1. Chapter 2 Lecture
Human Geography: Places and
Regions in Global Context
Sixth Edition
Wendy A. Mitteager
State University of New York, Oneonta
The Changing Global
Context

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Key Concepts
• Evolution of the Modern World
• World-System
• Core and Periphery Regions
• Neocolonialism
• Globalization
• Sustainability
• Cultural Imperialism
Figure: Chapter 2 Opener An Icelandic ash plume impacted flights on a global
scale in May 2010

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[Insert Figure 2.3]
Figure 2.3 A remnant minisystem in the Amazon
The Premodern World
• Minisystems
• Slash-and-burn
• Hearth Areas
– Middle East
– South Asia
– China
– Americas
Apply your knowledge: Describe example of traditional
crafts from the agricultural hearth areas of Arizona and
New Mexico

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Figure 2.1 Old World hearth areas Figure 2.2 New World hearth areas
The Premodern World, (cont’d)

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The Premodern World, (cont’d)
• World-Empire
– Group of minisystems
– common political system
Figure 2.4a Greek colonies and the
extent of the Roman empire

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The Premodern World, (cont’d)
• Colonization
– Law of diminishing returns
• Urbanization
Figure 2.4b Highly developed
infrastructure of the Roman empire

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[Insert Figure 2.6]
The Premodern World, (cont’d)
• Framework of human geographies
– Harsher environments in continental interiors
– Dry belt of steppes and desert margins
– Principal areas of sedentary agriculture
Figure 2.6 The Silk Road

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The Premodern World, (cont’d)
Figure 2.5 The precapitalist Old World, circa 1400 C.E.

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Figure 2.7 European Age of Discovery
World Systems

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World Systems, (cont’d)
• External arenas
• Plantations
• Import substitution
• Technological
improvements
and limits
Apply your knowledge: Compare maps of Brazil from
the internet—from the 1600s and the present day. How
has the world-system in Brazil changed over time?
Figure 2.8 Cotton plantation, Mississippi River

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World Systems, (cont’d)
• Industrialization in Europe
• Diffusion
– Began in England, spread
through Europe and globally
• Three distinctive waves
– Influenced by resources
and technology
Figure 2.A European industrialization

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World Systems: Core & Periphery
• Structured relationship
– Core, semiperipheral, peripheral
• Imperialism & Colonialism
• Leadership cycles
• Hegemony
• Ethnocentrism
Apply your knowledge: Discuss a current international
issue involving a former colonial territory

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World Systems: Division of Labor
• Suez and Panama
Canals
• Network of telegraph
communications
• Colonial economies
• Needs of core regions
• Development of
oceangoing steamships
Figure 2.11 International telegraph network in 1900

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World Systems: British Empire
Apply your knowledge: Where were your clothes sewed?
Where did the materials come from? How does this relate
to division of labor and comparative advantage?
Figure 2.13 Late 1800s British empire

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World Systems, (cont’d)
• Environmental determinism
• Third World
• Neocolonialism
• Commercial imperialism
• Transnational corporations
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Apply your knowledge: Provide an example of how
neocolonialism reinforces the power and influence of core
countries. Be specific. What is the role of transnational
corporations in neocolonialism?

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World Systems: Core & Periphery, (cont’d)
Figure 2.9 The world-system in 1800 Figure 2.12 The world-system in 1900

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World Systems: Core & Periphery, (cont’d)
Figure 2.12 The world-system in 1900 Figure 2.14 The world-system in 2010

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Globalization
• Increasing interconnectedness of the world
– Economic, environmental, political, cultural
– Greater speed, larger scale, broader scope, and
greater complexity than in the past
• Commodity chains
• Increase in significance of place
– Mobility of money, labor, products, and ideas

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Globalization, (cont’d)
Figure 2.B The commodity chain of a pair of Lee Cooper jeans

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Globalization: Environment
Figure 2.15 The human “footprint”

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Globalization: Environment, (cont’d)
Apply your knowledge: Give an example of a local
environmental concern. How does it relate to economic
development and social equity?
Figure 2.17 Three key aspects to
sustainability
Figure 2.16 Pollution continues to threaten
the ecosystem of Lake Baykal

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Globalization: Health
Figure 2.18 Diffusion of the HIV virus

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Globalization, (cont’d)
• Security
– Risk society
• Spatial Justice
• Cultural Imperialism
• Westernization
• “Jihad vs. McWorld”
Figure 2.19 Communication flow between
major world regions

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Globalization: Worlds Apart
Figure 2.D A Swiss familyFigure 2.C An Ethiopian family

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Future Geographies
Apply your knowledge: Find a story in a national
newspaper that addresses an issue associated with
contemporary globalization. How does the article illustrate
the increasing interdependence of place and region?
Figure 2.20 Westernization in Istanbul

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End of Chapter 2