botswana has no mountain ranges to speak of, the landscape is occasionally punctuated by low hills, especially along the southeastern boundary and in the far northwest.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA was one of the component states of the former federation of Yugoslavia until it declared its independence in March 1992. Its ethnic and religious makeup had become so intertwined under the forced egalitarianism of Josip Tito that divisions and tensions between the country’s three major groups—Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats—immediately turned to violence, as each nationality sought to carve out a portion of the country’s territory for themselves.

The ensuing conflict caused the deaths of somewhere between 60,000 and 200,000 people and displaced about half the population. Since the peace agreements made in Dayton, Ohio, in December 1995, the country has been partitioned into two federated units, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic). Foreign troops sent in by the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO) and by RUSSIA keep an uneasy balance, while the country’s overall administrative affairs are overseen by a EUROPEAN UNION high commissioner. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina occupies a mountainous central zone of the Balkan Peninsula, surrounded on all sides by other former members of Yugoslavia: CROATIA to the north and west, and SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO to the west and south. The country has a tiny outlet to the ADRIATIC SEA, 18 mi or 29 km, wedged between portions of the long Croatian (Dalmatian) coast.

Although some of its rivers flow westward into the Adriatic, notably the Neretva, most Bosnian rivers flow east and north from the watershed of the Dinaric Alps into the Danube basin. These include the Sava, which forms the northern border with Croatia, its tributary the Drina, which forms part of the eastern border with Serbia, and other tributaries of the Sava, the Vrbas, and the Bosna, which gives the country its name. The other half of the country’s name, Herzegovina, comes from an ancient feudal division of the region, this part being held by a duke (herzeg is a Slavic corruption of the German word for “duke,” herzog). 

Bosnia is much larger than Herzegovina, and although the population is mostly the same, the landscape is different. Herzegovina tends to be drier, rockier, with a Mediterranean climate, versus the more continental climate of the Bosnian interior. Sarajevo, the capital, is roughly in the center of the country, on the Bosna River. Other cities include Banja Luka, Tuzla, Bihac, and Mostar, the capital of Herzegovina. The only area of relative flatness are the plains along the Sava river valley in the far north.

Borneo

THE ISLAND OF BORNEO is the largest island of theMalay archipelago and the third-largest island in the world (after GREENLAND and PAPUA-NEW GUINEA), covering 287,420 square mi (736,974 square km). It is also one of the least explored places on Earth and retains much of the mystery for today’s tourists that it did for anthropologists and adventurers of the 19th century. Borneo is not a single political unit; rather, it is divided among three countries: 72 percent of the island, known as Kalimantan, is a province of INDONESIA.

The rest forms the two eastern provinces of MALAYSIA, Sabah and Sarawak, plus the small independent sultanate of BRUNEI. Unlike most of its island neighbors, Borneo is not entirely volcanic in origin, but formed of ancient igneous rock. It is seen more as an extension of the continental landmass of Southeast Asia, separated only by the Sunda Sea, which is very shallow (656 ft or 200 m) and was probably dry land in the geologically recent past. This is in contrast to the deep plunges of the waters to the east and south of the island, the Sulu and Celebes seas, and the Selat Makasar.

Borneo is crossed by two main mountain chains, which roughly divide the island into four watersheds. Three of these cover Kalimantan, while the fourth, that of the northwest, waters Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei. The main range, like a backbone, crosses the island diagonally from southwest to northeast and consists of the Kapuas and Iran ranges—which form the boundary between the Indonesian and Malaysian parts of the island—continue in the south as the Schwaner range.

These ranges have several peaks over 6,600 ft (2,000 m), but the highest mountain on the island (and in Southeast Asia), Kinabalu (13,533 ft or 4,101 m), stands on its own at the far northern point of the island. The volcanic Kinabalu is one of the leading spots in the region for tourists, drawn to its hot mineral springs and exotic wildlife, including the Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world (up to 66 in or 170 cm in diameter).

Vulcanism

Vulcanism is the term for the motion and landforming processes associated with molten rock. The term subsumes the more specific “volcanism” referring to shallow and external features and processes and “plutonic activity” when it is deep-seated. As covered in the article about Earth, the interior of our planet is ferociously hot. This interior energy reaches all the way out to the surface, builds some landscapes and destroys others. Earth’s crustal plates float on an upper mantle that is quite plastic and capable of deformation and flow. Concentrated flows far underground sometimes influence the surface on which we live. Other flows reach and spill out onto the surface. When this material is in Earth’s interior it is known as magma, and when it flows over the surface it is called lava.

When magma solidifies under the surface the spate of forms created is known as intrusive vulcanism. Large magma intrusions under the surface are known as batholiths. They have sizes greater than one hundred square kilometers and extend downward as far as 50 km below the surface. They are composed of rocks with large crystals (e.g., granite) formed by slowly cooling magma. Batholiths are often associated with the presence of major mountain ranges in that the batholithic intrusion has pushed overlying rock to great altitudes. Well-known examples reside under the Sierra Nevada of California, the Extremadura region of Spain, the Darling Range of Australia, and the Transantarctic Mountains. Stocks and laccoliths are smaller intrusions and are usually grouped with batholiths in the category “plutons.” The Black Hills of South Dakota, United States, the Tuscany region in Italy, and some of the High Himalayas are underlain by laccoliths. Minor intrusive forms include sills (horizontal) and dikes (vertical). A noteworthy example of the edge of a sill is the Palisades, which are a line of 100-m tall cliffs on the west bank of the Hudson River across from New York City. Dikes represent igneous intrusions that have been partially exhumed by erosion of the surrounding rocks. Dikes are typified by several 50-m tall walls radiating outward from the remains of a volcano at Shiprock in northern New Mexico, United States.

Von Thunen Model

An economic land use model developed to explain the variation in the pricing structure of agricultural commodities, based on zones of production. The model is still widely studied and critiqued as a tool of analysis in economic geography, and stands as one of the first examples of applied locational analysis. A subsequent body of theory in urban and economic geography emerged from revisions of von Thunen’s original work, including Alonso’s bid-rent theory, an application of von Thunen’s agricultural-based ideas to the 20th-century urban environment.

Johan Heinrerich von Thunen was a businessman and landowner living in northern Germany in the early 19th century. The fact that von Thunen was a resident of northern Germany is relevant, because unlike in Bavaria, the landscape in the north is relatively flat, a feature of the local geography that clearly played a part in the formation of his theory. As a businessman, von Thunen was interested in discovering new methods of maximizing his profits, and in particular he put considerable thought into the spatial ordering of production and transport of goods to the market. After a number of years of observation and the development of a mathematical model, he published his ideas in 1826 in his seminal work, The Isolated State.

Like all models, von Thunen’s theory represents an idealized situation, and he begins with a series of assumptions that he recognizes do not precisely reflect reality. Nevertheless, these approximate the spatial and economic dynamics as von Thunen interpreted them in the pre-industrial economy he was observing. First, von Thunen assumed the existence of a single market town located at the center of a flat, uniform plain. There are no intervening settlements offering marketing opportunities between areas of agricultural production and this market—all production must be marketed and consumed in this single location. Second, the agricultural region surrounding the market town is homogeneous in terms of all factors affecting production. In other words, there is no spatial variation in soil quality, availability of water, input of labor, fertilizer, etc., and in theory, any crop may be grown for profit on any land around the market. Moreover, von Thunen assumed that only a single means of transportation was available to agricultural producers (an oxcart), and that all farmers living at a similar distance from the market had equal access to this type of transport. Farmers would carry their goods directly across the landscape to the market, as no roads or pathways exist. In order to market their crops, all farmers must deliver them in acceptable condition, meaning that any part of the harvest that is spoiled or stale cannot be marketed and has no value. Each farmer must pay for transport of his goods, and this cost is directly proportional to the distance from the market. Finally, everyone in the system is assumed to be motivated to maximize their profits and has the ability to switch to crops that are more profitable if that option is available.

World Systems Theory

A holistic, analytical approach to international relations developed primarily by the sociologist ImmanuelWallerstein. AlthoughWallerstein downplays the importance of geography in some of his writings, World Systems Theory (WST) is rooted in spatial concepts and may be viewed as a perspective on the geography of economic development at the global scale. The theory has much in common with Marxism, especially the notion that capitalism is an exploitative economic structure that enables certain classes (in this case, clusters of economic institutions) to manipulate the system to take advantage of their superior level of wealth, technology, and development, thereby collectively consigning lesser-developed clusters to a position of relative poverty. A second theory that foreshadowed the world systems concept is dependency theory, promulgated by Andre Gunder Frank

and other scholars in the 1960s. Dependency theory holds that the global economic system restricts the ability of developing countries to advance, forcing them to remain “dependent” on the advanced economies for sophisticated technology and consumer goods, resulting in a core and periphery model of international economic relations. 

Frank himself adopted WST in a modified form. World Systems Theory adds to the binary arrangement of dependency theory a third dimension, the “semi-periphery,” a zone of transition, in which countries are both victimized by the core group, and exploit those on the periphery. The tripartite nature of the system is crucial, because this prevents the formation of a unified opposition to the predominance of the core, because the members of the semiperiphery are unlikely to ally with either the core or the periphery. Two aspects of the theory are clear departures from earlier notions about the dynamics of global economic relationships. First, the system de-emphasizes the importance of the nation-state as an independent agent; rather, economic actors in each of the three divisions work across political boundaries to preserve and promote their interests. A prime example of this would be a multinational corporation. Second, the assumption that every country undergoes a similar progression in its economic development is rejected—proponents of WST argue that countries that are currently considered “developing” will not evolve economically in the same way that existing economic powers have.

Wind Erosion and Deposition

Air is a form of fluid, albeit much less dense than water, and undergoes significant flow when heated and cooled. It readily expands, contracts, and moves horizontally and vertically. Despite the seeming ease through which we move through the air, it is composed of molecules and the molecules exert force when they are in motion. The force is enough to erode, transport, and deposit considerable amounts of materials. The landscape developments related to wind are corporately known as aeolian

processes (derived from Aeolius, the mythical Greek keeper of the winds). The force exerted by air depends on the air’s velocity and the force exerted is proportional to the square of the velocity. This means that as velocity increases,the force rapidly increases. For instance, a doubling in wind velocity from 10 kph to 20 kph quadruples the force of the wind so that seemingly small wind variations can sometimes make significant differences in the work the wind performs. Along land surfaces, wind is able to modify those surfaces by eroding soil and weathered rock material already in small enough pieces to be moved. Known as deflation, this is especially evident in arid areas where there is little vegetation to hold the material. Unlike water, air is not limited to channels and is frequently capable of transporting materials uphill.

Aeolian transport has three modes depending on wind speeds and sizes of materials. The first mode is creep. Traction is when pieces are pushed along on the landscape. The eddying nature of surface wind is able to concentrate energy onto the surface and move materials. The second mode of transport, saltation, is the “skipping” of somewhat smaller pieces over the landscape. The materials are repeatedly picked up and dropped by whirling eddies that cause parabolic “skips” ranging from a few meters to a few tens of meters. The third mode of transport is suspension. This is generally reserved for materials less than 100 micrometers across, and it is through this mechanism that wind can transport materials over very long distances. For instance, satellite imagery observes dust from the Sahara being blown to the Caribbean basin and Mongolian materials being transported eastward far over the Pacific. When the aeolian material is concentrated it becomes a dust storm, which can be hazardous to plants, animals, and people.  However, it has been found that aeolian materials deposited in the world’s oceans provide a source of nutrients for the oceanic food chain.

Zoogeographic Regions

Traveling about Earth, it is manifest, even to the most casual of observers, that animal life has significant differences at scales of continents and large parts of continents. The concept of zoogeographic regions is explanatory of the animal geography of the planet. Rather than being controlled by the plant environment, a zoogeographic region is a large area based on forms of animals (taxonomy) and the evolutionary connections (phylogenetic relations) between them. The taxonomical hierarchy within the animal kingdom ranges from general to specific: phyla, class, order, family, genus, and species. Zoogeographic regions are focused on the nature of vertebrate families and species unique to that region. Vertebrates are those animals possessing backbones surrounding their nerve chords and include families of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. That is, this regionalization is based on a minority of the animals present on the planet.

Rather than being thought of as exactly defined, zoogeographic regions are composites of the totality of animal life. The boundaries are dependent on major climate boundaries and/or distances over oceans. Considering other concepts such as the great amounts of time over which these families of animals have evolved, long-term changes in Earth’s systems such as climate change and continental drift have played roles in the present day configuration of the zoogeographic regions.

Alfred Russel Wallace was, with Charles Darwin, one of the first two “cofounders” of the theory of evolution. Wallace was a naturalist and geographer and is the acknowledged scientific father of animal geography (zoogeography). In the 1850s he was on an expedition collecting animal specimens in the Malay Archipelago. He noticed that between the Malay islands and the nearby Celebes there was a significant divide in the taxonomy. To the west, the animals were similar to what was known in Asia and to the east the species more resembled those in Australia. This distinction was so marked over a few tens of kilometers that it became known as “Wallace’s Line.” This discovery inspired Wallace to study the rest of the world to identify major zoogeographic boundaries.

Bordeaux

BORDEAUX IS THE eighth-largest city in FRANCE, and the capital of the historic southwestern province of Aquitaine. Bordeaux is also considered the wine capital of the world, and has been famous for its viticulture since the days of the Roman Empire. Unlike other major French cities, Bordeaux is not known for its energetic lifestyle or major industrial output; instead, the Bordelais take pride in their region’s more relaxed pace of life and the spirit of elegance and refinement that characterizes much of the city and the region.

The city of Bordeaux arose as a Gallo-Roman port (Burdigala) on the river Garonne at the head of the large estuary the Gironde, which flows into the ATLANTIC OCEAN about 56 mi (90 km) to the northwest. It became the chief city of Aquitaine from the early Middle Ages, before this region became part of the kingdom of France. In fact, from 1152 to 1453, Bordeaux was an English city, the jewel in a string of French possessions held by the English kings until they were finally chased out at the end of the Hundred Years’ War. Even after this date, Bordeaux remained the chief supplier of wine to England and other northern European states.

The city’s wealth continued to grow with the development of Atlantic sea trade in the 17th century, primarily through the growth of refineries for sugar, which arrived in Bordeaux’s ports directly from France’s colonies in the West Indies. Revenues from the sugar and wine industries reshaped the city, which underwent a massive urban renewal in the 18th century, resulting in much of the city’s present appearance, notably the Place Royale (today’s Place de la Bourse) and the Grand Théâtre.

Bolivia

BOLIVIA IS A COMPLEX and fascinating country. Located in the center of South America, it shares borders with five countries: ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, CHILE, PARAGUAY, and PERU. After the War of the Pacific (1879–84) against Chile, Bolivia lost access to the PACIFIC OCEAN and became, along with Paraguay, one of the two LANDLOCKED states in the Americas. Since then,

the question of Bolivia’s access to the sea has remained a central diplomatic and economic issue in the region. In addition, in 1935, during the Chaco War against Paraguay, Bolivia lost substantial claims to the Chaco territory.

Bolivia is a contradictory country. While it is extremely rich in natural resources, including some of the largest reserves of natural gas and tin, it has acute social and economic tensions. The country’s economic vulnerability, its cycles of boom-and-bust, and its traditional dependence on the external market have intensified social inequality. At the beginning of the 21st century, with two-thirds of the country’s population living in poverty, a third of which falls below the poverty level, Bolivia is one of the poorest nations on the continent. After a short period of economic growth in the 1990s, the economy slowed down as result of the Asian economic crisis, and social and political tensions have consistently increased.

Geography and the environment have shaped the history of Bolivia. Bolivia has three distinctive geographical regions: the highlands or ALTIPLANO (high plateau), the transitional sub-Andean, and the tropical lowlands. The majority of the Bolivian population has historically lived in the Altiplano, between 12,000 ft (3,657 m) and 13,000 ft (3,962 m) above sea level. The altitude has posed enormous challenges.

Bokkara

BOKKARA (ALSO BUKHARA) is a city that lies on the SILK ROAD of Central Asia in the Asian republic of UZBEKISTAN. Its name, bestowed by its Sogdian occupiers in the 3rd century B.C.E., derives from the Sanskrit word vikhara, meaning “monastery.” Bokkara lies in the ARAL SEA basin and was founded some 3,000 years ago by the Persian Prince Siyavush of the Syavushid dynasty on a hill in the Kyzl Kum, a desert region in the northern foothills of the Pamir/TIAN SHAN MOUNTAINS.

It enjoys a continental climate of cold winters and hot summers. The annual temperature regime varies from 5 degrees F (-15 degrees C) in January to 126 degrees F (52 degrees C) in July and receives less than 8 in (20 cm) of precipitation per year.

Culturally, Bokkara has experienced many influences because of its location at the crossroads of Asia. The Achaemenids of Persia captured Bokkara 2,600 years ago, it was taken by Alexander the Great in 329 B.C.E., and then by the Sogdians from the Fergana and Zerafshan valleys to the east. At this time, Zoroastrianism, a belief system involving fire worship, was practiced. However, with the arrival of the Arabs, the city changed and ISLAM was introduced.

Black Sea

THE BLACK SEA IS a body of salt water that stretches 630 mi (1,014 km) from east to west. TURKEY faces its southern shore, BULGARIA and ROMANIA lie west of the Black Sea, and UKRAINE, RUSSIA, and GEORGIA border it to the north, northeast, and east, respectively. The Black Sea stretches 330 mi (530 km) from north to south, except between the Crimean Peninsula and Turkey, where it cinches to 144 mi (232 km).

From the southwest, the Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and to the north, just east of the Crimean Peninsula, the Kerch Strait leads to the Sea of Azov. The CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS line the northeastern edge of the Black Sea; the Pontic Mountains are to the south. The Black Sea is usually considered the boundary between Europe and Asia. At its deepest point, the Black Sea reaches a depth of 7,218 ft (2,200 m). It has an area of 262,840 square mi (683,000 square km). Below 660 ft (200 m), the water holds no oxygen, and the Black Sea is therefore the largest anoxic basin in world, with about 90 percent of its water permanently anaerobic. The Black Sea figures in myth and history, dating back thousands of years. In the Voyage of the Argonauts, Jason sails through the narrow Bosporus, with shifting walls that threaten to crush his ship, into the Black Sea.

The sea, named “black” by the Turks for its storms, was the trade passage to Asia for the Egyptians and Greeks. It was important to the growth of Byzantium (now Istanbul) from 600 B.C.E. through the time of the Crusades, when the Byzantine Empire was finally destroyed. The Ottoman Turks controlled the Black Sea from 1453 to 1774.

Biosphere

THE ENVIRONMENT of the Earth can be broadly divided into four major systems: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky coined the term biosphere in 1929. The term refers to the life zone of Earth that includes the air, land, and water occupied by all organisms including humans. This life zone distinguishes our planet from all others in the solar system.

The biosphere fulfills several important functions and processes to sustain life. These processes include the ways that solar energy and PRECIPITATION control biotic productivity, the interactions among various life forms, and how life forms have spread over the Earth’s surface and adapted to various habitats. These processes are not limited to only the biosphere, but are the result of complex interactions between all the major systems (the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere).

For example, the biosphere is both a source and sink for several important atmospheric trace gases and environmental pollutants (methane and nitrous oxide, for example). It is an essential factor in determining the budget, abundance, and distribution of trace gases in the atmosphere. Different types of forests create different atmospheric conditions that influence climate and ecosystem functioning. Chemical reactions critical to both life and atmospheric processes include photosynthesis and respiration.

Water is essential for all living organisms, and the biosphere plays a crucial role in the transportation, transformation, and redistribution of water on local and regional scales. In terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation plays the primary role in transferring water from the soil to the atmosphere. The biota exerts measurable effects on water quality through recycling of nutrients and absorption of air and water pollutants. Biospheric processes are also evident in the lithosphere. Root growth and the generation of organic acids aid in chemical and mechanical weathering of soils and geologic materials. Decomposition of organic material add nutrients to the soil.

Bioreserve

BIORESERVES, also known as BIOSPHERE reserves, are an internationally recognized type of conservation reserve. In 1970, the 16th General Conference of UNESCO (part of the United Nations), acting on the recommendations of the conference, launched the long-term intergovernmental and interdisciplinary program known as Man and the Biosphere (MAB). Crucial for the program was a project for the conservation of natural areas and of the genetic material they contain, which included the development of a coordinated worldwide network of protected areas, linked by international understanding on purposes, and standards, and exchange of scientific information.

These include biosphere reserves that contained representative land and coastal areas of each of the major or otherwise relevant ECOSYSTEMS within a nation’s boundaries. The biospheres could be used as basic logistical resources for research, as areas for education and training, and as essential components for the study of many projects under the overall program, including a role of benchmarks or standards for measurement of long-term changes in the biosphere as a whole.

In the design of criteria for the identification of biosphere reserves, special attention was paid to the embodiment of ecological and genetic principles of nature conservation, and thus the shape and size of reserves were considered important. In addition, criteria were determined for establishing a network of baseline monitoring stations in representative undisturbed biome areas throughout the world to serve as benchmarks or standards for assessing change. Unlike many other forms of conservation reserve, biosphere reserves are intended to not only include natural ecosystems within national parks and wilderness areas but also seminatural systems, including, for instance, those maintained by long-established land-use practice. 

Each biosphere reserve should include one or more of the following categories: representative examples of natural biomes; unique communities or areas with unusual natural features of exceptional interest; examples of harmonious landscapes resulting from traditional patterns of land use; and examples of modified or degraded ecosystems capable of being restored to more natural conditions. Each biosphere reserve should be large enough to be an effective conservation unit with long-term legal protection and to accommodate different uses without conflict. In some cases biosphere reserves coincide with or incorporate existing or proposed protected areas, such as national parks, sanctuaries, or nature reserves.