Canadian Shield

THE CANADIAN or Laurentian Shield, the largest natural region of North America at 1.1 million square mi (3 million square km), is located north of the St.Lawrence Lowland and east of the Interior Plains. It is composed of igneous and metamorphic rock of Precambrian origin, some of the oldest rock on Earth.

More than 80 percent of the surface is exposed gneissic granite, basement rock at the surface, the product of intense glacial action and erosion over the past half billion years. Glacier ice scoured the rock and sculpted river valleys, dragged and laid down boulders called erratics, and severely disrupted the surface drainage pattern. The shield is largely devoid of soil and dotted by hundreds of thousands of swamps, lakes, rivers, and streams. The shield is stable continental crust gently rolling in character (under 2,000 ft or 600 m) with occasional prominent uplifts of crustal blocks. One sees

the sharpest local relief along the southern edge, especially the Laurentide Escarpment in Quebec. The shield exhibits a bowl shape as it slopes gently northward to Hudson Bay. Glacial debris has been deposited in river valleys and lowlands to considerable depths, such as around James Bay and Hudson Bay, giving the landscapes a notable flatness.

Long, cold winters and short, cool summers characterize the region. Though primarily rock, water, and ice, the shield also hosts a vast boreal or softwood forest of spruce, fir, pines, and tamaracks, tall and dense in the south to short and sparse in the north. Soils are poorly drained, acidic, and thin, and therefore of limited value to agriculture. These soils are mainly spodosols, associated with evergreen forest, while the northern TUNDRA soils are heavily moisture laden and frozen for much of the year. Fertile soils are limited to a few river valleys where deposition has been significant. The shield effectively divided eastern and western CANADA and posed a major barrier to westward migration. The Hudson’s Bay Company created a trade monopoly across the region and laid the basis for a network of extractive industries. Settlements today are mostly small, widely dispersed, have narrowly based economies based on extractive industries such as mining, and are controlled largely by the urban-industrial core to the south. Sudbury, Ontario, at 160,500 is the largest metropolitan center in the region, followed by Thunder Bay, Ontario, at 125,000.

Inuit and native populations are well represented on the shield, although in scattered locations, and the population in general faces limited economic opportunities, unemployment, and related social problems. The shield has figured prominently in the development of Canadian character and culture, as evidenced in everything from art and music to the stories of Jack London.

Metallic ores are concentrated in an arc between the North ATLANTIC OCEAN, ST. LAWRENCE RIVER, and the Arctic as, for example, nickel at Sudbury, copperlead- zinc at Flin Flon, and iron ore on the Quebec- Labrador border and in western Ontario. Access is a critical issue, especially for extractive industries like mining and lumbering that depend heavily on overland transport. Construction costs are high over vast distances of rocky, ill-drained surfaces where population densities are low. Railroad lines extend from the Prairie Provinces to Churchill on Hudson Bay as well as to mining developments on the Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, and to James Bay in Quebec. Helicopter and small plane services are integral to the region. All in all, transportation networks are not well developed, and communities face ongoing problems of isolation, high costs, and uneven integration into the Canadian economy.

The shield holds great hydroelectric potential, especially along its southern edge where local relief is most abrupt. Power stations at Churchill Falls, Labrador, and James Bay, Quebec, are the shield’s two largest hydroelectric developments. Power is abundant, sold to markets in the northeastern UNITED STATES, and important as cheap energy for aluminum manufacturing, lumber processing, and other shield industries. Intimate functional relationships have grown up between the resource areas of the shield and the processing industries of the St. Lawrence Valley. Tourism is a fastdeveloping industry, especially on the southern margins, and is accompanied by growing public concern over preservation of the fragile shield environment.

Cameroon

CAMEROON IS A triangle-shaped nation slightly larger than CALIFORNIA. It is wedged between NIGERIA and EQUATORIAL GUINEA on Africa’s west-central Atlantic coast at the Bight of Biafra. The country has varied terrain with western mountains, northern grasslands, and tropical lowlands in the south. Forests line the Atlantic coast. Grassy savannas stretch northeast to marshes on Lake CHAD. To the east is the CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. To the south are GABON and CONGO.

Tourism is limited, but recreational areas include beaches near Kribi and abundant wildlife within the national parks, particularly herds of elephants protected in Waza National Park. Archaeologists’ findings of stone tools and rock carvings indicate that prehistoric peoples preceded the Bantu speakers who first came to the northern highlands about 2,000 years ago.

A state called Kanem existed during the 8th century and included parts of present-day Cameroon. Today, the population includes pygmy tribes and 200 different ethnic groups from 24 different language groups and 80 distinct dialects. The largest tribes are Bamileke (30 percent) and Fulani (7 percent). The predominant religions are animist (51 percent), Christianity (33 percent), and Islam (16 percent).

The country’s name comes from the Portuguese word for shrimp after European explorers in the 1400s who found small crayfish that looked like shrimp in the Wouri River. Slave trading flourished from the 15th century well into the mid-1800s; thousands died fighting slave raiders or suffering from cruel conditions en route to the Western and Arabic worlds, where they were forced into unpaid labor and considered owned property.

In 1858, British missionaries established the first permanent European settlement in Cameroon, the

town of Victoria at the base of Mount Cameroon. The UNITED KINGDOM, FRANCE, and GERMANY struggled for control during the 1800s, then in 1884 two tribal chiefs signed a treaty that made Cameroon a German protectorate until 1916. Under terms of the World War I Armistice, France and Britain divided the territory and later received League of Nations mandates, then United Nations trusteeships. Both pledged in 1946 to grant self-governance. French Cameroun became independent on January 1, 1960. In February 1961, British Cameroons voters in the north chose to merge with Nigeria, while voters in the south chose Cameroon. 

Cameroon is divided into 10 provinces, each headed by a governor appointed by the president, who as head of state holds the most governmental power and is elected to a seven-year term. In the National Assembly, 180 legislators are elected to five-year terms. Cameroon’s chief political party is the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement and was the only party allowed until 1991.

Coffee, cocoa, cotton, rubber, bananas, livestock, and timber are Cameroon’s major products, but petroleum is the primary export.

Cambodia

BORDERED BY VIETNAM, LAOS, and THAILAND, Cambodia, with a near circular shape, is a perfect example of a compact country. The country can be divided into several physical units: Elephant and Cardamom mountains to the southeast, parts of Annamite Cordillera to the northwest, upper part of the Mekong delta to the southeast, Tonle Sap Lake and its basin to the center and the west and the Mekong River basin between the Cordillera and Tonle Sap. As the Mekong floodwaters rise, there is a reverse (westward) flow into Tonle Sap, which increases the lake depth by over six times. Tonle Sap thus takes up the excess Mekong waters during the monsoon. Thereafter, the lake water resumes its normal eastward flow to Mekong.

Three distinct cultural-historical core regions (Funan, Angkor, and Phnom Penh) can be identified in Cambodia, stretching over a period of 2,000 years. Funan’s (1st to 7th centuries) capital was on the Mekong Delta at Vyadhapura (Banam). The Funan society and political system were highly influenced by Indian conquests. The Khmers established a powerful core area based in the Angkor area (802–1432). The Khmer kingship gave rise to one of the most powerful and long-lasting theocratic states in the world and determined not only the dynastic lineage but also the political, social, economic, and agricultural features of the land. Productivity of the land and the belief of the people in a god-king were at the roots of Angkor’s power base. The demise of the Angkor core may be attributed to loss of agricultural surplus, depopulation due to malaria, and army weakness.

After the fall and disappearance of Angkor, Phnom Penh emerged as a core region ruled by different rulers. French occupation of Cambodia lasted 90 years (1863–1953). The country got its independence in 1953 and had a stable government between 1953 and 1969 under the leadership of Prince Sihanouk, who abdicated his throne in 1955 and organized state elections for the first time in Cambodian history. After the coup d’etat staged in 1970 by his prime minister, Lon Nol, Cambodia came under military rule.

KHMER ROUGE

The Khmer Rouge (Communist Party) led by Maoist premier Pol Pot displaced Lon Nol in 1975. Khmer Rouge considered cities to be parasites living on agricultural surplus. Thousands of city dwellers were driven out to villages in order to increase rice production. Phnom Penh’s population was reduced to 200,000 from 2,000,000 in 1976. Formal schooling was abandoned. Religion was virtually abolished, while pagodas were converted into storage and military places. In the process, 1 million people died between 1975 and 1978.

In 1991, a Cambodian peace agreement was signed. The new government established rights to freedom of political beliefs, assembly, and publication and a market-based economy. However, Cambodia remains troubled by unrelenting political volatility and insurgence. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries of the world. Population growth has been uneven because of political and social events. The infant mortality rate (76 per 1,000) is high, and a large proportion of the population (39 percent) is under 15. Presently, population growth is slow (1.8 percent annually) due to the AIDS epidemic; 170,000 persons lived with HIV/AIDS in 2001. Cambodia is essentially a rice-growing agricultural country with 80 percent of its labor force engaged in agriculture. Only 20 percent of its GDP is derived from industries that include garment making, rice milling, wood products, and rubber. Tourism is the country’s fastest-growing industry.

California

THE MOST POPULOUS state in the UNITED STATES, California also has the richest and most urbanized citizenry. It is the third largest state, famous for its climate, unique industries, agriculture, geographic variety, and lifestyles. California covers 158,706 square mi (411,049 square km), is 252 mi (406 km) at its widest point, and is 824 mi (1,326 km) in length. Its western border is the PACIFIC OCEAN, and the state has 1,931 km (1,200 mi) of shoreline. On the east, most of California borders NEVADA, and in the southeast, the Colorado River separates the state from ARIZONA. OREGON shares the northern boundary, and to the south, California’s border is international; the Mexican state of Baja California lies across it. The state capital is at Sacramento, an inland city on the Sacramento River, near the spot where gold was discovered in 1848. Nicknamed “The Golden State,” the official motto is “Eureka!” meaning “I found it!”

California’s climate

With so much geographic variation, generalizations about California’s climate are difficult to make. In most cities of California, though, especially along the coast, winters are much milder that in other areas of similar latitude in the United States. In January, southern metropolitan areas average temperatures of 49 to 65 degrees F (9.5 to 18.3 degrees C), while Bishop, a city east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the Great Basin, sees a range of 22 to 54 degrees F (-5.5 to 12.2 degrees C).

In Eureka, a coastal city in the north, the temperature is 41 to 55 degrees F (5 to 12.8 degrees C). Normal high temperatures in July range from 96 to 99 degrees F (35.5 to 37.2 degrees C) in some Central Val-130 California

California’s Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco are one of the gateways on the West Coast of the United States. ley and desert cities, to 63 degrees F (17.2 degrees C) in Eureka. July highs in Los Angeles average 84 degrees F (29 degrees C), and in San Francisco, 68 degrees F (20

degrees C). 

Extreme temperatures occur in Death Valley and the high Sierras. The summer heat in Death Valley averages over 100 degrees F (37.8 degrees C), and the area usually gets less than 2 in (5 cm) of rain per year. Higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada get between 70 and 80 in (178 and 203 cm) of precipitation per year, most of it as snow, while desert regions might receive no more than 3 or 4 in (7.6 to 10.2 cm). Along the coast, more rain falls in the north than the south; San Diego, near the border with Mexico, receives less than 11 in (28 cm) per year, while San Francisco gets over 22 in (56 cm).

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.

India received the English educational system, an expansion of its coal and iron mining, and plantations for tea, coffee, and cotton. Metal-plated roads and a hundreds of miles of railway linked the major cities and the coast. Telegraph lines stretched 4,000 miles. Agricultural and social reform occurred as well. Indians became increasingly Anglicized. They joined the civil service and published English-language as well as vernacular journals. Indians also became nationalistic in the 19th century. To ease conflicting Muslim and Hindu nationalisms in the late 19th century, the British wanted to partition Bengal into Muslim east and Hindu west.

British East India expanded by absorption of its neighbors. Border disputes with Burma in 1824, 1852, and 1885 resulted in Britain’s taking of upper Burma into the Raj as India beyond the Ganges. Burma became a Crown Colony in 1937 and independent in 1948. Punjab was a region of interest from the 1830s and eventually became part of India. Indian Ghurkas ruling Nepal fought a war with northwest India (1814–16).

They conceded territory and Ghurka troops fought in the British and Indian armies. Bhutan and the East India Company had a treaty of cooperation from 1774. After a war in 1864, Britain had oversight of Bhutan’s external affairs. The role was taken first by British India (1910) then by independent India (1947). Bhutan became independent in 1949.

Overseas service under Great Britain command in World War I increased pressure for more Indian participation, with the Indians always a step ahead of what Britain would grant. Finally, after World War II, British India ended, replaced by independent India and Pakistan in 1947. The transition was violent, with perhaps 500,000 dead, and a migration of 11 million Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims. And states such as Hyderabad that wanted independence had to choose either India or Pakistan. Hyderabad chose India, as did KASHMIR despite being predominantly Muslim.

Britain gave India its university system and its middle class and elite cultural artifacts such as clubs and gyms. Britain standardized grammar, gave away dictionaries, and provided the printing press, the Kalighat school of painting of the 19th century, and cricket as well as scotch and soda. For the dams, roads, sanitation, and other infrastructure Britain gave India, in return it imposed laws requiring India to produce plantation crops. British restrictions on Indian manufactures kept the economy dependent. The shift from agriculture for internal consumption increased Indian risks of famine and death.

By the 1880s, India took as much as 20 percent of British imports. By 1900, India paid Britain £10 million per year in interest and also paid salaries and pensions for the colonial administrators. India paid well for British improvements.

Geographic Information System

The Geographic Information System (GIS) combines many of the traditional types and styles of mapping. GIS mapping uses a database of information gathered by scientists, professionals, and students like you from around the world to create layers, or “themes,” of information that can be placed one on top of the other to create a comprehensive map. These “themes” are often maps that were created with information gathered by remote sensing.

Scientists from many disciplines use GIS technologies. A geologist might use GIS mapping when studying a volcano to help track historical eruptions. An ecologist might use GIS mapping to track pollution or to follow animal or plant population trends of a given area.

GIS maps might contain many layers of information compiled from several different types of maps, such as a geologic map and a topographic map. Layers such as rivers, topography, roads, and landforms from the same geographic area can be placed on top of each other to create a comprehensive map. One major difference between GIS mapping and traditional mapping is that a GIS map can be updated as new information is loaded into the database. Once a map is created, the layers are still linked to the original information. If this information changes, the GIS layers also change. The result is a map that is always up-todate — a valuable resource for people who rely on current information.

Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite navigation system that allows users to locate their approximate position on Earth. There are 27 satellites orbiting Earth, for use with GPS units. The satellites are positioned around Earth, and are constantly orbiting so that signals from at least three or four satellites can be picked up at any given moment by a GPS receiver.

To use GPS to find your location on Earth, you need a GPS receiver. The receiver calculates your approximate latitude and longitude — usually within 10 m — by processing the signals emitted by the satellites. If enough information is present, these satellites can also relay information about elevation, direction of movement, and speed. With signals from three satellites, a GPS receiver can calculate location on Earth without elevation, while four satellite signals will allow a GPS receiver to calculate elevation also. For more information on how the satellites are used to determine location.

Uses for GPS technology GPS technology is used extensively for navigation by airplanes and ships. However, as you will read later, it is also used to help detect earthquakes, create maps, and track wildlife. GPS technology also has many applications for everyday life. Some people now have GPS receivers in their cars to help navigate to preprogrammed destinations such as restaurants, hotels, and their homes. Hikers, bikers, and other travelers often have portable, handheld GPS systems with them at all times. This allows them to find their destinations more quickly and can help them determine their location so they do not get lost. Some cell phones also contain GPS systems that can help you find your location.