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World Regional Geography: The New Global Order Update, 2/e
Michael Bradshaw, College of St. Mark and John

Our World and Geography

Chapter Outline

Use this outline to increase your understanding of the important characteristics of the New Global Order and Geography.

  1. Global, Regional, and Local Worlds -- Different levels of study increase understanding of the world.
    1. Globalization -- Interdependence among the world's peoples grows as economic, technological, and cultural connections become more important. Collective action is needed to solve global problems. Occurs simultaneously with localization.
    2. Localization -- Individual places/regions remain different and the people who live in these places desire more local autonomy and decision-making.
  2. Events in Diverse World -- The world contains much diversity.
    1. The Country Basis of Political Activity -- Even with the many changes associated with the end of the Cold War and the decline of Communism, the country remains most important political unit and level of political decision-making. Many rivalries between countries and groups of countries continue to cause tension and conflict.
    2. The Global Basis of Economic Activities -- Led by the United States and multinational corporations, capitalism now dominates throughout the world. Richer countries are known as core countries and poorer countries as peripheral countries. Semi-peripheral countries are in transition in either direction. The core countries and people tend to get relatively richer.
    3. Major World Regions and Cultural Activities -- Ideas, beliefs, and practices make up culture. The One World idea of Westernization or Europeanization is spreading , but some distinctive cultures resist sometimes leading to conflict.
    4. Issues in the Natural Environment -- In spite of increased awareness of the need to sustain the environment, human impacts on the environment continue to increase. Population growth to about 9 billion in 2050 is a concern.
  3. Geography of a Diverse World -- Geography offers useful explanations of the diverse world.
    1. Geography -- Geographers examine the variety of people, their cultures, their economic activities, and the various environmental conditions that are found at different places around the world.
    2. Geography is about Places -- Absolute location and relative location describe where a place is.
    3. Approaches in Geography -- Regional geography, spatial analysis, and human-environment relationships are the three main approaches in geography.
  4. Regions in a New Global Order
    1. Regional Scales -- The three scales from large to small are major world regions, countries, and local regions.
    2. Formal and Functional Regions -- Formal regions are based on similar characteristics; functional regions are based on interaction. Regions are influenced by five aspects: people create regions, regions shape people's activities, people remake regions, regions interact with other regions, and regions are used by those in power.
  5. Major World Regions -- Remembering that major world regions interact, change, and are composed of countries, nine distinct world regions are to be studied.
  6. Geographic Development of World Regions -- History contributes to the understanding of modern world geography. People and societies went from mini-systems to world regional empires to the current world economic system.
    1. Phase I -- Local Systems: Hunting and Farming -- Small hunting and gathering min-systems supported by what the local environment provided gradually gave way to farming of domesticated plants and animals.
    2. Phase II -- First World Regional Empires: City Civilizations and the Bronze Age, 2500 to 1000 B.C. -- Based on irrigated agriculture, Mesopotamia becomes the most important of several core civilizations with modest amounts of trade with nearby areas.
    3. Phase III -- New World Regional Empires: Classical Civilizations of the Iron Age, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 600 -- Several major world religions and cultural systems develop in different parts of the world during this phase. Interactions throughout Eurasia are increased.
    4. Phase IV -- Feudal Empires: Medieval Times, A.D. 600 to 1450 -- Between the classical period and the modern age, this phase contains many invasions, migrations, advances, and declines.
    5. Phase V -- Capitalist World System and Modern Times, A.D. 1450 to the Present -- Colonization and trade based on mercantile capitalism begin this phase with the Industrial Revolutions ultimately leading to modernization and industrial capitalism becoming dominant in the world system.