Aborigine - Answers An indigenous inhabitant of Australia
Acid Rain - Answers Harmful form of precipitation high in sulfur and nitrogen oxides. Caused by
industrial and auto emissions, acid rain is harmful to aquatic life and forest ecosystems in countries such
as eastern North America and Europe.
What is the African Union, and when was it founded? When did South Africa become a part? - Answers
A mostly political body that has tried to resolve regional conflicts. Founded in 1963, the organization
grew to include all the states of the continent except South Africa, which finally was asked to join in
1994.
Agrarian Reform - Answers Strategy to re-distribute land to peasant farmers.
Agricultural density - Answers The number of farmers per unit of arable land. This figure indicates the
number of people who directly depend upon agriculture, and is an important indicator of population
pressure in places where rural subsistence dominates.
Agribusiness - Answers The practice of large-scale, often corporate farming in which business
enterprises control closely integrated segments of food production, from farm to grocery store.
Animism - Answers A wide variety of tribal religions based on the worship of nature spirits and human
ancestors
Animist - Answers One who follows an animist religion
Anthropocentric - Answers human-centred
Anthropogenic - Answers Caused by human activities
Anthropogenic landscapes - Answers A landscape heavily transformed by humans
Apartheid - Answers The policy of racial seperateness that directed sepearte residential and work spaces
for whites, blacks, coloureds, and Indians in South Africa for nearly 50 years. It was abolished when the
African National Congress came to power in 1994
Areal differentation - Answers The geographic description and explanation of spatial differences on
Earth's surface, including both physical as well as human patterns.
Areal integration - Answers The geographic description and explanation of how places, landscapes, and
regions are connected, interact, and are integrated with each other.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Group (APEC) - Answers An international group of Asian and Pacific
Basin nations that fosters coordinated economic development within the region.
, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Answers An international organization linking together
the 10 most important countries of Southeast Asia
Autonomous areas - Answers Minor political subunits created in the former Soviet Union and designed
to recognize the special status of minority groups within existing republics.
Autonomous Region - Answers In the context of China, provinces that have been granted a certain
degree of political and cultural autonomy, or freedom from centralized authority.
Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) Railroad - Answers Key central Siberian railroad connection completed in
the Soviet era (1984), which links the Yenisey and Amur rivers and parallels the Trans-Siberian Railroad
Balkanization - Answers Geopolitical process of fragmentation of larger states into smaller ones through
independance of smaller regions and ethnic groups. The term takes its name from the geopolitical fabric
of the Balkan region.
Berlin Conference - Answers 1884 conference that divided Africa into European colonial territories. The
boundaries created in Berlin satisfied European ambition but ignored indigenous cultural affiliations.
Many of Africa's civil conflicts can be traced to ill-conceived territorial divisions crafted in 1884
Biofuels - Answers Energy sources derived from plants or animals. Throughout the developing world,
wood, charcoal, and dung are primarily energy sources for cooking and heating.
Bodhisattva - Answers In the religion of Mahayana Buddhism, a spiritual being that helps others attain
enlightenment.
Bosheviks - Answers A faction within the Russian communist movement led by Lenin that successfully
took control of the country in 1917
Brain Drain - Answers Migration of the best-educated people from developing countries to developed
nations where economic opportunities are greater
Brain gain - Answers The potential for return migrants to contribute to the social and economic
development of their country of origin with the experiences they have gained abroad
British East India Company - Answers Private trade organisation with its own army that acted as an arm
of Britain in monopolizing trade in South Asia until 1857, when it was abolished and replaced by full
governmental control.
Bubble economy - Answers A highly inflated economy that cannot be sustained. Bubble economies
usually result from the rapid influx of international capital into a developing country.
Buffer zone - Answers An array of nonaligned or friendly states that "buffer" a larger country from
invasion. Eg: Russia has a long-term policy of keeping a buffer zone to protect its Western borders from
European invasion