Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Geography for Secondary education

Understanding Economic Activity

What is economic activity? People have many needs: food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. We call activity any process by which we obtain the products and services that meet these needs. Economic activities cover three stages: producing what we need, distribution, and consumption.

The needs and desires of people are endless, but the means we use to meet them (raw materials, work, money, etc.) are limited. Therefore, it is necessary to choose what goods and services are produced, in what quantity, by what means, how to distribute the products, and what percentage of the profits will go to investment. Economics also analyzes consumer behavior: what products they need, how much they spend, and more. Thus, the...

The First Industrial Revolution (1760–1830)

The Industrial Revolution represented a complete transformation in techniques, energy sources, and work organization, resulting in tremendous growth in production. These economic changes occurred in the last third of the eighteenth century in the UK and subsequently spread to other parts of Europe. This period also brought about major social changes. These social and economic shifts, known as the Industrial Revolution (IR), marked the passage from a traditional agricultural society to an industrial and modern one. The First Industrial Revolution began in Britain around 1760.

Until this period, manufactured goods were primarily produced in workshops. From the late seventeenth century, however, workshops...

Natural Movement of the Population

The natural movement of the population is defined as the difference between births and deaths.

Birth and Fertility Rates

Birth expresses the total number of children born in a particular place in a year. The characteristics of birth include:

• Birth rate: This relates the number of births to the total population of a territory.
• Fertility rate: This relates the number of births to the population of women of childbearing age.

Mortality and Life Expectancy

Mortality refers to the total number of people dying in a particular place in one year. The features of mortality include:

• Mortality rate: The number of deceased persons relative to the total population.
• Infant mortality rate: This relates the number of babies who die

Foreign Trade Fundamentals

Foreign trade is the exchange of goods and services between different countries. This includes importing (purchasing goods and services from abroad) and exporting (selling goods and services to other countries).

Exports and imports are recorded in the balance of payments, a document that reflects all economic transactions carried out by a country with the rest of the world during a specific period.

Balance of Payments Outcomes

The balance is the difference between receipts and payments, which can be:

• Positive: Revenues exceed payments.
• Negative: Payments exceed receipts.
• Balanced: Payments and receipts match.

Geographical Distribution of Trade

Trade characteristics vary depending on the economic status of the countries involved:...

Global Population Dynamics

The birth rate is the number of children born in a given period of time, expressed per 1,000 people. High birth rates are typically found in underdeveloped countries, while low rates are common in developed nations.

Mortality and Natural Increase

The mortality rate represents the number of deaths in a period of time, expressed per 1,000 people. This rate is often higher in developing countries. The natural increase is the difference between the birth rate and the mortality rate, expressed as a percentage. An increase of more than 2% is characteristic of underdeveloped regions, while developed regions often see less than 1%.

Population Structure and Workforce

Globally, more boys are born than girls. Population age groups...

Sector 2: Construction and Industry

SECTOR 2: The second sector is composed of two activities: Construction and Industry.

Construction

Construction is the economic activity dedicated to creating buildings and infrastructure.

Industry

Industry: the main component of Sector 2. It covers the activities relating to the processing of raw materials into manufactured goods, goods to be consumed directly, or goods to be used, in turn, as raw materials in other industries (semi-finished products).

At a small production scale, in handicrafts the product was made manually: one person handled the entire process. The product was intended for self-consumption or a limited market and productivity was low. The industry as we know it emerged in the late nineteenth...

Urban Classification, Morphology and Land Use

Quantitative Criteria

Quantitative criteria are based on figures; they consider a settlement to be a city when the core population exceeds a certain number of inhabitants. Quantitative criteria also consider villages to be cities if they meet certain characteristics.

Morphology and Location

Morphology refers to the physical form of the city.

• Location: the concrete space where the city sits.
• Location in the environment: the position of the city with respect to its geographical environment.
• Plano (plan): the arrangement of built-up areas and open spaces in the city.
• Catchment area: the area or zone influenced by an urban center.
• Urban network: a group formed by the location of cities in space and the relations

Industrial Urbanization: 19th Century to 1975

This period includes industrial urbanization from the beginning of industrialization in the 19th century to the economic crisis of 1975. Its main features are:

• a) The rate of urbanization experienced large growth, as the increase in urban population exceeded the rural population.
• b) Factors favoring this growth were administrative (new provincial division), economic, and social development. The modern city industry attracted the rural population.
• c) The process occurred in four distinct stages.

The Four Stages of Urban Development

Early 19th Century to Mid-Century

Until the mid-19th century, the concentration of population in cities was small (24.6%). Given the weakness of industrialization, the main urbanization...

Totalitarianism and Autarky in Francoist Spain

The new political arrangements established by Francisco Franco featured no division of powers, no constitution, and lacked democratic institutions, liberties, or multiparty systems. Franco held both the executive and legislative branches. In 1942, he created the Cortes Españolas. The three estates represented were unions, municipalities, and families. The regime's anti-democratic ideology was deeply imbued with the fascism of the Falange. Although the UN initially condemned the regime and vetoed Spain's entry, changes were eventually initiated. In 1937, Franco merged political forces to create the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS. Over time, fascist symbolism was suppressed, and...

1. European Recovery in the 15th Century

Throughout the fifteenth century, Europe began a demographic and economic recovery, overcoming the serious crisis of the late Middle Ages. This momentum allowed monarchs to wrest much of the political power from the nobility and centralize it in their own hands.

2. Economic Growth and Commercial Capitalism

The disappearance of major epidemics and the recovery of crop fields allowed for population growth and increased agricultural production. Shipping routes in the Baltic and the North Sea resulted in an increase in artisan production and the growth of cities that served as commercial trade centers. The growth of trade resulted in the accumulation of large profits in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Their economic...