| A | B |
|---|
| conquistador | Name for the Spanish explorers who claimed land in the Americas for Spain |
| cultural convergence | The contact and interaction of one culture with another |
| caudillo | A Latin American military dictator |
| pampas | A grassland region in Argentina and Uruguay |
| cay | A small, low island or coral reef |
| coral | The rocklike skeletons of tiny sea animals |
| tropical storm | A storm with winds of at least 39 miles per hour |
| hurricane | A destructive tropical storm that forms over the Atlantic Ocean, usually in late summer and early fall, with winds of at least 74 miles per hour |
| El Niño | A warm ocean current off South America's northwestern coast that influences global weather patterns |
| canopy | The uppermost layer of a forest where tree branches meet |
| mestizo | A person of mixed European and Native American heritage |
| mulatto | A person of mixed African and European ancestry |
| market economy | An economic system in which decisions about production, price, and other economic factors are determined by the law of supply and demand |
| GDP per capita | The total value of goods and services produced within a country in a year, divided by the country's total population |
| command economy | An economic system that is controlled by a single central government |
| traditional economy | An economic system in which families produce goods and services for their own use, with little surplus and exchange of goods; also known as a subsistence economy |
