Physical Geography
This narrow landform with water on both sides connects two larger land areas; Central America is one.
What is an isthmus?
Warm, moist winds from the east that bring rain to the region.
What are the trade winds?
Large export-oriented farms growing sugar or coffee.
What are plantations?
At its peak, the Maya had a sophisticated calendar and this communication system.
What is a system of writing?
Long-standing democracy with no standing military.
What is Costa Rica?
Agreements like CAFTA-DR aim to cut these taxes on traded goods.
What are tariffs?
Farther north than most Caribbean islands and close to Florida, this archipelago isn’t part of the Antilles.
What are the Bahamas?
Intense storms forming over the tropical Atlantic, peaking in late summer and early fall.
What are hurricanes?
Rain carries farm chemicals to streams and the sea in this kind of pollution.
What is runoff?
Spanish colonial labor system that claimed to Christianize while effectively enslaving natives.
What is encomienda?
Since 1959, this island has been a socialist republic under a communist system.
What is Cuba?
If both exports to and imports from the U.S. rise after 2004, it shows this kind of economic impact.
What is increased two-way trade/integration?
This human-made waterway across the isthmus links the Atlantic and Pacific.
What is the Panama Canal?
Their slow movement explains the region’s frequent earthquakes and volcanoes.
What are tectonic plates?
Jamaica is known for mining this aluminum ore.
What is bauxite?
16th-century priest who condemned Spanish abuses and mass deaths from overwork and starvation.
Who is Bartolomé de las Casas?
In the late 1900s, people in Guatemala and Nicaragua fought to overthrow these regimes.
What are dictatorships?
Movement prioritizing better wages/conditions and environmental protections for producers.
What is fair trade?
The Caribbean’s highest peak, found in the Dominican Republic.
What is Pico Duarte?
A one-week September visit to Puerto Rico carries roughly this hurricane chance if the monthly risk is 8%.
What is about 2%?
Clearing trees that accelerates erosion and can trigger mudslides.
What is deforestation?
Caribbean sugar fueled this three-legged Atlantic trading network.
What is the triangular trade?
A large campaign rally for a presidential candidate in Panama signals participation in this system.
What is democracy?
Small loans helping poor farmers start or expand businesses.
What is microcredit?
This large island—home to the Sierra Maestra—has most of its land close to sea level.
What is Cuba?
Name two ways Hurricane Mitch (1998) or Ike (2008) harmed societies/economies.
What are infrastructure and farm destruction, deadly floods, mass displacement, and reliance on foreign aid?
Give one policy resorts can use to reduce water strain on scarce islands.
What is caps on withdrawals / low-flow fixtures / graywater reuse / rainwater harvesting / drought-tolerant landscaping?
Led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, this colony became the first independent Black republic in 1804.
What is Haiti?
After independence, many regional economies grew dependent on investment and land control from this country.
What is the United States?
The spread of Caribbean peoples—and their music and food—to North America is called this.
What is the diaspora?
Precipitation in the Central American highlands feeds these two major water bodies, one a Guatemalan lake and one a river along the Mexico–Guatemala border. Name both.
What are Lake Atitlán and the Usumacinta River?
Named in the text as perhaps the region’s most active, this Guatemalan stratovolcano exemplifies Central America’s tectonic volatility.
What is Volcán de Fuego?
Identified as having lost the greatest percentage of its forests in the region, this country now struggles to produce enough food due to erosion.
What is Haiti?
After the early 1500s conquest, Spain organized much of Central America under this colonial entity.
What is the Kingdom of Guatemala?
A peace agreement in this year helped make democracy possible in Guatemala after a decades-long civil war.
What is 1996?
Name the two trade groups the text cites as tools to expand regional commerce, one Caribbean-based and one linking Central America, the Dominican Republic, and the United States.
What are CARICOM and CAFTA-DR?