Friday, February 26, 2016

Danube River

THE DANUBE RIVER IS the longest river in western Europe, surpassed in Europe as a whole only by the VOLGA in RUSSIA. Fourteen countries are drained by its watershed, covering over 312,000 square mi (800,000 square km): GERMANY, AUSTRIA (and small parts of eastern SWITZERLAND), the CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, HUNGARY (and a small corner of southwest UKRAINE), SLOVENIA, CROATIA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO, BULGARIA, ROMANIA, and MOLDOVA.

The river travels 1,760 mi (2,850 km) from its source in Germany’s Black Forest to its large delta on the BLACK SEA, passing through some of the most beautiful and historic cities in Europe, including Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade. The most famous stretch of the river, between Vienna and Budapest, has been immortalized numerous times in paintings, poetry, and music, notably Johann Strauss, Jr.’s “An der schönen, blauen Donau” (“On the Beautiful, Blue Danube”).

The Greeks called the Danube the “Ister,” the “Greatest of Rivers,” and for many centuries it was the border between the civilized Greco-Roman world and the Germanic barbarians to the north. Many centuries later, it formed the center, not the boundary, of the multiethnic Habsburg Empire, centered on Vienna and Budapest, which was torn apart by the peace settlements after World War I and by the Iron Curtain of the post-World War II era. There remains, however, some desire to reunite much of the region into a Danubian economic confederation, reflecting the reality that although language and culture divide Austrians, Hungarians, Serbs, Bulgarians and Romanians, the river unites them through commerce and industry.

The Danube starts in southwestern Germany, where it is called the Donau. Two small rivers, the Brege and the Brigach, come together at Donaueschingen, a town in the Black Forest. Its springs lie only a few meters from streams that flow westward into the Rhine watershed, thus ending up in the North Sea rather than the Black Sea, nearly 1,000 miles (3,000 km) apart. In fact, porous rocks in this area result in much of the water of the upper Danube actually seeping through the rocks to join the Rhine watershed, which has a lower elevation.

The river is too small for navigation as it winds through the Swabian Alps, passing castles and monasteries, and the ancient German cities of Ulm and Regensburg, once the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. At Passau, on the border with Austria, the Danube is joined by its first large tributary, the Inn. This was historically the western terminus of commercial river traffic, especially for grain coming to Central Europe from the plains of Hungary, but also for coal and iron ore from as far away as Russia.

In Upper Austria, the Danube passes some of the most famous baroque buildings in Europe, especially Melk, the Versailles of monasteries, perched on a hill above the river valley. Finally the river broadens into the famously smooth (and generally muddy brown, not blue) Danube as it passes by the capital cities of Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest before turning south to cross the broad Hungarian Plain. This plain, the breadbasket of Central Europe, was also the site of many important battles, from the defeat and forced settling of the Hungarian people by Emperor Otto I in 955, to the destruction of the native Hungarian kingdom by the Turks at Mohács in 1526, and the defeat of Turkish forces after the siege of Vienna in 1683, finally halting their progress toward Central Europe.

South of this plain, the river again enters mountainous regions, guarded by the fortress city of Belgrade. In these middle reaches, the river (called Duna in Hungarian and Dunav in Serbian) receives its largest tributaries, the Tisza, which drains the eastern Hungarian Plain, the historic region of Transylvania (northwestern Romania), and southwestern Ukraine; and the Drava and Sava, which receive most of the waters of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

IRON GATES

In Serbia, the river’s course meanders as it cuts passages through the confluence of the easternmost ALPS and the Carpathian Mountains. At its narrowest, the river passes through the Iron Gates, the site of one of Europe’s largest hydroelectric projects, the Djerdap, which provides almost half of the electricity consumed by Serbia and Romania. The other major hydroelectric project on the Danube is the Gabcikovo dam, in Slovakia. This dam, built in 1992, created a huge 11-mi (24 km) reservoir, with serious ecological consequences downstream in Hungary. Originally a partner in the project, Hungary withdrew with the fall of communism, causing severe tensions with the Slovak government. 

Other man-made projects along the river’s course include the Rhein-Main-Donau Kanal, built in 1992, which links the North Sea to the Black Sea, though it is still mostly underused. The lower course of the Danube forms the border between Bulgaria and Romania, through a broad drainage basin between the Carpathian and Balkan mountain ranges to the north and south. The river ends in a vast DELTA in Romania, the largest in Europe, with an area of 1,700 square mi (4,345 square km). Part of the delta also lies in the Ukraine. Flow at the mouth of the Danube averages 229,450 cubic ft (6,500 cubic m) per second, but has been recorded at 10 times this volume during high flooding. Some 122 million tons of sediment is discharged each year, creating one of the most extensive and fertile wetlands on Earth. Most of this is now protected by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, 1.7 million acres (679,222 hectares) of marshes and lakes, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991.

The Romanian city of Galati, where the last major Danubian tributary, the Prut, enters the basin from Moldova to the north, is the river’s chief port for oceangoing vessels, although it is 90 mi (145 km) from the Black Sea. Ships traverse the largest of the three main Danube channels (the Sfîntu Gheorghe) to enter the Black Sea, and thus to the Mediterranean. It is estimated that 100 million tons of cargo are transported each year on the Danube as a whole, underlying the economic importance of this waterway to much of Central and Eastern Europe.

Damascus

DAMASCUS (in Arabic, “Dimashq”) is the capital and chief city of SYRIA, with a population of 1.7 million people (2002). The ancient city is also known in Arabic as “as-Sham” meaning “the Northern,” indicating its geographical position north of the traditional Arab homelands. Damascus is situated in the Ghutah Oasis on a plateau 2,263 ft (690 m) above sea level in southwestern Syria. The city is bisected by the Barada River, which separates the old city to the south from the newer, more modern city to the north. It lies just northeast of Mount Hermon (7,164 ft or 2,184 m), the highest point in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains that form part of Syria’s eastern border with neighboring LEBANON. To the east of the city lies the DESERT. 

Damascus is only a two-hour drive from the MEDITERRANEAN coast, which is just beyond the Anti-Lebanon and Lebanon mountains to the east. Annual rainfall in the area ranges between 6 in (15 cm) and 7.87 in (20 cm), falling mainly between November and February. Although temperatures in the summer can exceed 104 degrees F (40 degrees C), the summer average is around 80.5 degrees F (27 degrees C) at the most. Winters are generally cold, averaging 41 degrees F (5 degrees C).

Damascus has been inhabited since prehistoric times and is considered by some to be the oldest continuously occupied city in the world. The first mention of Damascus is in Egyptian records, when the Pharaoh Thutmosis III conquered the city in the 15th century B.C.E. In 333 B.C.E., Damascus was conquered by one of Alexander’s lieutenants, who took it from the Persians.

From 661 to 750 C.E., Damascus was the center of Islam and capital of the Great Omayyad Empire that stretched from Spain to India. In 1260 the city fell to the Mongols under Hulagu Khan, then fell again to the Mamluks following the Mongol withdrawal. In 1516, the city was captured by the Ottoman Sultan Salim I and remained part of the Ottoman Empire for the next four centuries. At the end of World War II, the city was freed from Ottoman control by an Arab contingent under the command of the British. Damascus became the capital of an independent Syria (from FRANCE) in 1941, although it did not officially take effect until 1946.

Damascus is made up of a sizeable old city, divided into the market area, the Muslim area, the Christian area and the Jewish area. The greatest part of the city, including the rectangular ancient city, is on the south bank of the Barada River, while the newer more modern suburbs lie to the north. Damascus has more than 200 mosques, but only 70 are still in use today. Of these, the Umayyad or Grand Mosque is the most famous, located just east of the Citadel and north of the Azem Palace in the old city. Damascus is famous for its bazaars—streets lined with shops, stalls, and cafes. One such bazaar called “Street Straight” (in contrast to the typically narrow, crooked layout) is even mentioned in the Bible in connection with St. Paul’s conversion to Christianity.

Damascus has long been an important commercial center. In former times it was famous for dried fruit, wine, wool, linens, silks, and damask, a type of patterned fabric, named for the silk fabrics woven in Damascus. The city was also notable for the manufacture of damascened steel, the exceptionally hard and resilient steel used in making sword blades. Today the city is the trading center for figs, almonds, and other fruit produced in the surrounding region. Industries in Damascus include handicrafts, such as the weaving of silk cloth and the making of leather goods, filigreed gold and silver objects, and inlaid wooden, copper, and brass articles. Among the city’s other manufactures are processed textiles, metalware, refined sugar, glass, furniture, cement, leather goods, preserves, confections, and matches.

Czech Republic

THE CZECH REPUBLIC consists of the two historic regions of Bohemia and Moravia. The Czech Republic borders SLOVAKIA to the southeast, POLAND to the north and northeast, GERMANY to the north and west, and AUSTRIA to the south. The Czech Republic is a parliamentary democracy with a parliament as its legislature.

The prime minister serves as the head of government, and the president serves as head of state. Prague, Brno, Ostrava, and Plzen are major cities of the country. Bohemia is a PLATEAU surrounded by the Ore or Erzgebirge Mountains and the Sudetes Mountains on the north and drained by the Vltava. Moravia is a lowland region that is drained by the Morava River, which flows into the DANUBE. The climate in the Czech Republic varies with the region from 30 degrees F (-1 degree C ) in January to 67 degrees F (19.4 degrees C) in July. In higher elevations, the climate is colder and receives more rain.

The region comprising the Czech Republic was first settled by two Celtic groups, the Boii, from which the region Bohemia gets its name, and the Cotini. By the 5th century, Slavs from the east settled in the region and formed the kingdom of Bohemia in the 10th century. In the 15th century, Jan Hus led a movement against the Roman Catholic Church, which presaged the Protestant Reformation a century later. In 1526, the Habsburg dynasty from Austria gained control of the Bohemian throne.

The Thirty Years’ War began in Prague when the Czechs rebelled against Habsburg rule in 1618. By 1620, Czech forces were defeated by the Habsburg forces, placing Bohemia under Austrian rule for 300 years. The convulsions of World War I led Czech leaders to push for full independence. In 1918, Czechoslovakia, with a diverse population of Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, and Ruthenians, emerged as a successor state to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The First Republic of Czechoslovakia, led by Thomáš Masaryk, was organized as a Western democracy, which was one of the most stable and prosperous countries of Central Europe during the interwar period. During the 1930s, as Europe witnessed the rise of fascism, Czechoslovakia fell prey to Nazi ambitions.

In September 1938, at the Munich Conference, Britain and FRANCE gave the German-populated Sudetenland in northern Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler, who reorganized the country into the Second Republic in 1939 as a Nazi puppet state, granting autonomy to Slovakia.

Liberated by the Soviets in 1945, Czechoslovakia reemerged as an independent nation. By 1948, however, the communists, with the backing of the Soviet Union, took control of the government, creating the Third Republic. All prewar political parties were banned, and anticommunists were convicted in show trials.

The communists nationalized all industry, collectivized all agriculture, and restricted all churches in the years immediately following World War II. In 1968, President Alexander Dubcek proposed liberal reforms to the political and economic system, which included distancing Czechoslovakia from the Soviet Union. This “socialism with a human face” was put down by intervention by the Soviet Union and members of the Warsaw Pact, and Czechoslovakia was placed in a tighter orbit with Moscow. By 1989, pressures for change throughout Eastern and Central Europe led to the Velvet Revolution, which overthrew communist rule in Czechoslovakia. 

Dissident Vaclav Hável became president of Czechoslovakia and he oversaw its transition to democracy, with Vaclav Klaus as prime minister to oversee economic reform. The Velvet Revolution raised the age-old question of the relationship between the Czechs and the Slovaks, and by 1993 came the Velvet Divorce, which was the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and SLOVAKIA. Since then, the Czech Republic has made strides to integrate into the European economy. It has been one of the few Eastern and Central European states to make a successful transition to a free market economy, albeit with some difficulties in the rising inequality of wealth. The Czech Republic joined the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION in 1999 and the EUROPEAN UNION in 2004.

Czechs make up the majority of the population of the Czech Republic. Sizable minorities of Slovaks and Roma (Gypsies) also reside in the Czech Republic. A significant German population existed in the Sudetenland, but many were expelled after World War II. The Czech Republic has had an industrialized economy since the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its chief exports are consumer goods, and machinery. Its chief industries are machinery, automobiles, textiles, and glass. Its imports are consumer goods and fuel.

Cyprus

CYPRUS IS AN island in the eastern MEDITERRANEAN SEA, 70 mi (113 km) south of TURKEY. For thousands of years, its civilization has been at the crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Today, Cypriots continue to play a role as a bridge between cultures, because of their island’s proximity to the MIDDLE EAST, its cultural connections to GREECE, and its political status as one of the newest member states of the EUROPEAN UNION (EU).

Cyprus is politically divided, however, between the Greek-speaking majority in the southern part of the island and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This division has been in place since 1974 and remains unresolved despite pressure from the EU and the United Nations (UN).

The name Cyprus (Kypros in Greek) either derives from, or gives its name to one of the chief natural resources on the island: copper. This metal has been mined from the Troödos range since prehistoric times. The Troödos dominate the central and southern part of the island. The rest of Cyprus consists of the northern Kyrenia range, or Girne in Turkish, and the plain between the two ranges, the Mesaoria. There are also scattered plains along the southern coast. The Kyrenia is a narrow limestone ridge that extends far to the northeast of the mainland to form the Karpaz Peninsula.

The Mesaoria is semiarid, sheltered from rains by the northern mountains. Wheat and barley are grown there, but require IRRIGATION for agriculture. Significant rivers rise from the Troödos Mountains but are mostly dry in the summer. Severe deforestation has contributed to the island’s water problem, particularly around the city of Nicosia, which occupies the central part of the Mesaoria. Nearly 200,000 people live in this city, called Lefkosa by Turkish Cypriots, who claim the northern part of the city as their capital. 

Other cities include Limassol, Larnaca, Famagusta, Paphos, and the ruined city of Salamis. The diversity of building styles in these cities reflects the varieties of outside influences that have dominated Cypriot history since the second millennium B.C.E. Cyprus was a Roman then a Byzantine province for 1,000 years until it was taken over by Crusaders in the 12th century, notably the de Lusignan family, who set up a Catholic kingdom in opposition to the majority Orthodox population.

Venetian merchants, eager to secure their monopoly on trade in the eastern Mediterranean, purchased
the island in 1489 but lost it to the Ottoman Turks in 1570. The Turks ruled Cyprus through a restored traditional Orthodox hierarchy, reinforcing the position of the church and the Greek language in Cypriot politics and culture. In 1878, control of the island was ceded to the British, eager to safeguard their shipping lanes to the Suez Canal. Great Britain formally annexed Cyprus in 1914. Independence was granted in 1960, but the island remains a member of the British Commonwealth, and the UNITED KINGDOM retains sovereignty over two military bases on the south and southeast coasts.

As early as the 1820s, Greek Cypriots expressed a strong desire for political union, or enosis, with the rest of Greece. It is this desire that has been at the root of the tension between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus ever since. The original 1960 constitution allowed for minority representation in government, but these stipulations were dropped in 1963. In 1974, a coup backed by Greece prompted military intervention from Turkey, and the country was divided into the southern and northern sections of today, divided by the so-called Green Line, patrolled by UN troops. In 1983 the Turkish area—roughly a third of the island declared itself to be the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), but it is recognized only by Turkey.

UN-led direct talks began in January 2002, and several proposals have been brought forward. A referendum on a plan set forth by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in April 2004 was approved by Turkish Cypriots but strongly rejected by the Greek population. It had been hoped that a settlement could be reached by the time of Cyprus’s entry into the EU in May 2004. Many EU members were impressed, however, with Turkish willingness to settle their differences, which may in the long run lead to increased financial aid to the impoverished north.

The economy of Cyprus was severely disrupted by the division of 1974 but has recovered in the south, mostly through a huge increase in tourism. Tourism and other service industries today contribute 76 percent of the gross domestic product and employ 70 percent of the labor force. Millions of tourists per year come for Cyprus’s clean waters and relatively undeveloped beaches. Southern Cyprus has also become a center for international business and offshore banking, due to its proximity to the Middle East, and its educated, English-speaking population. The north has had less of a recovery and continues to rely heavily on financial support from Turkey.

Cyclones

CYCLONES ARE HAZARDOUS weather conditions distinguished by extreme blasts of wind moving in a circular pattern. Cyclones generally appear over tropical waters; however, some are able to reach land, where they inflict significant damage on buildings and communities.

Cyclones can be placed into categories such as hurricane (Western Hemisphere) and typhoon (Eastern Hemisphere). The categorization assigned to a cyclone is dependent upon where it originated. Wind speeds in cyclones can surpass 100 mi per hour (160 km per hour). Tropical cyclones with milder conditions are known as tropical storms.

Cyclones build over tropical seas. Heat gives cyclones their energy. Consequently, the ocean over which a cyclone forms must be warm. Other conditions required for a cyclone include a rapidly cooling atmosphere, a minimum of 300 mi (500 km) distance from the equator, and a slow vertical wind not exceeding 23 mi per hour (37 km per hour). This vertical wind is the product of differences between winds in the lower and upper portions of the atmosphere. The major contributor to the formation of a cyclone is a disturbance in the form of a thunderstorm or group of showers.

When all of these factors come together, conditions are right for a tropical cyclone. However, cyclones are spontaneous; a minute variation in one variable can be the difference between a hurricane and a thunderstorm. Known as the “eye,” the circular area in the center of a cyclone has an environment quite different from the area it surrounds. Calmness and a light breeze characterize the eye. Temperatures and air pressure are normally higher, and the sky is generally very clear.

Strong cyclones can cause damage ranging from crop destruction to the total devastation of buildings, depending on the severity of the cyclone. Cyclones become most dangerous as they hit land and spawn tornadoes, which are formed when tropical cyclones begin to lose their power. The major variation between tropical cyclones and tornadoes is their size. While the diameter of a tornado is measured in meters, the diameter of a tropical cyclone is measured in kilometers. One of the most destructive cyclone-spawned tornadoes in the United States caused around $100 million worth of damage to the Austin, TEXAS, area in 1980.

Besides property damage, cyclones (and the ensuing tornadoes) cause death. Objects lifted from the path of the extreme wind are flung about as high-speed projectiles. In 1964, 22 people were killed by a tornado that hit the LOS ANGELES area in CALIFORNIA. Meteorologists have come a long way in the forecasting of tropical cyclones. In their forecasts, they gather information from the global numerical weather prediction model, which is also used by many meteorological centers, to aid them in producing accurate warnings. The World Meteorological Organization has created Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers (RSMCs) that issue warnings to nations, which then issue warnings to the public.

Warnings are issued when a cyclone is likely to affect communities within 24 to 48 hours. The warnings include a forecast that predicts which communities may be affected, severity, movement, etc. depending on how severe a cyclone is, residents may be asked to take certain precautions or even evacuate the possible affected area.

CATEGORY WARNINGS

Cyclones are divided into five categories determined by wind speeds, with category 5 being the worst cyclone of all. A category 1 warning is issued when wind gusts are less than 77 mi per hour (125 km per hour). A category 2 warning is issued when wind gusts are from 77 to 105 mi per hour (125 to 169 km per hour). When winds are from 106 to 139 mi per hour (170 to 224 km per hour), a category 3 warning is issued. Category 4 is when winds reach speeds from 140 to 173 mi per hour (225 to 279 km per hour ). The most destructive of all is a category 5 cyclone with winds faster than 174 mi per hour (280 km per hour).

In order to avoid confusion when tracking the development of these storms, cyclones are regularly named. The naming of cyclones began during World War II when meteorologists in the U.S. armed forces unofficially named the cyclones giving them female names. During the early 1950s, tropical cyclones that formed in the North ATLANTIC OCEAN were named from the phonetic alphabet. In 1979 the U.S. National Weather Service used both male and female names.

When an exceptional cyclone occurs, its name is taken out of use to avoid confusion. More than one cyclone can occur at the same time, and if names are given, there is less confusion about which cyclone is being described. Cyclones can range from simple tropical storms to devastating hurricanes spinning at furious speeds. Their effects can be disastrous and long-lasting.

Cultural Geography

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY IS a subdiscipline of HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. The founding father of cultural geography in North America is Carl Ortwin SAUER, and most of the research in cultural geography from the 1920s to the beginning of the 1980s was carried out by cultural geographers walking in the footsteps of Sauer and the so-called Berkeley School. In this tradition, cultural geography is concerned with material facets of culture. On the agenda of the Berkeley School were cultural influences on, and shaping forces of, the transformation of landscape and the natural environment. In short, the role that culture plays as an agent of these changes.

In this respect, the American tradition of cultural geography of the 20th century was a dominating and highly influential one. Since the end of the 1970s, however, cultural geography in the anglophone scientific community took on a different face. Drawing heavily on British cultural studies, focusing on interpretative and empirical methods, and refurbishing social theory, cultural geographers of that time developed the socalled new cultural geography. The mere amount of studies and research that has been carried out until today under the banner of this new cultural geography, and also the colorful, true-to-life, and rich array of topics hosted by the discipline, made new cultural geography probably the most successful subdiscipline of geography throughout the last 30 years. This boom, the beginnings of which are often referred to as the cultural turn in geography, has changed the discipline fundamentally. 

Nevertheless, recently there has been a vivid, critical discussion about the shortcomings of these new cultural geographies, which is revolving around the topics of the dangers of a holistic culturalist approach and the dematerialization and the (missing) political potential of the new cultural geography.

Cuba

CUBA, THE 15th largest island in world, is part of the West Indies in the CARIBBEAN SEA. This island, which experiences a subtropical climate and a wet summer season between May and October, is composed of fertile ground where tobacco, sugarcane, and coffee are grown and where cattle graze. Twenty-five percent of the island is covered by the Oriental, Central, and Occidental mountain ranges.

More than 6,000 plant species are spread across Cuba. The royal palm is the most noticeable, and supposedly 20 million palms exist across the island. Cork palm can also be found on the island, as well as the palma barrigona, the ceiba, and the mariposa. The southern coast supports swamps with fish and birds. Reptiles are the most abundant fauna. Crocodiles, iguanas, salamanders, lizards, and turtles, as well as a mixture of nonpoisonous snakes, are present throughout the country. The jutia (a tree rat) is the largest land mammal on the island. And the world’s smallest bird, the bee hummingbird, originates from Cuba.

Modern-day history of Cuba can be traced back to November 27, 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed on the island. For the next 300 years, Spain had control over the small island. During the 16th century, the indigenous Tainos were virtually obliterated from the island. Subjected to a life of labor under the Spanish encomienda system, these indigenous people were forced to mine for silver and gold and to work the many plantations spread across the island.

Overall, the Spanish found a limited amount of silver and gold on the island. As the years passed, it was obvious that Cuba would have to serve other purposes for the Spanish administration. The island became a stopover for ships carrying goods from the Americas to Europe. In 1607, Havana was created as the Cuban capital. The forests across the island were cut down to make room for livestock, tobacco, and sugar for European sale. However, after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1587, Spain’s New World colonies, such as Cuba, suffered from a lack of central control. The unregulated West African slave trade flourished and pirates appeared in Cuban ports.

In 1762, 200 English warships with 20,000 troops appeared outside of Havana. After 44 days, Havana fell to the English, but within a year, the British traded their new possession back to SPAIN for the land of FLORIDA. The new king of Spain, Charles III, began to actively encourage free trade, and the Cuban economy prospered. By 1820, Cuba held the distinction of being the world’s largest sugar producer. By 1835, all the New World colonies of Spain had received independence, except for PUERTO RICO and Cuba. Cuban revolutionaries began to form protests. In 1868, slavery was finally abolished and an overall rebellion for independence rose throughout the land. Ten years of war lasted and around 200,000 people perished in the fighting; some 100,000 fled the island. The Pact of Zanjon was signed in 1878, which ultimately granted all the rebels amnesty. However, independence was still not granted. 

Cuban exiles in the UNITED STATES, including the poet José Martí, began plans for the next wave of rebellion. In 1895, they landed on eastern Cuba, and Marti was fatally shot. The rebels continued to fight, and in return, the Spanish government executed public figures and threatened civilians. Cuba eventually agreed to a home rule government for the Cubans, but the Cuban citizens wanted full independence. In 1898, the U.S. warship Maine, anchored in the harbor in Havana, exploded. Although the reason for the explosion was unknown, American newspaper reports blamed the Spanish. American troops were dispatched to the island and the Spanish-American War began.

After various victorious American battles, including the Battle of San Juan Hill, a peace treaty was signed in December 1898. Although the Cubans were now independent of Spain, the U.S. influence on Cuba began. In 1902, the United States granted Cuba full independence but, under the Platt Amendment, reserved the legal right to intervene militarily if Cuba’s independence was threatened. The Guantánamo Bay naval base was also leased by the United States, and is still currently occupied by the U.S. military.

By the 1920s, over two-thirds of Cuba’s farmland was owned by American companies. Into the 1950s, Cuba was ruled by a number of military and political figures. During the early years of the Great Depression, President Gerardo Machado y Morales violently ended civil unrest throughout the country. He was overthrown in a coup, and Fulgencio Batista gained power, which would last for more than 20 years. Throughout this period, Cuba suffered economically, and active resistance groups were formed.

Fidel Castro emerged as a very influential rebel leader. In 1953, he led an attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago. More than 100 died, and Castro faced a public trial. He was jailed but given an early release. He was exiled to Mexico, and from there organized the 26th of July Movement. In December 1956, Castro and his group landed on the eastern part of the island. For three years, guerrilla warfare spread throughout the island. On January 1, 1959, Batista was overthrown and fled to the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 

Castro became the prime minister of the country, and overhauled the economy. He nationalized much of the land and American-owned petroleum facilities. The United States in return cut sugar imports, which debilitated the economy. With a deteriorating economic situation, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for aid. Sugar trade thus developed between Cuba and the Soviets.

BAY OF PIGS

In 1961, the U.S. CIA organized an invasion in the Bay of Pigs. Fourteen hundred CIA-trained Cuban exiles attacked Castro forces but were quickly captured. Castro declared that Cuba was to be a socialist state. The Soviet Union sent food, supplies, and nuclear missiles to the island that was only 90 miles off the coast of superpower rival, the United States. After an extremely tense nuclear standoff in 1962 between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union, the missiles were returned to the Soviets.

For the next three decades, Cuba became a leading military and political force in the Third World, but its economy fell into major disrepair. In 1989, after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union, RUSSIA withdrew its aid. In 1991, economic reforms began in the country. Cuban citizens were allowed to be self-employed and farmers’ markets were opened. Slowly, the Cuban economy grew. Sensing that Castro’s power base was declining, the United States passed the Helms-Burton Act, which imposed harsher embargo conditions on Cuba. In 2004, Castro’s hold on Cuba was still strong and the country remained one of the last socialist states in the world.

Croatia

CROATIA IS AT once one of the oldest and newest states in Europe. There has been a Croatian state of some kind, with varying degrees of independence, since the 9th century. Croatia was one of the first to break away from the disintegrating Yugoslav Federation in 1990 and is today one of the more successful economies in the Balkans. Unlike Serbia and many of its other neighbors, Croatia has had closer ties to the West for centuries, as Catholics rather than Orthodox, and as subjects of Western rulers rather than Turkish sultans like their neighbors to the south and east. Today, Catholicism is regaining importance in Croatian national identity.

The physical shape of Croatia is reminiscent of a croissant, the symbol of defiance to Turkish invaders in the 17th century: The inland (or Pannonian) region consists of Croatia proper (with the capital, Zagreb) and Slavonia to the east. The coastal region consists of Istria and Dalmatia, extending along the ADRIATIC SEA coast for nearly 1,200 mi (2,000 km). The coast is dominated by inlets and over a thousand islands, creating a coastline of 3,618 mi (5,835 km). Only 69 of the islands are inhabited, the largest being Krk, Brac, and Cres. The interior consists of flat plains along the Hungarian border and the river valleys of the Drava and Sava (tributaries of the DANUBE to the east), and low mountains. The climate here is continental, differing sharply from the Mediterranean climate along the Adriatic. High mountains divide these two regions, extensions of the Julian and Dinaric Alps that run north to south from Istria to Montenegro. Croatia borders a number of countries, mostly former members of Yugoslavia: SLOVENIA to the northwest, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO to the east and south, and BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA to the east. HUNGARY lies across the Drava to the north.


Much of Croatia’s history is dominated by Hungary, first in a personal union between the Croatian and Hungarian royal families dating from 1102, followed by outright incorporation within the Hungarian kingdom from the 18th century. Croatia formed the highly militarized frontier between the Hapsburg and Ottoman dominions for several centuries. The coastal provinces of Dalmatia and Istria had a different history, however, falling under the administration of the Venetian Republic from the early 15th century. The famous maritime republics of Ragusa and Spalato were founded by Venetians and today (as Dubrovnik and Split) remain two of the most famous tourist destinations in the Mediterranean. At the end of World War I, Croatia and Dalmatia joined together as a component state within the new kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia.

Today’s Croatian economy is split evenly between agriculture and industry. The best farmland is in the far northeast, where corn, wheat, and fruits are grown. Timber is also a significant resource in this area. Industry is mostly light, concentrating on chemicals and plastics, plus some extractive products such as coal, petroleum, and bauxite. Privatization delays and unemployment are Croatia’s biggest issues today, as it works toward full membership in the EUROPEAN UNION.

Tourism is on the rise as the region becomes more secure and is currently Croatia’s biggest source of revenue. The Dalmatian coast is sunny and warm year-round, and is called the Riviera of the Adriatic. Dubrovnik was heavily damaged during warfare in the early 1990s but has been rebuilt under its status as a United Nations World Cultural Heritage Site.

Côte d’Ivoire

CÔTE D’IVOIRE (Ivory Coast) is bordered by MALI and BURKINA FASO on the north, by LIBERIA and GUINEA on the west, and by GHANA on the east. The official capital is Yamoussoukro, while the largest city and commercial center of the country is the former capital, Abidjan.

The south consists of a coastal lowland with heavy rainfall, the interior of a densely forested plateau, and the north of upland savannas. There are over 60 ethnic groups in Côte d’Ivoire, the major groups being the Baoule, Beti, Malinke, Senufo, Anyi, and Dan. Of the more than 5 million non-Ivoirian Africans living in Côte d’Ivoire, one-third to one-half are from Burkina Faso, and the rest are from Ghana, Guinea, Mali, NIGERIA, BENIN, SENEGAL, Liberia, and MAURITANIA. The non-African expatriate community includes roughly 130,000 Lebanese and 20,000 French. About 60 percent of the population is Muslim (who live predominately in the north), 25 percent follow traditional religious beliefs, and 15 percent are Christian (who are mostly concentrated in the south). French is the official language.

Côte d’Ivoire showed remarkable political stability from its independence from France on August 7, 1960, until late 1999. The first president was Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who remained in that position until his death in December 1993. He was succeeded by President Henri Konan Bédié, who was toppled by a bloodless coup by General Robert Guei on December 24, 1999, as falling world market prices for Côte d’Ivoire’s primary export crops of cocoa and coffee put pressure on the economy. Elections were scheduled for fall 2000 but were later cancelled by Guei, and this started a period of coups, attempted coups, and civil wars, which ended only in January 2003, when French troops intervened to broker a power-sharing national reconciliation government.

Despite steady industrialization since the 1960s and a high economic growth rate from its independence through the 1970s, the country is still predominantly agricultural, which contributes 29 percent to the gross domestic product and employs approximately 68 percent of the population. Côte d’Ivoire is among the world’s largest producers and exporters of coffee, cocoa beans, and palm-kernel oil. Other exports include cotton, bananas, pineapples, rubber, and mahogany and other hardwood timbers. Among the country’s industries are the production of foodstuffs, palm oil, petroleum and natural gas (offshore production began in the early 1980s), textiles, construction materials, and fertilizer, and the assembly of motor vehicles and bicycles. Côte d’Ivoire, or Ivory Coast, was named for the supplies of ivory brought to the coast for trade in colonial times.

Costa Rica

THE REPUBLIC OF Costa Rica, home to almost 3.9 million people, is located in Central America between NICARAGUa and PANAMA with CARIBBEAN SEA and PACIFIC OCEAN coastlines. With a narrow Pacific coastal region, Costa Rica is covered by rugged mountains with peaks over 12,000 ft (3,657 m) high, cutting the country from northwest to southeast. The chain contains several major volcanoes, one of which, Irazu, erupted destructively in the mid-1960s. Costa Rica suffers from occasional hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods in addition to volcanoes.

The coastal plains are low and subject to flooding, as well as being quite hot, humid, and heavily forested. The traditional Costa Rican economy was based upon the agricultural production of these coastal plains, where it is possible to cultivate an abundance of bananas, cocoa, and sugarcane. In contrast to the wet coastal plains, the Nicoya peninsula located in the northwest region of the country is made up of more arid plains. There, extensive cultivation of cash crops like sugarcane is not possible. Instead, these plains have been used by ranchers to raise large herds of cattle and by some farmers who grow grains.

The Central Valley lies between the mountain ranges and volcanoes, where the most productive land is found and coffee is cultivated extensively. Also, under the threat of an eruption, the majority of population lives in the Central Valley, which is the heart of the country and is renowned for its almost constant springlike climate. In addition, Costa Rica has sovereignty over a small island about 300 mi (482 km) off its Pacific Coast, known as Cocos Island, which is celebrated for its natural beauty.

The climate of Costa Rica is tropical and subtropical. The dry season lasts from December to April, while the rainy season lasts from May to November. While it is quite hot and humid along the coastal plains, the Central Valley and the highlands are much more agreeable. In some areas of the highlands, the temperature varies greatly from that of the coastal areas.

Costa Rica is a democratic republic separated and administered in the form of seven provinces. The executive branch is made up of a president and two vice presidents, a unicameral legislature, and a Supreme Court.

Costa Rica is one of the most stable countries in the Americas; only two very brief periods of instability have taken place since the late 19th century. As a result of the stability, the government has been able disband the military and to concentrate on economic development.

Even though Costa Rica is still mostly dependent upon its agricultural exports, diversification of the economy has succeeded in moving the country away from monocultures. After the success of government initiatives, Costa Rica is now home to expanding ecotourism and technology sectors. Consequently, the standard of living is high, especially relative to neighboring countries, and land ownership in the country is widespread.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Core and Periphery

CORE AND PERIPHERY are terms used in geographic models to describe areas of differing economic production and political power and can be applied to both intra- and interstate variations. Core areas are described as the engines of economic growth and are characterized by modern, technologically advanced production methods as well as highly skilled and highwage labor. Places using low-technology production methods accompanied by low skill and low-wage labor, on the other hand, are labeled the periphery.

Within the discipline of geography, the terms core and periphery are more common in the subdiscipline of political geography as compared to economic geography, where they have been deemphasized in favor of more complex notions of flows and processes. The concepts of core and periphery can be applied to various scales. At the interstate scale, examples of core areas are the UNITED STATES, the countries of Western Europe, and JAPAN. In these countries goods are produced using technologically complex methods, wages are high, and the labor force is relatively educated and skilled.

Countries like CAMBODIA, BANGLADESH, and most of Sub-Saharan Africa are examples of the periphery, where technologically simple, labor-intensive, lowskill, and low-wage occupations predominate. These are broad generalizations and within a country there can be areas of core processes and areas of peripheral processes. In the United States, for example, Silicon Valley in CALIFORNIA is a core area where high-technology businesses are clustered. Appalachia, on the other hand, is a peripheral area where technology is less complex and wages are low. Going down to even smaller scales, within a city core and peripheral areas can be spatially designated. In NEW YORK CITY, Wall Street and the financial district would represent a core area and some of the underdeveloped neighborhoods in the outer boroughs would be considered peripheral.

Although core and peripheral areas are often mapped, they are not place-based phenomena, but rather are characterized by the production processes present. Therefore, where core and peripheral processes are located, as well as what constitutes core and peripheral processes, can change over time. In each particular historical era core processes are the most technologically advanced production methods present. In the 19th century, core processes were characterized by the industrialized mass production of goods, such as textiles, in places like Manchester, England. In the present day, however, textile production is a peripheral production process common in countries of the global south. More technologically advanced computer and financial businesses predominate in core areas.

THEORIES OF CORE AND PERIPHERY

The terms core and periphery are used in many contexts, but surprisingly the two main theories of core and periphery disagree on what the outcome of this economic differentiation will be. On the one hand, exchange-based theories of core and periphery predict long-term lessening of economic inequalities as core areas develop the periphery and bring it up to an equal economic level. On the other hand, world systems theory predicts that the uneven development will be maintained as core areas exploit the natural resources, both commodities like timber and coal as well as cheap labor, in peripheral areas, which will further economic disparities.

WORLD ECONOMY

The exchange-based model of core-periphery relations is often associated with the writings of John Friedmann (1966), who first noted these economic differences in VENEZUELA. Exchange-based models rely on the notion that market forces, if undisturbed by state regulation, will eventually result in spatial economic equality. These theories suggest that the cheaper costs of labor and raw materials in peripheral areas will encourage businesses to invest there, which will bring development.

This idea, often known as developmentalism, is the underlying theory used by most governments in the world and by international organizations like the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) to promote free trade and economic reforms involving the deregulation of markets.

Critics of developmentalism have pointed out that over time economic disparities have widened rather than converging as the exchange-based models predicted. As an alternative, these scholars suggest world systems theory, also known as the world economy model, to explain core-periphery economic development. World systems theory was first proposed by Immanuel Wallerstein (1974) as a model to explain the persistence of worldwide economic disparities historically.

The world economy model focuses on the role countries play at the global scale and argues that there is one world economy driven by capital accumulation that has been in place for approximately the last 500 years.

A unique aspect of the world economy model is the way power is understood. The model suggests power is derived from a country’s ability to control situations through active force (waging war), latent force (threatening action), non-decision making (avoiding issues by never discussing them), and structural position. Core countries utilize their structural position by setting market prices and wages, controlling the economic agenda through international organizations (WB, IMF, WTO), and promoting free trade and open borders. 

Technological advances are likely to occur only in the core because of the superior infrastructure present, which maintains the core countries’ structural advantage. Consequently, in the world economy model, the core is often described as the exploiter and the periphery as exploited.

World systems theory also adds a third category, the semi-periphery, which mediates between core and peripheral areas, stabilizing the system. The semi-periphery, rather simply, is characterized by both core and peripheral processes. At the interstate scale, countries like SOUTH AFRICA or INDIA are currently examples of this intermediate level. In India, core processes are present in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai where high technology businesses are clustered. However, in other parts of India there are millions of people who work in subsistence agriculture and earn less than one dollar a day.

Critics of the world economy model point out that although the model suggests that the core has a structural advantage that allows it to maintain, and even strengthen, its position through unequal exchange of capital, several countries have been able to escape the periphery. Recent examples are countries like SINGAPORE and South KOREA, which have increased their gross domestic product rapidly in the past 50 years. Additionally, the United States, which is the strongest state in the core today, was a peripheral country 300 years ago.

Finally, both world systems and exchange-based models of core and periphery are criticized for their use of static categories that do not adequately reflect complexities and variations on the ground. Although the terms core and periphery imply that discrete categories exist that are homogeneous within them and heterogeneous between them, in reality it is better to think of a continuum that flows between each level in these geographic models.

Cook Islands

PART OF NEW ZEALAND, the Cook Islands consist of 15 islands in the south PACIFIC OCEAN, about halfway between HAWAII and NEW ZEALAND. They are about the same size as RHODE ISLAND. The islands are scattered over an area of more than 706,566 square mi (1.83 million square km). The nine islands in the southern group were formed by volcanic material escaping from a fracture in the Earth’s crust. Most of the population lives on these fertile islands. The northern islands are low coral atolls. The mountainous Rarotonga in the southern group is the largest island.

The Cook Islands have a tropical climate, moderated by trade winds, similar to Hawaii’s climate. It is often sunny, and the rains, although sometimes heavy, don’t last long. Hurricanes can occur during their summer, from December to March. The interior of Rarotonga is the wettest place in the islands. The highest temperatures, averaging 84 degrees F (29 degrees C), occur during the wet season. In the coolest months, the average daily high temperature is 77 degrees F (25 degrees C). Lush vegetation grows on the Cook Islands. Tall trees, creepers, and ferns grow in the interior. Food plants, such as coconuts, bananas, and grapefruit are found on the coast. Yams and taro are important food crops.

Most Cook Islanders are of Polynesian background, although a few people are a mix of Polynesian and other cultures. The Polynesians belong to the Maori branch of the Polynesian race and are related to the Maoris of New Zealand. The official languages are English and Maori, and most people speak both. The overwhelming majority of the people are Christian. Most belong to the Cook Islands Christian Church, founded in the 1820s by missionaries. Cook Islanders are excellent dancers. Traditional music is also popular. 

Islanders compete in dance and singing competitions. String bands use a combination of electronics and traditional instruments fashioned from coconut shells. Visitors can choose from a large selection of arts and crafts made by the Islanders. Popular items include coconut- fiber hats, brightly-colored wraparound clothing, wood carvings, and pottery. Woven mats and blankets are also in demand, as are carved bowls.

Avarua, located on Rarotonga, is the nation’s capital and largest town. Although it is a typical small tropical town, it boasts a gallery, the National Cultural Centre, and a branch of the University of the South Pacific. A number of small villages are scattered around the islands. The Cook Islands have been occupied by the Polynesians for 1,500 years. Captain James Cook discovered some of the islands in 1773. Missionaries from London, converted most of the islanders to Christianity. The islands were a British protectorate from 1888 until 1901, when they were annexed by New Zealand. Although still officially a part of New Zealand, the islands are self-governing.

Continents

THE EARTH IS AN ocean-dominated planet. Only one-third of the planet’s surface is dry land. The Earth’s land areas include innumerable islands and several larger expanses of land termed continents. A continent is defined as a mass of land significantly larger than an island, completely or nearly surrounded by ocean water. By common agreement among geographers, the Earth’s smallest continent is AUSTRALIA while the Earth’s largest island is GREENLAND. Australia’s area is about 2,966,000 square mi (7,682,000 square km), while the area of Greenland is approximately 836,000 square mi (2,165,000 square km).

The outermost rock layer of the earth is termed the crust. The oceanic crust is composed almost entirely of basalt, a dense igneous rock. The earth’s continental crust, in contrast, is composed largely of lighter granitic rock. The continental crust varies greatly in thickness but averages about 35 mi (56 km) thick. The oceanic crust, in contrast, averages only about 4 mi (6 km) thick. Because of the imprecision of the definition, geographers do not agree on the number of the earth’s continents. Geographers in the United States commonly recognize seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

The ancient Greeks recognized three continents bordering and surrounding the MEDITERRANEAN SEA (the “sea in the middle of the lands”). Africa was almost completely separated from Asia by the RED SEA, while Asia was separated from Europe by the AEGEAN SEA, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the BLACK SEA. In later centuries, when exploration revealed that Europe was in reality not a separate landmass, Europe was redefined to include extensive land boundaries—in violation of the generally accepted definition of a continent. The boundary between Europe and Asia is now generally accepted to begin at the Aegean and to continue through the Dard-anelles, the Black Sea, the CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS, the CASPIAN SEA, the Ural River, and the URAL MOUNTAINS. The Ural Mountains thus separate European Russia from Siberia.

In lists of continents compiled outside the United States, Europe and Asia are often combined as Eurasia. And since Africa and Asia are connected at the Suez Peninsula, Europe, Africa, and Asia are sometimes combined as Afro-Eurasia or Eurafrasia. The International Olympic Committee’s official flag, containing five interlocking colored rings, symbolizes the five continents that send athletes to the Olympic Games: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the single continent of America (North and South America being connected at the Isthmus of Panama). Antarctica, the uninhabited continent, is unrepresented. In modern times, artificial canals have been dug to connect oceans at both Suez and PANAMA. Along with the Red Sea, the Suez Canal is now sometimes said to separate Africa from Asia. The PANAMA CANAL, likewise, is sometimes considered to mark the boundary between the North and South American continents.

All of the continents except Antarctica are roughly triangular in shape, narrower in the south than in the north, a consequence of the way the early super-continental landmass of Pangaea broke apart. Two-thirds of the landmass of the continents occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the hemisphere centered on Europe. The large landmass of Eurasia is balanced on the other side of the globe by the large water mass of the South PACIFIC OCEAN. The continental landmass of Antarctica is countered by the ARCTIC OCEAN.

A subcontinent is a subdivision of a continent, a large peninsula that may be separated from the rest of the continent by geographic features of some kind. The most widely recognized subcontinent is the Indian subcontinent, the large peninsula jutting southward from the mass of Asia, isolated from the rest of Asia by the HIMALAYAS. In British English, “the subcontinent” usually refers to INDIA, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, and adjacent areas—in the same way that to the British “the continent” refers to the continent of Europe. If one considers Eurasia a continent, though, Europe is
merely a subcontinent attached to the larger continental landmass. Other subcontinents might include the Arabian Peninsula of southwestern Asia, the southern cone of South America, and ALASKA (the northwestern peninsula of North America).

Continents are fringed by CONTINENTAL SHELVES, offshore areas of relatively shallow oceanic water. Shallow waters, with depths up to 600 ft (180 m), roughly follow the outline of the continents, up to the point where the continental slopes quickly drop off to the usual oceanic depths of 12,000 ft (3,660 m) or so. In places such as the Grant Banks east of Newfoundland, the continental shelf can be 250 mi (400 km) wide. In other places, especially along tectonically active coastlines such as CALIFORNIA, the continental shelf may be almost nonexistent.

A continental divide is the line along the backbone of a continent separating the drainage basins of the oceans surrounding that continent. The continental divide of North America follows the ROCKY MOUNTAINS from Alaska south to MEXICO, and is then continued through Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental and the mountains of Central America to Panama. Streams to the west of this divide feed rivers that run to the Pacific Ocean. Streams to the east flow eventually to the ATLANTIC OCEAN or to its connecting seas (Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, or the CARIBBEAN SEA).

Continentality

CONTINENTALITY IS A climatic effect that results from a continental interior being insulated from oceanic influences. Winds and air masses of moderate temperature that originate over oceans move onshore to diminish differences in winter and summer temperatures in coastal areas of continents. Interiors of continents are too distant to experience the moderating effect. As a result, climates of continental interiors have great seasonal differences of temperatures and a mean annual temperature below the latitudinal average. Continental interior climates also tend to be subhumid to arid, as oceans are primary sources of atmospheric moisture.

Alexander von Humboldt, the celebrated 19th-century German geographer, was the first person to provide empirical proof that the climate of continental interiors differs from that of coasts. Through letter writing and extensive travels, he collected enough weather station data to draw the first world map of isotherms. (Isotherms are lines that join points of equal temperatures, and their patterns on a map reveal temperature trends over distance.) After examining the map, von Humboldt concluded that continental climates are colder in winter and warmer in summer than places near oceans at the same latitude. He popularized the term continentality to describe the effect that a location’s distance from an ocean has on its mean annual range of temperature.

Since von Humboldt’s time, geographers and scientists have used other climatic elements to measure continentality, including precipitation, wind, and air mass frequency. Nevertheless, the most widely accepted criterion remains the mean annual range of temperature, which is the difference between a location’s warmest and coldest average monthly temperatures. This facile calculation is a clear-cut expression of how climates of inland and coastal areas differ. The spatial variation of the mean annual range of temperature is a result of differential heating of air by land and water. The differences in summer and winter temperatures over land and water are greatest.

In summer, air temperature over the ocean is cooler than over the land. There are several reasons for the difference. First, chemically, water has a higher specific heat than land does, meaning water must absorb more solar energy than rock and soil in order to be raised the same number of degrees in temperature. Water also heats more slowly than land does because solar energy passes tens of meters below the water surface before it is absorbed completely. Land heats up faster than water because heat conducts only a few inches (centimeters) and feet (meters) into the ground. Additionally, water stores heat at even greater depths than land does, as downwelling of water distributes absorbed energy hundreds of meters below the surface. Water undergoes high rates of evaporation in summer, which cools air temperatures by transferring sensible heat of water into air as nonsensible heat of vaporization.

In winter, the ocean is still in the slow process of transferring heat energy stored during the summer into the atmosphere. The belated transfer makes air over the ocean relatively warmer than that over land; conversely, winter air over land is cooler because summer heat is stored closer to the ground surface, causing land in winter to cool air faster and to a lower temperature than water does.

A main influence on the mean annual range of temperature on land is distance from the oceans. Three cities on the North European Plain that are progressively farther inland illustrate the effect. Antwerp, BELGIUM, is nearest the Atlantic Ocean; Warsaw, POLAND, is a mid-distance away; and Saratov, RUSSIA, is farthest from the ocean. In this example, latitude, which affects sun angle and therefore intensity of solar energy, does not explain differences in mean annual temperature ranges of the cities, as the three are less than 1-degree latitude apart (between 51 degrees N to 52 degrees N). Therefore, distance from the ocean is the only major factor that could explain the differences. The plain’s open terrain gives all three cities potential access to the moderating effects of the westerlies, a belt winds that blows across the ATLANTIC OCEAN and carries marine heat and water vapor inland. However, temperature data show that the size of the mean annual temperature range increases with distance from the ocean. Antwerp’s mean range is 26.6 degrees F (14.8 degrees C); Warsaw’s is 35 degrees F (19.5 degrees C); and Saratov’s range is 59.3 degrees F (32.9 degrees C). Antwerp has a moderate temperature range because it is within 50 mi (80 km) of the sea. Saratov’s range is more than double Antwerp’s because it is 1,600 mi (2,700 km) inland. Warsaw’s temperature swing is between the two extremes, owing to its middle-distance location of 600 mi (950 km) from the ocean.

Mountains influence continentality by limiting the distance that maritime winds can enter continents. For example, NEVADA is coastal CALIFORNIA’s inland neighbor and not far from the Pacific Ocean. However, the Sierra Nevada of California add to the continentality of Nevada by blocking marine air of the westerlies from the ocean. The absence of the ocean’s humidity in Nevada leads to fewer clouds there. Clearer skies means Nevada has greater solar heating in summer and radiation cooling in winter than it would have if mountains were not present to block ocean air from entering. Additionally, blocking of moist ocean air causes aridity in Nevada.

Latitude also influences continentality. In the tropics, annual temperature swings usually are small even in continental interiors. In middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the continental effect is an overriding factor in climates of continents, as average annual temperature ranges increase with increasing latitude there. In the middle latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, the effect of continentality is smaller, as continental areas are less massive in that part of the world.

In areas poleward of the middle latitudes, the polar night and ice cover introduce complications, so it is difficult to separate influences of land or sea in terms of temperature or other climate variables. Climate scientists have developed several formulas to correct temperature range for polar latitudes.

Continental Shelf

A CONTINENTAL SHELF is the submerged top of the continent’s edge, lying between the shoreline and the continental slope that forms a border to a continent. In other words, the surface of the Earth lies at two general levels: a lower, which is the floor of the ocean basins, and an upper, the parts of which are the continents. Between these two levels is a comparatively narrow slope. The volume of ocean water is, however, a little too great to be entirely contained in the ocean basins, and so it must lap over somewhat on the lower, outer edges of the continental platforms. Such a submerged outer edge is called the continental self. The shelf is made shallower by deposition of material eroded from the land. The shelf has a gentle slope and is the shallowest portion of the ocean. Usually, a shelf is less than 650 ft (200 m) deep; in ANTARCTICA the continental shelf averages 1,650 ft (500 m).

The continental shelves are the regions of the oceans best known and the most exploited commercially. It is this region where virtually all of the petroleum, commercial sand and gravel deposits, and fishery resources are found. It is also the locus of waste dumping. Changes in sea level have alternately exposed and inundated portions of the continental shelf. A continental shelf typically extends from the coast to depths of 330 to 600 ft (100 to 200 m). In nearly all instances, it ends at its seaward edge with an abrupt drop called the shelf break. Below this lies the continental slope, a much steeper zone that usually merges with the section of ocean floor called the continental rise at a depth of roughly 13,000 to 16,000 ft (4,000 to 5,000 m).

The shelf varies greatly in width, but it averages about 40 mi or 65 km. Almost everywhere it represents simply a continuation of the land surface beneath the ocean margins; hence, it is broad and relatively level offshore from plains, and narrow, rough, and steep off mountainous coasts. For example, the shelf along the mountainous western coast of the United States is narrow, measuring only about 20 mi or 32 km wide, whereas that fringing the eastern coast extends more than 75 mi or 120 km in width. Exceptionally broad shelves occur off northern AUSTRALIA and ARGENTINA.

The continental slopes begin at the shelf break and plunge downward to the great depths of the ocean basin proper. Deep submarine CANYONs, some comparable in size to the GRAND CANYON of the Colorado River, are sometimes found cutting across the shelf and slope, often extending from the mouths of terrestrial rivers. The CONGO, AMAZON, GANGES, and HUDSON rivers all have submarine canyon extensions. It is assumed that submarine canyons on the continental shelf were initially carved during periods of lower sea level in the course of the ice ages. Their continental slope extensions were carved and more recently modified by turbidity currents—subsea “landslides” of a dense slurry of water and sediment.

Some parts of the world’s continental shelves are extremely level (for example, the parts off the Arctic coast of SIBERIA), but more commonly, they exhibit some relief. Close to the coast of New England are submerged glacial deposits. In places, ridges or cliffs can be traced from the land onto the continental shelf. Usually continental shelves are covered with a layer of sand, silts, and mud. In a few cases, steep-walled Vshaped submarine canyons cut deeply into both the shelf and the slope below. Some of them connect with a system of land valleys, but their origin is one of the great scientific puzzles.

Many continental slopes end in gently sloping, smooth-surfaced features called continental rises. The continental rises usually have an inclination of less than half a degree. They have been found to consist of thick deposits of sediment, presumably deposited as a result of slumping and turbidity currents carrying sediment off the shelf and slope. The continental shelf, slope, and rise together are called the continental margin. Since the 1970s an increasing number of investigators have sought to explain the origin of continental shelves and their related structures in terms of PLATE TECTONICS theory. According to this theory, the shelves of the PACIFIC OCEAN, for example, formed as the leading edges of continental margins on lithospheric plates that terminate either at fracture zones (sites where two such plates slide past each other) or at subduction zones (sites where one of the colliding plates plunges into the underlying partially molten asthenosphere and is consumed, while the overriding plate is uplifted). 

Shelves of such origin tend to be steep, deformed, and covered by a thin layer of erosional debris. The Atlantic continental shelves, on the other hand, show little or no tectonic deformation and bear a thick veneer of sedimentary material. They are thought to be remnants of the trailing edges of the enormous plates that split apart and receded many millions of years ago to form the Atlantic basin. As the edges of the plates gradually contracted and subsided, large amounts of sand, slits and mud from the continents settled and accumulated along the seaward side.

The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) consists of the submerged lands, subsoil, and seabed, lying between the seaward extent of the states’ jurisdiction and the seaward extent of federal jurisdiction. The continental shelf is the gently sloping undersea plain between a continent and the deep ocean. The United States OCS has been divided into four leasing regions. They are the Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, the Atlantic OCS Region, the Pacific OCS Region, and the Alaska OCS Region.

In the United States in 1953, Congress designated the secretary of the interior to administer mineral exploration and development of the entire OCS through the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).

Continental Drift

CONTINENTAL DRIFT INVOLVES large-scale horizontal movements of continents relative to one another and to the ocean basins during one or more episodes of geologic time. The hypothesis of large-scale movement or displacement of continents has a long history. About 1800, Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist, noted the apparent fit of the bulge of eastern South America into the bight of Africa. On the basis of this observation, he theorized that the lands bordering the ATLANTIC OCEAN had once been joined. Half a century later, a French scientist Antonio Snider-Pellegrini argued that the presence of identical fossil plants in both North America and European coal deposits could be explained if the two continents were formerly connected, and was difficult to account for otherwise. In 1908, U.S. scientist Frank B. Taylor invoked the notion of continental collision to explain the formation of some of the world’s mountain ranges.

Building on the previous arguments, the first comprehensive theory of continental drift was introduced by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist. It was unusual that it attracted worldwide attention, caused scores of scientific papers to be written attacking or defending it, and still has many staunch and convinced adherents despite numerous grave theoretical difficulties. It has long been known that the continental portions of the earth’s crust consist chiefly of the lighter and more acid rocks; beneath this, it was commonly supposed, there was a layer of denser and more basic rocks.

FLOATING CONTINENTS

Wegener essentially proposed that the lighter continents are floating on the denser underlying material. By bringing together a large mass of geological and paleontological data, he postulated that for a large part of geological history there was but a single land mass or continent that covered about one-third of the globe. He called that single continent Pangaea, which late in the Triassic period (245 to 208 million years ago) fragmented, and the parts began to move away from one another. Westward drift of the Americas opened the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian block drifted across the equator to merge with Asia. One of Wegener’s chief arguments was the assertion that eastern North and South America would fit well into the outlines of western Africa and Europe.

In 1937 Alexander L. Du Toit, a South African geologist, modified Wegener’s hypothesis by suggesting two primordial continents: Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland (or Gondwana) in the south. Aside from the congruency of continental shelf margins across the Atlantic, modern proponents of continental drift have amassed impressive geological and seismological evidence to support their views. Indicators of widespread glaciation from 380 to 250 million years ago are evident in ANTARCTICA, southern South America, southern Africa, INDIA, and AUSTRALIA. If these continents were once united around the south polar region, this glaciation would become explicable as a unified sequence of events in time and space.

Also, fitting the Americas with the continents across the Atlantic brings together similar kinds of rocks and geologic structures. A belt of ancient rocks along the Brazilian coast, for example, matches one in Africa. Moreover, the earliest marine deposits along the Atlantic coastlines of either South America or Africa are Jurassic in age (208 to 144 million years old), suggesting that the ocean did not exist before that time.

In the 1950s, interest in the concept of continental drift increased as knowledge of earth’s magnetic field during the geologic past developed from the studies of geophysicists Stanley K. Runcorn, P.M.S. Blackett, and others. Ferromagnetic minerals such as magnetite acquire a permanent magnetization when they crystallize as constituents of igneous rock. The direction of their magnetization is the same as the direction of the earth’s magnetic field at the time and place of crystallization.

REMNANT MAGNETISM

Particles of magnetized materials released from their parent igneous rocks by weathering may later realign themselves with the existing magnetic field at the time these particles are incorporated into sedimentary deposit. Studies of the remnant magnetism in suitable rocks of different ages from all over the world indicate that the magnetic poles were in different places at different times. The polar wandering curves are different for the various continents, but in important instances such differences are reconciled on the assumption that continents now separated were formally joined. The curves for Europe and North America, for example, are reconciled by the assumption that the latter has drifted about 30 degrees westward relative to Europe since the Triassic period.

Increased knowledge about the configuration of the ocean floor and the subsequent formulation of the concepts of seafloor spreading and the theory of PLATE TECTONICS provide further support for the theory of continental drift. During the early 1960s, the American geophysicist Harry H. Hess proposed that new oceanic crest is continually generated by igneous activity at the crests of mid ocean ridges, submarine mountains that flow a sinuous course of about 37,000 mi (60,000 km) along the bottom of the major ocean basins. Molten rock material from the earth’s mantle rises upward to the crests, cools, and is later pushed aside by new intrusions.

The ocean floor is thus pushed at right angles and in opposite directions away from the crest. By the late 1960s, several American investigators, among them Jack E. Oliver and Bryan L. Isacks, had integrated this notion of seafloor spreading with that of drifting continents and formulated the basis for plate tectonic theory. According to the later hypothesis, the earth’s surface, or lithosphere, is composed of a number of large, rigid plates that float on a soft (presumably partially molten) layer of the mantle known as the asthenosphere. The margins of the plates are defined by narrow bands in which 80 percent of the world’s earthquakes and volcanoes occur. There are three types of boundaries.

The first of these is a very narrow band of shallow earthquakes caused by tensile stresses that follow exactly the crest of the 49,000-mi- (80,000-km-) long, active midocean ridges. The second boundary type occurs in areas where these ridges are offset. Earthquakes are much more violent along fault lines at such sites and results from the plates on either side of the faults grinding literally past one another in opposite directions. 

Earthquakes forming the third boundary are distributed more diffusely but include all the world’s deep earthquakes, that is, those originating at depths greater than 90 mi (145 km) and are associated with extremely narrow zones where the ocean floor descends below its normal depth to as much as 6.5 mi (10.5 km) below sea level—oceanic trenches. Across this margin, the maximum earthquake depths systematically increase along a dipping plane, with shallower earthquakes associated principally with the volcanic activity that borders each trench.

The ridge-crest earthquakes originate because of the tension created when the plates on either side move in opposite directions. This movement also releases the pressure on the underlying hot rocks, causing them to begin melting. The resulting magmas rise to form volcanoes (such as those in ICELAND), which then solidify and later fracture as the tensional forces reassert themselves. Such new volcanic rocks thus become added to the edge of each plate, which grows at these “constructive” margins.

The evidence for plate motion is not only the nature of the earthquakes but also the age of the volcanic oceanic rocks. Dating can be achieved by using both the fossil contents of the sediments overlying the volcanic rocks and the time record represented by the anomalies in the magnetism of the rocks, which can be detected by ships sailing on the ocean surface. These show that the youngest volcanic rocks are at the crest of the midocean ridges and the oldest are in the deepest areas, that is, the oceanic trenches. Nowhere, however, are such rocks older than 190 million years, indicating that all older oceanic rocks must have been destroyed. 

The midocean ridges occur along some of the plate margins. Where this is the case, the lithospheric plates separate and the upwelling mantle material forms new ocean floor along the trailing edges. As the plates move away from the flanks of the ridges, they carry the continents with them. On the basis of all these factors, it may be assumed that the Americas were joined with Europe and Africa until approximately 190 million years ago, when a rift split them apart along what is now the crest of the mid-Atlantic Ridge. Subsequent plate movements averaging .8 in or 2 cm per year have brought the continents to their present position.

Although the lateral extent of the plates is well defined, their thickness is less certain. At the crest of the oceanic ridge they are very thin, but heat-flow and seismic evidence suggest that the basin increases rapidly with depth, reaching 30 to 36 mi (48 to 57 km) within about 6 to 12 mi (9 to 19 km) of the crest. By about 597 mi (960 km) distance from the crest, the basin has increased to 71 mi (115 km). A plate may be subducted at any thickness but rarely exceeds 90 mi (145 km).

Moreover, the presence of volcanic rocks indicates that here the Earth’s lithosphere is at least 118 mi (190 km) thick, so that mantle flow, which causes plate motions, must occur at even greater depths. It seems likely, though still unproven, that the breakup of a single landmass and the drifting of its fragments is merely the latest in a series of similar occurrences throughout geologic time.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Containment Concept

CONTAINMENT IS a political concept that served as the muted geopolitical battle cry for the UNITED STATES in the four decades of the Cold War (1947–89). It was first articulated in an embassy report from a young diplomat in Moscow dated February 22, 1946. In the “long telegram” George F. Kennan laid out a philosophical and conceptual framework for understanding the Soviet Union’s approach to the world.

He pointed to a basic Russian psychic insecurity that underlay all their historic interactions with other nations, a sense of impending danger from the open STEPPE and a need for greater buffers and more impenetrable boundaries. Thus conflict with the Soviet Union was no shortcoming on the part of U.S. diplomacy but was more a perennial part of the Soviet perception of the outside world exacerbated by the flawed ideology of communism. Furthermore, it was the moral duty of the United States to stay its ground as the defender of personal liberty and democratic principles. This conflict was not a pragmatic case of give and take, rather a fight to the death between good and evil. Kennan called for a heroic struggle that had neither time limits nor geographical bounds.

This pathway of American moral imperative had powerful detractors from the beginning. Since it asked for the good fight to be fought at all points of the compass according to the “shifts and maneuvers of Soviet policy” it allowed no distinction between vital and peripheral interests. As the Truman Doctrine became a working reality around the world, Kennan’s view of political and economic containment gave way to the administration’s more martial strategy.

Sentiments from Europe embodied in the mighty voice of Winston Churchill called for the West to seek concession from the Soviet Union immediately while the U.S. atomic monopoly remained. Containment was patently defensive in nature, giving up the initiative to an aggressive adversary. Truman’s political opponents would call for a more aggressive “rollback” of the communist advance with a more proactive posture.

The early criticism of former vice president Henry Wallace that questioned America’s moral right to wage an ideological and material war against communism, continued to plague the American mindset during the Cold War.

Kennan’s insights would become the basis of the Truman administration’s foreign policy. Stalin had proven to be an unreliable partner in the liberation and reconstruction of Europe. Instead the Kremlin chose to confound Western consolidation by instigating insurgency in GREECE and pressing communist parties to civil disobedience in Europe. As embers of discontent glowed among the ashes of Europe, Britain proved too weak to take up the crusade against a new threat to democracy.

The United States instinctively moved toward this moral challenge but needed more than the old world balance of power rationale. The administration saw the struggle against the Soviet Union as a struggle against two ways of life, a call to the protection of freedom everywhere. Here Kennan’s concept of containment gave an American vision and voice to the epic struggle. The Truman Doctrine took a moral high ground of supporting all free peoples who would resist subjugation by armed minorities or external forces.

This meant immediate military and economic support to GREECE and TURKEY; Greece representing the European victims of World War II and Turkey the new American commitment to all nations struggling for freedom.

Each administration after Truman used the clarion call of containment as the framework of its foreign policy. Its lack of specifics regarding U.S. national interests caused much debate as to action. The countering of Soviet influence was seen to require the pouring of treasure into military bases around the world, the coffers of regional treaty organizations and power brokers, and weapons programs designed for the apocalypse. It also justified the shedding of blood in such diverse places as the Korean peninsula, the jungles of VIETNAM, and the islands of the CARIBBEAN SEA.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sees Kennan’s article rising to the level of historical philosophy, in calling the United States to a moral crusade heroic in proportion and idealistic in purpose. The United States could pursue its foreign policy in the spirit of righteously feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and defending the weak. The Cold War has been won.

The Soviet Union dissolved and communism lapsed as a viable ideology among nations. Containment’s legacy in Europe is the NORTH AMERICAN TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), the EUROPEAN UNION, and the newly independent states of Eastern Europe eager to join in. The United States was left with an armed might of global proportions that was available for the handling of rogue regimes such as Iraq and AFGHANISTAN.

The concept of containment, in miniature, continues in the U.S. focus on an “axis of evil,” as U.S. President George W. Bush described Iraq, IRAN, and North KOREA.

Connecticut

CONNECTICUT IS the southernmost of the New England states in the northeastern UNITED STATES and has borders with MASSACHUSETTS in the north, NEW YORK in the west, and RHODE ISLAND to the east. There is also a very small area in the very northeast corner where Massachusetts extends south creating an eastern border. To the south, the Long Island Sound separates Connecticut from New York’s Long Island, while Block Island and the Block Island Sound separate the coastal region from the ATLANTIC OCEAN.

The state has a roughly rectangular shape, extending approximately 90 mi (145 km) from east to west and 55 mi (90 km) from north to south. There is a very small protrusion in the southeast that juts into New York along the Long Island Sound. With an area of 5,009 square mi (12,973 square km), Connecticut ranks 48th nationally in size. With a population of 3,405,565, however, the state ranks 29th nationally in total population and is 4th in terms of population density, with 703 persons per square mile (1,821 per square km). But the high-density ranking does not mean there is not a rural feeling as you travel around the state. Most of the people live in or around Hartford (the capital) or within the corridor that extends southeast to New Haven (home to Yale University), Bridgeport (the largest city at 135,529) and New York. Overall, the state’s 10 largest cities account for only 28 percent of the state’s population.

The state is easily divided into three distinct regions on an east-west basis, plus a narrow coastal region running east-west that provides a north-south distinction. The land in the west is part of what is generally referred to as the Western Highlands, a landform that extends northward into Massachusetts and Vermont. Here the land slopes downward as you move south and east. Steep hills, sharp ridges, and numerous streams characterize the rugged beauty of the Berkshires, part of the Taconic Mountains in the very northwestern portion of the state between the Housatonic River and the New York border. The state’s highest point of 2,380 feet (725 m) above sea level is here on the southern slopes of Mount Frissell, whose main peak at 2,453 ft (748 m) is on the Massachusetts side of the border. 

The heavily forested Eastern Highlands, which extend from the Connecticut Valley lowland northeastward to MAINE, are not as high as the Western Highlands. Running north-south down the middle of the state following the Connecticut River is the Connecticut River Lowland, a narrow strip of land approximately 30 miles wide (48 km), characterized by numerous small rivers and low hills. The southern coastal lowlands run along the southern shores of the state where the land meets the Long Island Sound. The area varies from 6 to 16 mi (10 to 26 km) wide, contains numerous beaches and small harbors, and, because of the protection offered by Long Island, has become a popular summer resort retreat.

HISTORY

The Dutch were the first Europeans to explore the area when Adriaen Block sailed through Long Island Sound and explored the Connecticut River in 1614. By 1633, the Dutch had built a small fort near present-day Hartford, but the area was abandoned in the 1650s as more and more English settlers arrived. As the Puritans came in increasing numbers, the population expanded so that by 1662, when the colony received a legal charter from the English to exist as a corporate colony, there were more than a dozen towns. Connecticut was the fifth of the original 13 colonies to ratify the new constitution, officially becoming a state of the United States in January 1788.

After the Embargo Act of 1807 ruined the shipbuilding industry, manufacturing became the centerpiece of the state economy as increasing numbers of tradesman came to the area. The manufacture of firearms was one of the mainstays of the economy in the late 1700s, as craftsman worked to turn Connecticut iron into patriot guns. Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, opened the first modern factory to massproduce materials when he founded a firearms factory to produce guns with standardized interchangeable parts at New Haven in 1798. Textiles, silverware, sewing machines, and clocks and watches were among the state’s early manufactured goods. The insurance industry, long a key word associated with images of the state’s economy and Hartford, had its beginnings in 1810 when the Hartford Fire Insurance Company opened its doors for business.

Today, although famed for its rural character and village atmosphere, most of the wealth in Connecticut is derived from industry. The state is an important producer of jet engines and parts, electronics and electrical machinery, computer equipment, and helicopters. Firearms and ammunition, first produced here at the time of the American Revolution, are still made, and Groton, where the first nuclear submarine was built in 1954, remains a center for submarine building. Because much of the manufacturing is related to military spending, Connecticut’s heavy industry remains subject to the periodic ups and downs of the U.S. military budget. Fortunately, the growth of financial, insurance, real estate, and service industries has more than offset any declines brought on by manufacturing downturns, helping to turn the state into one of the wealthiest in the nation. Connecticut ranks first in both per capita income ($40,702) and disposable income per capita ($32,655).

Agriculture accounts for only a small share of state income. The state’s major agricultural products include dairy products, eggs, vegetables, tobacco, mushrooms, and apples. High-grade broadleaf tobacco used in making cigar wrappers has been an important agricultural crop since the 1830s. The fishing industry is relatively small and has been hampered recently by pollution in the waters of the Long Island Sound. Stone accounts for most of the income derived from mining as it has since the 1800s when the Brownstone Quarries at Portland provided stones for mansions and public buildings.