Cultural Geography
Planet Earth and Geography: Culture
Geography includes the study of the Earth. Geographers also study the people of the world. Most important, geographers look at culture. Culture is the way people live. It includes people’s history, economy, government, language, religious beliefs, art, music, literature, customs, and tradition.
History and Culture
Agricultural Revolution Earliest humans were nomads, or groups of people who move from place to place. About 10,000 years ago, these nomads found fertile river valleys where they could be successful farmers. They settled down to live in one place and began growing extra, or surplus, food. Extra food could do other things so they began doing other jobs (this is called a division of labor). Exchanging food and other goods worked best when everyone was in the same place, so towns and cities started. Over time, these cities became civilizations. Civilizations are highly organized, city-based societies with advanced knowledge. This change in lifestyle is called the Agricultural Revolution. Agriculture is the big word for farming.
Cultural Hearths Several of these permanent settlements became cultural hearths, or early civilizations whose ideas and practices spread to surrounding areas. The Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Yellow River Valley, and Middle America were all cultural hearths. They all had certain things in common that made it easier for civilization to develop: warm climate, fertile land, located near a major river or water source. They were also very successful in growing surplus crops. Because they had extra food, they began trading with other regions that needed the extra food or specialized workers. Along with the trade of goods and people, ideas were traded. It is because of trade that people developed written languages and began writing things down.
The Next Revolution: Industrialization Although a lot had changed from the time of the cultural hearths to the 1700s, life stayed the same for most people: they were farmers and their lives revolved around agriculture. After the 1700s, this began to change and change quickly. The most important change was industrialization. In several countries (the United States, Great Britain, some European countries) people began using power-driven machines and factories to make a lot of the same products quickly and cheaply. Before, most things were made one at a time and by hand. This is difficult and expensive; so few people had a lot of material objects.
The Next Next Revolution The next revolution occurred at the end of the 1900s. It is called the Information Revolution. Before the late 1900s, it was hard to find information easily. Now people often have computers connected to the Internet in their homes and they can easily get information or communicate over long distances.
Life Today The way people live their lives is greatly influenced by where they live. The world can be divided into two different kinds of countries: developed and developing. Developed, or industrialized, countries have a lot of industries, or businesses that makes things or offers services for sale. There are a large number of different types of jobs. Only a small fraction of people are farmers in developed countries. The type of farming they do is called commercial farming, or farming in which food is grown to sell, not eat. Usually large machines and huge farms are used in commercial agriculture. They also use chemicals called pesticides and fertilizers to kill bugs and make things grow. Developed countries use a lot of technology to improve their lives and economies. Most people in an industrialized country have enough food, clothes, and housing.
Other countries have only a few industries. These countries are called developing countries. Most of the people in developing countries are subsistence farmers, or farmers who only grow enough food to eat rather than sell. Most of the time, humans using animals and small farm tools do this farming. Sometimes they grow extra food and sell it but they usually only make enough to live. It is sometimes difficult for the governments of developing countries to make sure that everyone has food, clothes, and shelter.
Population The world’s population is a little over 6 billion people. These people live on only 30% of the earth’s land. The rest of the world’s land is very difficult to live on.
Population Terms
Literacy Rate
The number of people who can read in a country.
Life Expectancy
How long one can expect to live in a particular country.
Infant Mortality
The number of children who will die before the age of 5.
Per Capita Income
How much everyone in a country would make if the money was divided evenly.
Population Density
The average number of people living in a square mile or kilometer
Sparse
Not very crowded
Dense
Crowded
Migration
People move. They move a couple of miles away. They also move halfway across the world. This movement is called migration. There are a lot of reasons why people move. Usually they have to do with unhappiness with the place the person lives and with the expectations of what might be possible if they move somewhere else. There are two categories of reasons why people migrate: a push is a reason to move because of something that is bad in the place the person already lives while a pull is a reason to move because of something good in the place the person wants to move. Pushes include things like war, extreme poverty, or an abusive family. Pulls include things like better paying jobs, nice family members who already live there, and the idea of a better future.
A really important type of migration is urbanization, or the movement of people from the country to the city. Currently, ½ of the world’s population lives in the cities.
Some people have to move because of war, food shortages or disasters. These people are called refugees.
Government and Economics
Economics
Economy
Economy is the word we use to describe how a group makes its stuff and then decides how to divide it up. There are a lot of different kinds of economies: families, cities, states, countries, and the world. A long time ago and in many places today, the biggest economy a place has is the family. The family will make everything the family needs, such as food, furniture, and clothes. Whatever they cannot make, they don’t have. If there are other families nearby, they may trade something they have, or barter, for something the other family has. If this happens enough, then the family will be a part of a larger economy of several families. How the economy divides its stuff up is important too. Some economies use money to determine who gets what. Other economies try to make sure everybody has more of an equal amount of the stuff. Still other economies try to mix both of these ideas.
Supply and Demand
Supply is how much of one thing there is to sell. Demand is how much people want to buy that one thing. The relationship between supply and demand determines the price of the product. A good example of supply and demand is the Playstation 2. When the Playstation 2 was first sold, a lot of people wanted to buy it because it was new. So many people wanted it that the price went up a lot. But when the Playstation 3 came out, only a small number of people will wanted the Playstation 2. So the manufacturers make fewer machines and they charge less money for it. There are some thing that will always have a high demand and a low supply, like gold. There are other things where the relationship will change. A good example is oil. For a long time, people never really thought about how oil was a nonrenewable resource, so they used as much as they could. It seemed like there was a greater supply than there was a demand, so oil used to be very cheap. But now, there is a high demand and the supply is thought to be running out, so the price is much higher.
Specialization/ Division of Labor
Specialization is where a person in an economy does one thing over and over again. In order to get all the things they need, they usually will get money for their work and they will use the money to buy the things that they need. A good way to think about this is to think about a family. A single person living by herself has to be good at doing all the work in the house, such as dishes, laundry, mowing, and changing the oil. That person may not be very good or fast at some of the jobs, but they have to do them because there is no one else. In a family of ten people, usually the chores are divided up so that one person will be in charge of dishes, one person will take out the trash, etc. By doing that one job in the family, everybody gets to specialize in one area, but they still get all the stuff they need because they are working together and they are sharing the stuff they make. Another thing that can happen in an economy with a lot of specialization is people get very good and very fast at doing the one thing they are in charge of doing, so the economy works more efficiently, or easier.
Manufacturing/ Industrialization
Manufacturing is the mass (a large amount) production of objects using tools. Often, manufacturing creates a product that is cheaper, made more quickly, and of better quality that what any one person can make. A chair factory is an example of manufacturing. Making your own single chair is not.
Industrialization is when a society starts using a lot of manufacturing to make the things society needs. Before a society industrializes, most of the stuff a family needs will be made by that family (food, furniture, clothes). After a society industrializes, factories will make most of the stuff a family needs (food, furniture, clothes), and the family will buy those things. Because the factories are making a large quantity of one object using tools and unskilled labor, the objects will usually be cheaper, made more quickly, and be of a better quality than what most people could make on their own. The United States industrialized in the 1900s.
Developed/ Developing Country and Subsistence/ Commercial Farming
The way people live their lives is greatly influenced by where they live. The world can be divided into two different kinds of countries: developed and developing. Developed, or industrialized, countries have a lot of industries, or businesses that makes things or offers services for sale. There are a large number of different types of jobs. Only a small fraction of people are farmers in developed countries. The type of farming they do is called commercial farming, or farming in which food is grown to sell, not eat. Usually large machines and huge farms are used in commercial agriculture. They also use chemicals called pesticides and fertilizers to kill bugs and make things grow. Developed countries use a lot of technology to improve their lives and economies. Most people in an industrialized country have enough food, clothes, and housing. Other countries have only a few industries. These countries are called developing countries. Most of the people in developing countries are subsistence farmers, or farmers who only grow enough food to eat rather than sell. Most of the time, humans using animals and small farm tools do this farming. Sometimes they grow extra food and sell it but they usually only make enough to live. It is sometimes difficult for the governments of developing countries to make sure that everyone has food, clothes, and shelter.
Gross National Product/ Gross Domestic Product
This is a number that people use to tell whether or not a country is rich or poor. This number tells the value of what everyone makes and does in a country. If it is GDP per capita, that means the value was divided by the number of people in the country.
Import/ Export/ Balance of Trade
Every country has different resources and industries. Because of this, countries will trade with each other to get things they do not have. If they are selling something to another country, that is called an export. If they are buying it, it is called an import. Countries keep track of how much they sell to a country versus how much they buy from the same country. This is called the balance of trade. Most countries want to have an even balance of trade.
Government
Government
A government is the rule makers and rule enforcers of a group. People decided to make governments a long time ago in order to keep other people from doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. The word for a place with no government or rules is called anarchy. The thing people had to give up in order to have that security was their own right to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. This idea where everyone agrees to give up some freedom in order to get some security is called the social contract by the philosopher John Locke. There are a lot of different kinds of governments in the world and throughout history.
Democracy
A type of government where people have a say in how their government works. The United States and a lot of the rest of the world are democracies, but they can be really different from one another. Some of the ways they can be different is how much they let people decide, how many people get to decide, and how much the government follows the instructions of the people. In the United States, we have a representative democracy, where we vote for someone to go make the decisions instead of us having to make every single, little decision. In a lot of other countries, they have a parliamentary democracy which is where instead of having a President and a legislature, they have a legislature which appoints people to do the work that the President does in our system.
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is a type of government where one person or group makes the rules without having to worry about what anyone else thinks. They can do whatever they want. Often times, there will be people who disagree with the dictator, but they will not have the right to say what they want or protest in any other way. If they do, they might go to jail or be executed. A lot of governments in the world and in history have been dictatorships. The one most people are very familiar with is Germany under Adolf Hitler (1933-1945). Sometimes dictators try to make it look like they listen to the people of the country, like have elections, but the people of the country don’t really get to have a say.
Theocracy
A theocracy is a type of government where a religious group is in power and works to makes sure that everyone follows the rule of the religion as well as follows the rules of the government. A good example of a theocracy is Iran. The person who really has the power in that country is the country’s most important religious figure. The other people in the government have to do what that person wants. The laws of the country make everyone follow the rules of the religion. For example, every woman in Iran, even visitors who are not Islamic, have to cover their hair and neck with the hajib. If they don’t, they might be fined or arrested.
Monarchy
A monarchy is a type of government where a person runs the country because they are considered special. This person will often be called a king or queen and they can usually expect that their children will also rule the country, because rule is hereditary, which means it stays in the family. Most countries used to be monarchies. People just thought that having a king was the normal and right way to run a country and they often believed that god had sent their monarch to them. Once democracy became more popular in the 1800s, people began having doubts about whether having a monarch made sense, so a lot of countries got rid of them or took away their power. In Great Britain, the royal family does not have a lot of power but they represent an important part of British history, so people don’t want to get rid of them completely. There are still some monarchies in the world, such as Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Government/Economic Systems
In the real world, governments and economic systems are mixed together and can not be separated. The governments have had to decide what they want for their country’s people. Often, they must decide between freedom and equality. In a capitalist/ market system, people are very free but that also means they are very free to be very poor. In a command economy, the government makes most of the economic decisions and tries to divide up the stuff more evenly but people are not free to try out their ideas about making money. A socialist/ mixed market system tries to mix the two by have the government make big decisions but allowing people some freedom in deciding what their role in the economy will be.
Capitalism/ Market System
Capitalism is a type of economy/ government in which people get to decide what kind of work they will do, what kind of businesses they will start, and how much they will buy and sell things for. There is a lot of freedom in a capitalist economy, and because people are free to work on their ideas, there are often very good ideas. One of the problems with a capitalist economy is that it is not very fair and there are very, very rich people and very, very poor people. This can be a problem if most people in an economy believe equality because then people have a hard time figuring out why it is ok for the economy to have so much inequality.
Communism/ Command Economy
After capitalism had been around for a while, a lot of people began criticizing it because of how much inequality it created. One of the critics was a man named Karl Marx and he influenced a lot of people. He thought that eventually, capitalism would fall apart and the type of system that would take its place would be called communism. That did not happen. A command system is a type of economy where people are supposed to share the work and rewards. In countries that try to have a communist government, the way these things are shared is through the government. The government makes the decisions about what is made, who gets to make it, and who gets the stuff. Many countries that tried communist economies discovered that some of the ideas were good but in general it did not work as well as an economy mixed with some capitalism.
Socialism/ Mixed Market Economy
In the world today, many places have a mixed economy and their governments are socialist. People who believe in socialism believe that it is very important for the government to have a say in the economy. They believe that capitalism is very unfair and that the wealth of a country needs to be divided more evenly. A mixed economy combines some of the freedom of a capitalist system so that the economy will be successful with the government making big decisions about the economy and making sure that the system is fairer. Socialist governments will usually have very high taxes for everyone but will give the people of the country a lot of benefits like health care, child care, or even housing allowances. Some countries may have a mixed government but may not offer as many benefits and has more inequality than others. The United States is a good example of this.
Unit Summary Questions
Government--Day 1
1. Define Government
2. Think about that definition. Write down some governments that have some control over your life.
Govwernment--Day 2
Write down these definitions:
1. Consent: permission
2. Governed: People who the government is in charge of
3. Abolish: stop
Government--Day 3
1. Define Democracy
2. Write down three details about deomocracies.
3. Define Dictatorship
4. Write down three details about dictatorships.
Government--Day 4
1.Define Monarchy
2. Write down three details about monarchies
3. Define Theocracy
4. Write down three details about theocracies.
Government--Day 5
1. People who like a market system (capitalism) like it because it offers?
2. People who dislike a market system (capitalism) dislike because it includes?
3. Who helped come up with idea of communism/ command system?
4. People who like a command system like it because it offers?
5. People who dislike a command system like it because it includes?
6. What does a mixed market economy
Government--Day 6
1. What is a value?
2. What is the most important value in a market system?
3. What is the most important value in a command system?
Government--Day 7
1. What is a question you have about what we are learning?
Economics
1. Define: Nomad, Surplus
Division of labor, Civilizations, Agriculture.
2.. Create ID on Cultural Hearths (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How)
3. What is industrialization?
4. What would you do to find out who was President in 1935 if you did not have the internet?
5. What is an industry?
6.. Define Literacy Rate, Life Expectancy, Infant Mortality, Per capita income.
7. Would a developed country have a high or low:
literacy rate
life expectancy
per capita income
infannt mortality
8. Define barter
9. What happens to the price when a large number or people want something and there is very little of that something available?
10. What happens to the price when very few people want something and there is a lot of that something available?
11. What is a positive for a group that has specialized its labor?
12. What is manufacturing?
13.. Give an example of a manufactured product?
14.. Why do most countries want to industrialize?
15... When did the US industrialize?
Bolivia trades $100 million dollars of silver to Djibouti. Djibouti trades $50 million dollars of coffee and $5.5 million in goats back to Bolivia.
16. What does Bolivia export?
17. What does Bolivia import?
18. Which country has a negative balance of trade?
19. What is the difference between Djibouti’s imports and exports?
Geography includes the study of the Earth. Geographers also study the people of the world. Most important, geographers look at culture. Culture is the way people live. It includes people’s history, economy, government, language, religious beliefs, art, music, literature, customs, and tradition.
History and Culture
Agricultural Revolution Earliest humans were nomads, or groups of people who move from place to place. About 10,000 years ago, these nomads found fertile river valleys where they could be successful farmers. They settled down to live in one place and began growing extra, or surplus, food. Extra food could do other things so they began doing other jobs (this is called a division of labor). Exchanging food and other goods worked best when everyone was in the same place, so towns and cities started. Over time, these cities became civilizations. Civilizations are highly organized, city-based societies with advanced knowledge. This change in lifestyle is called the Agricultural Revolution. Agriculture is the big word for farming.
Cultural Hearths Several of these permanent settlements became cultural hearths, or early civilizations whose ideas and practices spread to surrounding areas. The Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Yellow River Valley, and Middle America were all cultural hearths. They all had certain things in common that made it easier for civilization to develop: warm climate, fertile land, located near a major river or water source. They were also very successful in growing surplus crops. Because they had extra food, they began trading with other regions that needed the extra food or specialized workers. Along with the trade of goods and people, ideas were traded. It is because of trade that people developed written languages and began writing things down.
The Next Revolution: Industrialization Although a lot had changed from the time of the cultural hearths to the 1700s, life stayed the same for most people: they were farmers and their lives revolved around agriculture. After the 1700s, this began to change and change quickly. The most important change was industrialization. In several countries (the United States, Great Britain, some European countries) people began using power-driven machines and factories to make a lot of the same products quickly and cheaply. Before, most things were made one at a time and by hand. This is difficult and expensive; so few people had a lot of material objects.
The Next Next Revolution The next revolution occurred at the end of the 1900s. It is called the Information Revolution. Before the late 1900s, it was hard to find information easily. Now people often have computers connected to the Internet in their homes and they can easily get information or communicate over long distances.
Life Today The way people live their lives is greatly influenced by where they live. The world can be divided into two different kinds of countries: developed and developing. Developed, or industrialized, countries have a lot of industries, or businesses that makes things or offers services for sale. There are a large number of different types of jobs. Only a small fraction of people are farmers in developed countries. The type of farming they do is called commercial farming, or farming in which food is grown to sell, not eat. Usually large machines and huge farms are used in commercial agriculture. They also use chemicals called pesticides and fertilizers to kill bugs and make things grow. Developed countries use a lot of technology to improve their lives and economies. Most people in an industrialized country have enough food, clothes, and housing.
Other countries have only a few industries. These countries are called developing countries. Most of the people in developing countries are subsistence farmers, or farmers who only grow enough food to eat rather than sell. Most of the time, humans using animals and small farm tools do this farming. Sometimes they grow extra food and sell it but they usually only make enough to live. It is sometimes difficult for the governments of developing countries to make sure that everyone has food, clothes, and shelter.
Population The world’s population is a little over 6 billion people. These people live on only 30% of the earth’s land. The rest of the world’s land is very difficult to live on.
Population Terms
Literacy Rate
The number of people who can read in a country.
Life Expectancy
How long one can expect to live in a particular country.
Infant Mortality
The number of children who will die before the age of 5.
Per Capita Income
How much everyone in a country would make if the money was divided evenly.
Population Density
The average number of people living in a square mile or kilometer
Sparse
Not very crowded
Dense
Crowded
Migration
People move. They move a couple of miles away. They also move halfway across the world. This movement is called migration. There are a lot of reasons why people move. Usually they have to do with unhappiness with the place the person lives and with the expectations of what might be possible if they move somewhere else. There are two categories of reasons why people migrate: a push is a reason to move because of something that is bad in the place the person already lives while a pull is a reason to move because of something good in the place the person wants to move. Pushes include things like war, extreme poverty, or an abusive family. Pulls include things like better paying jobs, nice family members who already live there, and the idea of a better future.
A really important type of migration is urbanization, or the movement of people from the country to the city. Currently, ½ of the world’s population lives in the cities.
Some people have to move because of war, food shortages or disasters. These people are called refugees.
Government and Economics
Economics
Economy
Economy is the word we use to describe how a group makes its stuff and then decides how to divide it up. There are a lot of different kinds of economies: families, cities, states, countries, and the world. A long time ago and in many places today, the biggest economy a place has is the family. The family will make everything the family needs, such as food, furniture, and clothes. Whatever they cannot make, they don’t have. If there are other families nearby, they may trade something they have, or barter, for something the other family has. If this happens enough, then the family will be a part of a larger economy of several families. How the economy divides its stuff up is important too. Some economies use money to determine who gets what. Other economies try to make sure everybody has more of an equal amount of the stuff. Still other economies try to mix both of these ideas.
Supply and Demand
Supply is how much of one thing there is to sell. Demand is how much people want to buy that one thing. The relationship between supply and demand determines the price of the product. A good example of supply and demand is the Playstation 2. When the Playstation 2 was first sold, a lot of people wanted to buy it because it was new. So many people wanted it that the price went up a lot. But when the Playstation 3 came out, only a small number of people will wanted the Playstation 2. So the manufacturers make fewer machines and they charge less money for it. There are some thing that will always have a high demand and a low supply, like gold. There are other things where the relationship will change. A good example is oil. For a long time, people never really thought about how oil was a nonrenewable resource, so they used as much as they could. It seemed like there was a greater supply than there was a demand, so oil used to be very cheap. But now, there is a high demand and the supply is thought to be running out, so the price is much higher.
Specialization/ Division of Labor
Specialization is where a person in an economy does one thing over and over again. In order to get all the things they need, they usually will get money for their work and they will use the money to buy the things that they need. A good way to think about this is to think about a family. A single person living by herself has to be good at doing all the work in the house, such as dishes, laundry, mowing, and changing the oil. That person may not be very good or fast at some of the jobs, but they have to do them because there is no one else. In a family of ten people, usually the chores are divided up so that one person will be in charge of dishes, one person will take out the trash, etc. By doing that one job in the family, everybody gets to specialize in one area, but they still get all the stuff they need because they are working together and they are sharing the stuff they make. Another thing that can happen in an economy with a lot of specialization is people get very good and very fast at doing the one thing they are in charge of doing, so the economy works more efficiently, or easier.
Manufacturing/ Industrialization
Manufacturing is the mass (a large amount) production of objects using tools. Often, manufacturing creates a product that is cheaper, made more quickly, and of better quality that what any one person can make. A chair factory is an example of manufacturing. Making your own single chair is not.
Industrialization is when a society starts using a lot of manufacturing to make the things society needs. Before a society industrializes, most of the stuff a family needs will be made by that family (food, furniture, clothes). After a society industrializes, factories will make most of the stuff a family needs (food, furniture, clothes), and the family will buy those things. Because the factories are making a large quantity of one object using tools and unskilled labor, the objects will usually be cheaper, made more quickly, and be of a better quality than what most people could make on their own. The United States industrialized in the 1900s.
Developed/ Developing Country and Subsistence/ Commercial Farming
The way people live their lives is greatly influenced by where they live. The world can be divided into two different kinds of countries: developed and developing. Developed, or industrialized, countries have a lot of industries, or businesses that makes things or offers services for sale. There are a large number of different types of jobs. Only a small fraction of people are farmers in developed countries. The type of farming they do is called commercial farming, or farming in which food is grown to sell, not eat. Usually large machines and huge farms are used in commercial agriculture. They also use chemicals called pesticides and fertilizers to kill bugs and make things grow. Developed countries use a lot of technology to improve their lives and economies. Most people in an industrialized country have enough food, clothes, and housing. Other countries have only a few industries. These countries are called developing countries. Most of the people in developing countries are subsistence farmers, or farmers who only grow enough food to eat rather than sell. Most of the time, humans using animals and small farm tools do this farming. Sometimes they grow extra food and sell it but they usually only make enough to live. It is sometimes difficult for the governments of developing countries to make sure that everyone has food, clothes, and shelter.
Gross National Product/ Gross Domestic Product
This is a number that people use to tell whether or not a country is rich or poor. This number tells the value of what everyone makes and does in a country. If it is GDP per capita, that means the value was divided by the number of people in the country.
Import/ Export/ Balance of Trade
Every country has different resources and industries. Because of this, countries will trade with each other to get things they do not have. If they are selling something to another country, that is called an export. If they are buying it, it is called an import. Countries keep track of how much they sell to a country versus how much they buy from the same country. This is called the balance of trade. Most countries want to have an even balance of trade.
Government
Government
A government is the rule makers and rule enforcers of a group. People decided to make governments a long time ago in order to keep other people from doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. The word for a place with no government or rules is called anarchy. The thing people had to give up in order to have that security was their own right to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. This idea where everyone agrees to give up some freedom in order to get some security is called the social contract by the philosopher John Locke. There are a lot of different kinds of governments in the world and throughout history.
Democracy
A type of government where people have a say in how their government works. The United States and a lot of the rest of the world are democracies, but they can be really different from one another. Some of the ways they can be different is how much they let people decide, how many people get to decide, and how much the government follows the instructions of the people. In the United States, we have a representative democracy, where we vote for someone to go make the decisions instead of us having to make every single, little decision. In a lot of other countries, they have a parliamentary democracy which is where instead of having a President and a legislature, they have a legislature which appoints people to do the work that the President does in our system.
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is a type of government where one person or group makes the rules without having to worry about what anyone else thinks. They can do whatever they want. Often times, there will be people who disagree with the dictator, but they will not have the right to say what they want or protest in any other way. If they do, they might go to jail or be executed. A lot of governments in the world and in history have been dictatorships. The one most people are very familiar with is Germany under Adolf Hitler (1933-1945). Sometimes dictators try to make it look like they listen to the people of the country, like have elections, but the people of the country don’t really get to have a say.
Theocracy
A theocracy is a type of government where a religious group is in power and works to makes sure that everyone follows the rule of the religion as well as follows the rules of the government. A good example of a theocracy is Iran. The person who really has the power in that country is the country’s most important religious figure. The other people in the government have to do what that person wants. The laws of the country make everyone follow the rules of the religion. For example, every woman in Iran, even visitors who are not Islamic, have to cover their hair and neck with the hajib. If they don’t, they might be fined or arrested.
Monarchy
A monarchy is a type of government where a person runs the country because they are considered special. This person will often be called a king or queen and they can usually expect that their children will also rule the country, because rule is hereditary, which means it stays in the family. Most countries used to be monarchies. People just thought that having a king was the normal and right way to run a country and they often believed that god had sent their monarch to them. Once democracy became more popular in the 1800s, people began having doubts about whether having a monarch made sense, so a lot of countries got rid of them or took away their power. In Great Britain, the royal family does not have a lot of power but they represent an important part of British history, so people don’t want to get rid of them completely. There are still some monarchies in the world, such as Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Government/Economic Systems
In the real world, governments and economic systems are mixed together and can not be separated. The governments have had to decide what they want for their country’s people. Often, they must decide between freedom and equality. In a capitalist/ market system, people are very free but that also means they are very free to be very poor. In a command economy, the government makes most of the economic decisions and tries to divide up the stuff more evenly but people are not free to try out their ideas about making money. A socialist/ mixed market system tries to mix the two by have the government make big decisions but allowing people some freedom in deciding what their role in the economy will be.
Capitalism/ Market System
Capitalism is a type of economy/ government in which people get to decide what kind of work they will do, what kind of businesses they will start, and how much they will buy and sell things for. There is a lot of freedom in a capitalist economy, and because people are free to work on their ideas, there are often very good ideas. One of the problems with a capitalist economy is that it is not very fair and there are very, very rich people and very, very poor people. This can be a problem if most people in an economy believe equality because then people have a hard time figuring out why it is ok for the economy to have so much inequality.
Communism/ Command Economy
After capitalism had been around for a while, a lot of people began criticizing it because of how much inequality it created. One of the critics was a man named Karl Marx and he influenced a lot of people. He thought that eventually, capitalism would fall apart and the type of system that would take its place would be called communism. That did not happen. A command system is a type of economy where people are supposed to share the work and rewards. In countries that try to have a communist government, the way these things are shared is through the government. The government makes the decisions about what is made, who gets to make it, and who gets the stuff. Many countries that tried communist economies discovered that some of the ideas were good but in general it did not work as well as an economy mixed with some capitalism.
Socialism/ Mixed Market Economy
In the world today, many places have a mixed economy and their governments are socialist. People who believe in socialism believe that it is very important for the government to have a say in the economy. They believe that capitalism is very unfair and that the wealth of a country needs to be divided more evenly. A mixed economy combines some of the freedom of a capitalist system so that the economy will be successful with the government making big decisions about the economy and making sure that the system is fairer. Socialist governments will usually have very high taxes for everyone but will give the people of the country a lot of benefits like health care, child care, or even housing allowances. Some countries may have a mixed government but may not offer as many benefits and has more inequality than others. The United States is a good example of this.
Unit Summary Questions
Government--Day 1
1. Define Government
2. Think about that definition. Write down some governments that have some control over your life.
Govwernment--Day 2
Write down these definitions:
1. Consent: permission
2. Governed: People who the government is in charge of
3. Abolish: stop
Government--Day 3
1. Define Democracy
2. Write down three details about deomocracies.
3. Define Dictatorship
4. Write down three details about dictatorships.
Government--Day 4
1.Define Monarchy
2. Write down three details about monarchies
3. Define Theocracy
4. Write down three details about theocracies.
Government--Day 5
1. People who like a market system (capitalism) like it because it offers?
2. People who dislike a market system (capitalism) dislike because it includes?
3. Who helped come up with idea of communism/ command system?
4. People who like a command system like it because it offers?
5. People who dislike a command system like it because it includes?
6. What does a mixed market economy
Government--Day 6
1. What is a value?
2. What is the most important value in a market system?
3. What is the most important value in a command system?
Government--Day 7
1. What is a question you have about what we are learning?
Economics
1. Define: Nomad, Surplus
Division of labor, Civilizations, Agriculture.
2.. Create ID on Cultural Hearths (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How)
3. What is industrialization?
4. What would you do to find out who was President in 1935 if you did not have the internet?
5. What is an industry?
6.. Define Literacy Rate, Life Expectancy, Infant Mortality, Per capita income.
7. Would a developed country have a high or low:
literacy rate
life expectancy
per capita income
infannt mortality
8. Define barter
9. What happens to the price when a large number or people want something and there is very little of that something available?
10. What happens to the price when very few people want something and there is a lot of that something available?
11. What is a positive for a group that has specialized its labor?
12. What is manufacturing?
13.. Give an example of a manufactured product?
14.. Why do most countries want to industrialize?
15... When did the US industrialize?
Bolivia trades $100 million dollars of silver to Djibouti. Djibouti trades $50 million dollars of coffee and $5.5 million in goats back to Bolivia.
16. What does Bolivia export?
17. What does Bolivia import?
18. Which country has a negative balance of trade?
19. What is the difference between Djibouti’s imports and exports?