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North America
Introduction
 U.S.
and Canada
 Highly urbanized and mobile society
 Culturally diverse
 Resource-rich environment
 Postindustrial economy
Environmental Geography

Interior lowland(Great Plains) surrounded by
mountainous topography(Rocky, Appalachian)

Major landform
division of the
North America
Physical setting - East
Appalachians and surrounding regions
 East/South of Appalachian Highlands


Southern Appalachian (South PA)


Coastal plains (S.NY to TX): not well drained  prone to flood
Sedimentary rock  rich in coal
Northern Appalachian (North of PA)

Crystalline rock  irregular surface form
(eg. New England, Canadian Maritimes)
Physical setting - Interior
Lowland drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries
Extends from west central Canada to the Gulf of Mexico
 Eastward


Westward


Southern Great Lakes, Ohio River Valley
Sediments eroded from the Rocky Mountains
Northward

Glacial forces - North of Ohio and Missouri rivers
Physical setting - West

Rocky Mountains
Extends from Alaska to New Mexico
 A series of uplift with 10K ft height
 Source of Platte, Rio Grande, Columbia, Colorado river
 Denver and Calgary are located here


Great Basins


Nevada, sparsely settled
Pacific Rim

Formed on the convergent plate boundary – North American
plate collides with Pacific plate

Majority is the temperate climates except for
dry climates in the southwestern part
100th
meridian
dry
humid
Climate and Vegetation - East
 South
of Great Lakes
 Abundant
in deciduous (broadleaf) forest, but some are
cleared for agriculture
 North
of Great Lakes
 Coniferous
(evergreen/boreal) forest
 Tundra: mixture of low shrubs, grasses and flowering
herbs near Hudson Bay
Climate and Vegetation - East
Deciduous in Piedmont
Coniferous in Manitoba
Subtropical humid climate;
Fields of cotton and corn are
bordered by mixed oak-pine
woodland
Subarctic climate; Spindly
Conifers of little commercial
value; Marshes are common in
glaciated environment
Climate and Vegetation - East
Tundra in the Northwest Territories
Covered with lichens and grass; no tree can be seen
Climate and Vegetation – Great Plains
 East
of 100th Meridian
 Above
20-inch precipitation (subhumid)
 Prairie: tall grasslands
 West
of 100th Meridian
 Below
20-inch precipitation (arid)
 Short grasses and scrub vegetation
Climate and Vegetation – Great Plains
Prairie in the eastern Kansas
Climate and Vegetation – West

Desert (Southeast of Sierra Nevada)

Southern Pacific coast (South of SF)


Northern Pacific coast (North of SF)


Mediterranean climates – chaparral scrub
Marine west coast climates – mixed, coniferous forest
Rocky mountains

Varies by altitude (pine to tundra)
Climate and Vegetation – West
Chaparral in Monterey, CA
Found in the foothills of
California; dense growth of
evergreen shrub
Conifers in Colorado Rockies
Taken at an elevation of 11,000
feet; Conifers gives way to Alpine
Tundra at the higher altitude
Climate cycles
 Long
term
 Glacial
advance 15,000 years ago north of the Missouri
and Ohio rivers (eg. Great Lakes)
 Short
term
 Drought
cycles early 1900s on the Great Plains (eg.
Dust Bowl era of the 1920s and 1930s)
Creation of Great Lakes
Natural Hazards
 Seismic
rigors: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes
along the plate boundary in the Western North
America
 Densely
settled coastline: vulnerable to flood,
hurricane, rise of the sea level
 Wildfire:
mountains of western North America


Western Montana, summer 2000
Global warming, periodic droughts, and growing population may
cause this scene to be repeated
Environmental issues – soils and
vegetation
 Native
vegetation has been removed for cropping,
grazing, and urbanization
 Widespread
soil erosion as a result
Environmental issues – water

Distribution of water resources (eg. aqueduct)
eg. LA Aqueduct, Central Valley project
Colorado River ->agricultural/metropolitan regions in Southern CA

Water shortage
eg. Depletion of Ogallala Aquifer beneath the Great Plains

Water contamination

Wastewater, Oil spill, raw sewage, fertilizer/pesticides,
salinization



California aqueduct
reconfigures the distribution of
water resources
promotes the agricultural and
metropolitan expansion
Environmental issues – atmosphere

Local scale

Urban heat islands


Warmer temperature in the metropolitan area than nearby rural areas
Regional scale

Acid rain
Caused by sulfur dioxide & nitrogen oxides in atmosphere
 Damage forests, poison lake
 Produced in the Midwest, southern Ontario
 Affects the Ohio Valley, Appalachia, the northeastern US, eastern Canada

Population & Settlement
 Sparsely
populated
 Low RNI, TFR
 Population aging
 High urbanization rate
Spatial pattern of population
Densely populated areas are
 Canadian urban corridor
 Toronto,
Ottawa, and Montreal
 U.S.
 Megalopolis
- Washington D.C., Baltimore,
Philadelphia, New York, and Boston
 Southern Great Lakes, South, Pacific Coast
Population growth
 Rapid
growth since European colonization (1600~)
 Higher rates of immigration in the late 19th and
20th centuries
 Birthrates gradually fell after 1900
 “Baby boom” between 1946 and 1965
 Continuing increase in immigration
 Projected to 375 million by 2025
Occupying the Land
Precontact period (Native Americans)

Estimated 3.2 million for the Continental US, and 1.3 million for
Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and Greenland (A.D. 1500)
 European settlement expansion



First stage (1600-1750) – Coastal region of east
Second stage (1750-1850) – eastern half
Third stage (1850-1910) – west
European expansion – First stage
St. Lawrence Valley, Canadian Maritimes - French
 Southern New England - English Puritans
 New Netherlands (later New York) - Dutch
 Pennsylvania - English Quaker
 plantation South (Virginia, South Carolina) - Bicultural
European, and African
 Gulf of Mexico (New Orleans 1718) - French
 Southwest (Santa Fe 1610), and Florida (St. Augustine
1565) - Spanish

European expansion – Second stage
 Found
the interior Lowlands region ideal for
agricultural settlement
 Midwest and interior South
European expansion – Third stage
 Attracted
by opportunities in California, the
Oregon country, Mormon Utah, and the Great
Plains
 Mineral rushes in Colorado, Montana, and British
Columbia’s Fraser Valley
Migration trend - outlines
 Westward-moving
populations
 Black Exodus from the South
 Rural-to-urban migration
 Growth of the Sun Belt South
 Counterurbanization trend
Westward-moving populations
 By
1990
 More
than half lived west of Mississippi River
 1990-2000
 Growth
of the interior West (Nevada, Arizona, Utah,
Montana)
 Fueled
by new job creation in high-technology industries
 Includes many outward-bound Californians

Nevada (66 percent growth) and
Arizona (40 percent growth) were
the two fastest-growing states
between 1990 and 2000
Black Exodus from the South
 Black
populations were originally concentrated in
the plantation South
 Industrialization
 South
 Growth
 North
(early 20th centuries)
 North and West
of Sun Belt (after 1970)
and West  South
Rural-to-urban migration
 Fueled
 Urban
by industrialization
orientation facilitates processes of
modernization and globalization
Growth of the Sun Belt South
After 1970
 Georgia, Florida, Texas, and North Carolina grew more
rapidly than states in the Northeast and Midwest
 Contributed by

The South’s buoyant economy
 Modest living costs
 Adoption of air conditioning
 Attractive recreational opportunities

Counterurbanization trend
 Significant
population gains in nonmetropolitan
areas
 Participants
 Growing
are
retiree population
 Lifestyle migrants: prefer small towns that are
affordable, amenities-rich, and free of urban problems
The evolution of the city in the U.S.
A: pre-1888
B: 1888-1920
C: 1920-1945
D: 1945-present


A
B
C
D
Changing
transportation
technologies
decisively shaped
the evolution of
the city
U.S. cities
became
increasingly
decentralized
Urban decentralization
Suburb of Las Vegas
1990
2000
Edge city



Tysons Corner, Virginia
Have fewer
functional
connections with the
central city than they
have with other
suburban centers
Urban settlements
grow in area, but
decline in density
Rapid loss of
surrounding rural
land
Challenges in the inner city
 As
a result of suburbanization, inner cities suffer
 Losses
in population
 Increased levels of crime and social disruption
 Shrinking tax base
 Racial tension especially in the U.S.
City of Buffalo – Map by census 2000
 Median
household income
 Black population
 White population
 Hispanic population
Gentrification
 Inner-city
revitalization by new public and private
investments
 Displacement
of lower-income residents of centralcity neighborhoods with higher-income residents
 eg.
Seattle’s Pioneer Square, Toronto’s Yorkville
district, and Baltimore’s Harborplace
Cultural Coherence and Diversity
Cultural identity

Historically tied to Great Britain


Consumer culture blossomed after 1920


Anglo world view has been implanted (eg. law, democracy,
individualism, pragmatism, social mobility)
Increasingly secular society oriented toward convenience and
consumption
Coexists with pluralism

Persistence and assertion of distinctive ethnicity
Migration to the U.S.

Phase 1 (before 1820)


Phase 2 (1820-1870)


dominated by English, African
dominated by Northwest Europeans
Phase 3 (1870-1920)
Southern, eastern Europeans, and Scandinavian
 Political strife and poor economies in Europe
 High peak around 1900
 Hardly targeted job-poor South (thus prevalence of whites in the
Northern area persists still)

Migration to the U.S.

Phase 4 (1920-1970)
from Latin America, and Canada
 Overall totals plunged due to federal immigration policies, the
Great depression, and WWII


Phase 5 (after 1970):
Most originated from Latin America, and Asia
 Made possible by economic and political instability abroad,
growing postwar U.S. economy, loosening of immigration laws

U.S. immigrations, by year and group
Projected U.S. ethnic composition

year
By late in the
century, almost one
in three Americans
will be Hispanic,
and non-Hispanic
whites will achieve
minority status amid
an increasingly
diverse U.S.
population
Migration to Canada
Before 1765: French in the St. Lawrence Valley
 After 1765: Britain, Ireland, and U.S.

1900-1920: Eastern Europeans, Italians, Ukrainians, and
Russians
 Recent: Asian (60% of recent immigrants)



eg. Vancouver - dominated by Asian populations
Now Canada has 16% foreign-born population
Vancouver’s immigrant population,
by place of birth, 1996
The geography of ethnicity in U.S.
White: all around U.S., but northern prevalence reveals
relative to other ethnicities (early European settlement)
 African-American: concentrated in the Southeast (legacy
of the cotton South)

Hispanic: concentrated in the Southwest, and Miami (early
Spanish control)
 Asian: concentrated in California, and Hawaii


American Indian: concentrated in Navajo Reservation
Culture and Place
 Cultural
identity is strongly tied to place, thus
imprints cultural landscape
 Culturally
distinct areas can be found in a regional
scale and local scale
scale – forms cultural homeland
 Local scale – forms ethnic neighborhoods
 Regional
Cultural Homeland

culturally distinctive
nucleus of settlement
whose ethnicity has
survived over time,
affecting cultural
landscape
Selected cultural regions in
North America
French-Canadian Quebec

The French
have
established
settlement
since the 17th
century

80% of Quebec
population
speaks French
Hispanic Borderlands
Standford University

The Spanish have
established
settlement since
16th century

Currently 32
million Hispanic
population in the
U.S.
Black Belt
 Legacy
of the Cotton South
 Has diminished in intensity due to outmigration
 Home to black folk tradition (eg. blues)
Acadiana
The Cajun culture in
the southwestern
Louisiana
 Created in the 18th
century when French
settlers were expelled
from eastern Canada
and relocated to
Louisiana

Louisiana Bayou
Navajo Reservation, Nunavut



Eskimo in the Northwest Territories
Navajo Reservation:
part of Arizona, New
Mexico, and southern
Utah
Nunavut: became
separate Canadian
territory in 1999; 80%
Inuit
Currently, 4 million
native American in the
North America
Ethnic neighborhoods

Local-scale ethnic
signatures
compared to
regional-scale
cultural homelands

Reflects North
American
migration patterns
Ethnicity in L.A.
Ethnic neighborhoods
 Ethnic
concentrations of nonwhite populations in
the inner city
 75%
of Detroit, and 60% of Atlanta are AfricanAmerican in terms of population in the inner city
 40% of L.A. is Hispanic in terms of population in the
inner city
North American Religion

Dominance of Protestant


Regional concentration of American Catholics


60% of U.S., 40% of Canada
Quebec, Northeast U.S., Southwest U.S.
Millions with religious or secular traditions apart from
Christianity
Jewish, Eastern Orthodox
 Growing Islam among urban populations
 Increasing portion of nonbelievers

Globalization of American culture

North America’s cultural geography is becoming more
global


Eg. Internationalized food, increasing use of non-English
language, international travel, and music (Brit-pop, Techno)
Global cultural geographies are becoming more North
American
Eg. U.S. products abroad, popularity of English-language
 Cultural nationalism is responsive to this force

being affected by others…
Annual beer imports to the United States
also affecting others
Tokyo Disneyland
Geopolitical Framework
Creating political space

For the last 400 years, European settlers have displaced
Native peoples who had lived for 20,000 years

US: driven by nationalistic interest (American Revolution)
– uniting and expanding States

Canada : driven by geographic convenience (close link
with U.K.) – assembling Provinces
Creating political space – U.S.
 ~1750:
organized around 13 English colonies
 1787: Northwest Ordinance
 1803: Louisiana Purchase
 Mid 19th century
 Captured
Southwest from Mexican war
 Possessed Northwest from the treaty with Britain
 By
the late 19th century
 acquisition
of Alaska(1867) and Hawaii(1898)
Northwest possession Northwest Ordinance (1787)
(1846)
Louisiana
Purchase
(1803)
Mexican war (1848)
Creating political space – Canada
1774: The Quebec Act – allow for continued French
settlement in the St. Lawrence Valley
 1791: Constitutional Act – divide the colony into Upper
Canada(Ontario) and Lower Canada(Quebec)
 1840: Act of Union – reunite the two Canadas
 1867: Canadian Confederation - unite the provinces of
Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick
 Later: northern portion of the continent joined Canada

Geopolitical relationships
between Canada and the U.S.

19th century: Canada worried about being in the political
shadow of U.S.
War of 1812 – conflict between U.S. and Britain on the neutral
rights on the maritimes
 Manifest Destiny – expansion of U.S. Land throughout northern
continent at the post-Civil War era


20th century: political cooperation
Environmental - Boundary Waters Treaty(1909), St. Lawrence
Seaway project(1959)
 Military - NATO (1949)
 Trade - NAFTA (1989): reducing barriers to trade and capital
investment among U.S., Canada, and Mexico

Legacy of Federalism
 U.S.
 Limited
centralized authority in the U.S. Constitution
(1787) ends up with powerful central government
through growing nationalism
 Canada
 Central
authorities in the Canadian Constitution (1867)
ends up with more provincial autonomy due to the
close connection with Britain (less nationalism)
Challenge to federal political power Quebec

Different language, distinct cultural identity, and
economic disparity between the Anglo and French
populations

Secession from Canada?

2000, Clarity Act: Quebec could only secede if a “clear”
majority voted to do so
Challenge to federal political power –
Native Peoples
 U.S.
 Since
1960, decisive turn away from earlier policies of
assimilation
 Trend has been toward Increased Native American
autonomy
 Canada
Territory (1999) – represents a new level of
native self-government in North America
 Nunavut
Geopolitical reach of the U.S.
 Monroe
Doctrine (1824)
 Spanish-American War (1898)
 Growing role of the U.S. military in the Central
America and the Caribbean (1898-1916)
 WWII: Redefined the U.S. role in world affairs
 Cold War: Truman Doctrine, Korean/Vietnam War
 Post-Cold War: Middle East, Kosovo, Global
terrorism
Global Terrorism
groups’ attack on the U.S. reminds
us that open system makes us vulnerable to the
terrorist attack, and also geopolitical realities of
globalization have brought both opportunities and
risks into the lives of every American
 Anti-American
Economic/Social Development

Land size, geographic diversity, resource abundance, and
human capital enabled North Americans to achieve high
levels of economic development
Agriculture
 Highly
commercialized, mechanized, and
specialized
 Efficient transportation systems, global markets,
and large capital investment
 Employs a small % of labor force
 U.S.
(2.6%), Canada (3.7%)
 Nevertheless,
remains important part of economy
The geography of agriculture
The geography of agriculture
Northeast: dairy operations due to the proximity to major
cities
 U.S. Midwest, western Ontario: corn and soybeans with
the tradition of mixed farming
 North of Corn Belt: dairy operations
 South: subtropical specialty crops or livestock farming
 Kansas, Saskatchewan, Alberta: commercial wheat and
other small grain farming
 Central valley: Mediterranean agriculture (with irrigation)

Industrial raw materials

Petroleum
U.S. produces 12% of the world’s oil and consume 25%
 Imported from Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and
Nigeria
 Produced in the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana…


Coal


US-23% of the world’s total reserve; produced in Appalachia
Metals resources
20% of the world’s copper, lead, and zinc reserve
 20% of the world’s gold, silver, and nickel production

Economic success in North America

Last 200 years, explained by the marriage between
abundant resources (natural & human) and the Industrial
Revolution

Recently, by (1) diversifying economic base (2) extending
its global reach

Economic growth can be seen from (1) how well the
society is connected (2) how occupational structure
changes
Connectivity & Economic growth
 -1830
 Canal
 Erie
canal: connects the Midwest with New York city
 1830-1920
 Train
 Chicago
– transfer load, connecting regions
 1920 Automobiles,
air, telephone
 Highway(1970),
St. Lawrence Seaway(1950)
Sectoral Transformation

Technology innovation and economic restructuring affects
the change in employment structure

Evolution of a nation’s labor force from one highly
dependent on the primary sector (natural resource
extraction) to one with more employment in the secondary
(manufacturing or industrial), tertiary (services), and
quaternary (information processing) sectors

Relative dominance: primary (by late 19th century) 
secondary  tertiary, quaternary (later 20th century)

Eastern Canada’s
Maritime provinces
continue to suffer
from high
unemployment as
the regional
economy struggles
to shift away from
dependence on
primary sector
activities
Regional economic patterns
 Why
certain area is economically better developed
than others?
and Midwest in the mid/late 19th century
 Sun Belt, and West after 1960
 Northeast,
Northeast, and Midwest in the
mid/late 19th century
Dominant areas producing steel, automobiles, machine
tools, and agricultural equipment, also producer service
such as banking and insurance
 Location factors are

Proximity to natural resources
 Increasing connectivity
 Ready supply of productive labor
 National/global market demand for its industrial goods
 Capital investment

Sun Belt, and West after 1960

South’s Piedmont manufacturing belt


The Gulf Coast industrial region


Lower labor cost, Sun Belt amenities
Energy refining and petrochemical industries - proximity to
fossil fuels reserves
The West Coast industrial region
Aerospace operation – government spending
 Silicon Valley - access to innovation and research and
agglomeration economies

Global Links: U.S. exports, 1999
Wealth and Poverty
 U.S.
 Wealthiest
communities are suburbs on the edge of
large metropolitan areas (see p80 in Atlas - income)
 Ethnicity is often linked with poverty (see p80 in Atlas:
compare maps ethnicity and poverty level)
 Canada
 Ontario
and British Columbia are the country’s
wealthiest provinces
 Canadian Maritimes are poor rural region
Digital divide
 Poor
and underprivileged groups have significantly
less access to Internet communications than the
wealthy
 Persistent
 Job
social issues are
security
 Education vs ethnicity
 Gender gap
 Health care and aging
Job security
 North American
 Eg.
compete globally
Back office jobs (p.4 in Text)
 Vulnerable
to uncertainties of world economy
Education vs Ethnicity
 American
whites are two or three times more
likely than blacks or Hispanics to hold a college
degree
Gender gap
 Women
still earn only about 75 cents for every
dollar than men earn
 Corporate America’s “glass ceiling”
 Large portion of single-mom led household in a
poverty level
Health care and aging
 North Americans
get older
 Debate on reforming social security system
 Geographically, gets more oriented around
retirement – retirement community (eg. Florida,
southern Arizona)
Map resources on the web
Selection of contemporary maps.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/
 Easy-to-use, very large collection of country maps - many
historic.
http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.html
 Public-domain maps, mostly from the US Government.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html
 Interactive map quiz – world political
http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/index.html
