AP Human Geography Review Summary

Introduction

• Today is a review of all seven units of AP Human Geography in one video.
• Goal: Review highlights and main concepts of each unit.
• For detailed understanding, watch topic review videos or check out the Ultimate Review Packet (includes summary videos, study guides, practice quizzes, and full practice AP tests).
• Also, join the Mr. Sin Discord server for a community of students reviewing for the AP test.

Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

• Maps: Thematic, reference maps, and different projections (e.g., Mercator map).
  • Each map projection struggles with distortion (shape, area, distance, direction).
• GIS: Geographic Information Systems layer data on maps, revealing different spatial relationships.
• Research: Quantitative (e.g., census data) vs. Qualitative (e.g., attitudes, beliefs).
• Spatial Concepts:
  • Distance decay and connectivity.
  • Environmental sustainability, including Environmental Determinism vs. Possibilism.
• Scale and Scale of Analysis:
  • Scale of analysis: Organizing data (local, national).
  • Scale: Viewing the Earth's surface (small scale = world map; large scale = county map).
• Regions:
  • Functional/Nodal Regions: Organized around a node (e.g., airport).
  • Perceptual/Vernacular Regions: Based on people's beliefs (e.g., Middle East).
  • Formal/Uniform Regions: Common attributes (e.g., state's boundaries).

Unit 2: Population and Migration

• Population Distribution: People live in areas with different opportunities (economic, social, political, environmental).
  • Population density: Arithmetic, Physiological, and Agricultural density.
• Demographic Variables: CBR, CDR, NIR, sex ratios, doubling time, dependency ratios.
• Population Pyramids: Analyze different countries and stages of the demographic transition model.
• Demographic Transition Model:
  • Stage 1: Low growth (high CBR & CDR).
  • Stage 2: High growth (fall in CDR, high CBR - Industrial/Medical Revolution).
  • Stage 3: Moderate growth (decline in CBR, urbanization).
  • Stage 4: Low growth (ZPG).
  • Stage 5: Declining population (controversial).
• Migration:
  • Push/Pull factors (political, economic, social, environmental).
  • Forced vs. Voluntary migration.
  • Counter-migration and Ravenstein's Laws of Migration.
  • Impact: Diffusion, acculturation, assimilation.
• Malthusian Theory: Population growth vs. food production.
  • Neo-Malthusians: Expand Malthus's theory to all resources.

Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

• Culture:
  • Cultural relativism vs. Ethnocentrism.
  • Cultural landscape: Land use patterns, architecture, technology, etc.
  • Centripetal and centrifugal forces shaping cultural identity.
• Diffusion: Relocation and Expansion (Hierarchical, Contagious, Stimulus).
  • Historical diffusion: Colonialism, imperialism, modern: Urbanization, globalization.
• Resistance and Adaptation:
  • Cultural resistance, acculturation, assimilation, syncretism, multiculturalism.
  • Folk/Indigenous cultures vs. global culture.
• Religion:
  • Universalizing (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) vs. Ethnic religions (Judaism, Hinduism).
  • Influence on cultural landscapes.
• Language:
  • Language families and diffusion.
  • Impact on cultural landscapes.

Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes

• Key Terms: Nation, State, Nation-State, Multinational State, Multi-State Nation, Stateless Nation.
• Colonialism and Imperialism: Creation of political boundaries, diffusion, territoriality.
• Political Boundaries:
  • Relic, Antecedent, Subsequent, Consequent, Superimposed, Geometric.
  • Maritime boundaries: Law of the Sea (territorial waters, contiguous zone, EEZ, international waters).
• Self-Determination: Nations’ right to govern themselves.
• Political Power: Unitary vs. Federal states.
• Supranational Organizations: Impact on state sovereignty (EU, NATO, UN).
• Electoral Geography: Redistricting, Gerrymandering.
• Forces Influencing States: Centripetal (unifying) vs. Centrifugal (dividing).
• Devolution: Transfer of power to regional governments.

Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land Use

• Agricultural Practices: Intensive (near population centers) vs. Extensive (farther away).
  • Examples: Plantation farming, Mixed crop and livestock, Market gardening (intensive); Shifting cultivation, Nomadic herding, Ranching (extensive).
• Settlement Patterns: Clustered, Dispersed, Linear.
• Survey Methods: Metes and bounds, Long lots, Township and range.
• Agricultural Hearths: Origins and diffusion of crops and animals (e.g., Columbian Exchange).
• Agricultural Revolutions:
  • First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic).
  • Second Agricultural Revolution (Industrial Revolution).
  • Green Revolution (GMOs, chemical fertilizers, pesticides).
• Modern Agricultural Practices: Monocropping, Monoculture, Economy of scale.
• Debates: Use of GMOs, chemical fertilizers, impacts on environment and health.
  • Movements: Organic farming, local food movement, fair trade, urban farming.
• Role of Women in Agriculture: Informal economy, lower wages, discrimination, evolving roles.
• Bid-Rent Theory: Relationship between land prices and location (urban to rural).
• Von Thünen’s Model: Spatial layout of agriculture around a market center.

Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land Use

• Site and Situation: Unique place characteristics and connections.
• Urban Settlements: Distribution and connection via world cities.
• Theories: Gravity model, Central Place Theory (urban hierarchy).
• Urban Models: Burgess Concentric Zone, Hoyt Sector, Harris and Ulman's Multiple Nuclei, Galactic.
  • LDC models: Latin American, Sub-Saharan African, Southeast Asian.
• Density Gradient: High (vertical buildings) to low (spaced out settlements).
• Sustainable Cities: Smart growth, urban growth boundaries, new urbanism, green belts.
• Challenges: Redlining, Blockbusting, Gentrification.
• Multilayered Government: Federal, regional, state, local influencing urban planning.

Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes

• Economy Types: Formal (regulated) vs. Informal (under the table).
• Sectors: Primary (natural resources), Secondary (manufacturing), Tertiary (services).
  • Tertiary breakdown: Quaternary (information), Quinary (decision processes).
• Job Shifts: Core countries focus on tertiary, Semi-periphery/Periphery on primary and secondary.
  • International Division of Labor: Offshoring, manufacturing zones.
• Economic Impact: Multiplier effect, post-Fordist production, just-in-time delivery.
• Neoliberal Policies: Free trade, NAFTA, WTO, IMF, resistance (isolationist policies).
• Trade and Development:
  • Comparative advantage, specialization in goods and services.
• Economic Indicators: GDP, GNP, GNI (standard of living).
  • Gender inequality index, Human development index.
• Women in Economy: Subsistence agriculture, informal economy, microloans.
• Development Models: Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth, Wallerstein’s World System Theory.

Conclusion

• Review for AP test or final exam.
• Check further resources: Topic review videos, Discord channel, Ultimate Review Packet.
• Good luck on your exams!