| A | B |
|---|
| subregion | smaller areas |
| isthmus | narrow piece of land that links two larger areas of land |
| archipelago | group of islands |
| escarpment | series of steep cliffs that drop down to the Atlantic coastal plain |
| Llanos | tropical grasslands |
| Pampas | plains in Argentina & Uruguay |
| tributary | a small river that flows into another river |
| estuary | an area where river currents & ocean tides meet |
| gasohol | fuel produced from sugarcane & gasoline |
| Tropics | area between the Tropic of Cancer & Tropic of Capricorn |
| rain forest | a dense stand of trees & other plants that receive high amounts of precipitation |
| canopy | an umbrella-like covering of leaves in the tops of a forest |
| altitude | height above sea level |
| maize | corn |
| jade | a shiny green semiprecious stone |
| obsidian | hard, black, volcanic glass useful in making weapons |
| hieroglyphics | a form of writing that uses signs and symbols |
| empire | a large territory with many different peoples under one ruler |
| cash crop | crop produced for export or profit |
| caudillo | usually high-ranking military officers or rich men supported by the upper class |
| communist state | government controls the economy and society |
| migration | the movement of people |
| mestizo | people of mixed Native American & European descent |
| pidgin language | combining parts of different languages |
| carnival | the last day before the Christian holy period of Lent |
| mural | large paintings on walls |
| plaza | public squares |
| vaquero | developed tools & methods for raising cattle during Spanish colonial times |
| maquiladora | factories in which workers assemble parts made in other countries |
| subsistance farm | small plots where farmers grow only enough food to feed their families |
| plantation | large farms that raise a single crop for sale |
| migrant worker | people who travel to find work where extra help is needed to plant or harvest crops |
| literacy rate | percentage of people who can read and write |
| command economy | the communist government decides how resources are used and what goods & services are produced |
| remittance | money sent back home by Haitians who work in other countries |
| commonwealth | a self-governing territory of the United States |
| selva | the Amazon rain forest |
| favela | overcrowded slum areas that surround many Brazilian cities |
| gaucho | cowhands |
| national debt | money owed by the government |
| default | to miss a debt payment to the company or person who lent money |
| sodium nitrate | a mineral used in fertilizer & explosives |
| push pull theory | why people move from place to place |
| urban | pertaining to city life |
| rural | pertaining to country life |
| immigration | the movement of people from one place to another |
| conquistadors | people who claimed & ruled land in the Americas for the Spanish government in the 1500s |
| Treaty of Tordesillas | agreement between Portugal & Spain dividing Latin America at 50 degrees west longitude |
| indigenous | descendents of the people who first lived in a region |
