Area and Population KO.Migration into North America

KR.Native American Civilizations

KS.Indigenous Culture Groups and Lifeways

KT.European Impacts on Native Cultures

KU.European Settlers and Settlements

KV.Ethnic Minorities in the United States and Canada

KW.Nonindigenous Languages and Faiths

135. Economic Geography

KX.Sources of the Region’s Affluence

KY.An Abundance of Resources

KZ.Mechanization, Services, and Information Technology

LA.U.S.-Canadian Economic Relations

LB.Transportation Infrastructure

136. Geopolitical Issues

LC.Historical Relations between the United States and Canada

LD.The United States’ Place in the World

The United States and Canada together are sometimes referred to as “Anglo America.” Canada is slightly larger in area, but the United States has nearly ten times as many people as Canada. Most Canadians live within one-hundred miles of the border with the U.S., while most Americans live in the eastern half of the U.S., particularly along the southern Great Lakes and the northeastern urban corridor. Another dense cluster of population stretches along the Pacific Coast. Continuous immigration to the United States (over 1 million per year) inflates its growth rate, which would otherwise be very low. The United States and Canada attract migrants from all over the world, predominately emigrants from Latin America and East Asia.

The U.S. and Canada are mountainous and rugged in the west, with lowlands along the Arctic and Atlantic coasts. Plains dominate the middle of the region, and the low mountains of the Appalachian and Laurentide regions rise in the east. Climate and vegetation types are extremely varied, especially across the United States. Widespread tundra and subarctic climates across Canada and arid desert or steppe conditions in the western U.S. strongly influence settlement patterns. North America has more natural disasters than any other continent. The two countries share a large area of prairie in the center of the region, and Canada has vast coniferous forests. Forestry, grain farming, dairy farming, mixed farming, and grazing are among the important agricultural endeavors of this area.

Native American settlement in this region began at least 12,500 years ago, and many indigenous tribes and civilizations developed over the centuries. Native cultures were diverse, dynamic and adapted to their local conditions, and all were profoundly affected upon the arrival of the Europeans. The British and French were the main settlers of eastern North America, prompted by exploitation of new lands for economic benefit, colonization and religious persecution at home. The European colonies to the north did not join in the American Revolution, resulting in the establishment of two separate countries in this region. Waves of immigration from Western Europe (as well as African slaves), and then later from the rest of Europe, Asia, and Latin America continually changed the demographic characteristics of the U.S. and Canada. Immigration and rapid population growth helped both nations add to their territories during the 1800s and become land empires spanning coast to coast. Today the core and periphery of both countries are linked by vast, advanced transportation networks of railways and highways.

Both the United States and Canada are wealthy nations. The U.S. has the world’s largest economy, and is the largest producer and consumer of goods. The region is well endowed with natural resources. Both countries are exceptional exporters of agricultural products thanks to the large amount of arable land. Oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, and many other minerals are also present in large amounts, enabling both economies to industrialize and mechanize fairly early in their histories. Economic prosperity has grown with peace between and stability in each nation, and the two countries share a very close relationship despite the occasional trade “war” over various products. Services and high-tech industries are rapidly overcoming manufacturing as the economic mainstay in both nations, though this was tempered by an economic “bubble” that burst in 2000 and led to a brief recession.

Canada maintains a relatively low international profile, and it often feels overlooked and under-appreciated by the United States. The U.S. is the world’s leading economic, diplomatic and military power, despite its long-standing isolationist policy that only started to wane during the First World War. After World War II the U.S. became actively interventionist in world affairs to prevent the spread of Communism and blunt the influence of its rival, the Soviet Union. The U.S. had long been protected from most international clashes by its geographic distance, but the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 shattered the assumption that the U.S. was immune on its own soil from the troubles of the rest of the world.

271. 
     There are four main clusters of population in Canada: the Atlantic region of eastern Canada; the core region of extreme southern Ontario and Québec; the prairie region; and the Vancouver region on the Pacific. In the United States, most of the population lives in coastal areas, particularly along the Pacific coast and in the heavily urbanized northeast. High population densities also exist throughout much of the eastern half of the country, especially around the southern Great Lakes. [pp. 598-599]
     

272. 
     Topographically, much of the western areas of North America are rugged and mountainous, with some ranges running alongside the coast. The middle of the continent is relatively flat, especially in the Great Plains. The low Appalachian Mountains rise to the east of the plains, with coastal lowlands both to the north and south of those mountains. A considerable extent of Canada and Alaska is tundra with subarctic conditions, and an ice cap covers most of Greenland. Humid continental and subtropical climates are prevalent in the eastern U.S. and southeastern Canada, with drier steppe and desert climates to the west. Coniferous forest dominates most of Canada, with tundra to the north and prairie throughout much of the center. Mixed forests are found to the east of the grasslands, and desert vegetation to the west. This heterogeneous physical environment offers various land-use limitations and possibilities. The region’s agricultural production is diverse, with everything from subtropical and Mediterranean crops in the southeast and Pacific southwest, respectively, to cattle ranching and grain-farming in the west. Climate is clearly a limiting factor in Canada’s crop production, but the so-called Prairie Provinces are great wheat producers. Forestry is understandably an important Canadian land use. [pp. 601-607]
     

273. 
     Natural hazards in the U.S. are both climatic and geologic in nature. The former includes potentially devastating and debilitating events like hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, droughts, and floods. The latter, largely confined to the western U.S., include earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It seems that each part of the country has its own particular problems. East Coast residents, for example, do not worry about earthquakes like Californians and Alaskans, but, by the same token, Californians and Alaskans pay little attention to hurricane forecasts. [pp. 602-603]
     

274. 
     Some of the major indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada included the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures of the southwest; the various Mound Builder civilizations of the central and eastern U.S.; and the Inuit tribes of far northern Alaska and Canada. Other significant peoples include the Hopi, Comanche, Sioux, Iroquois, Miwok, Cree, and Navajo. Each of these cultures adapted to living in their environments in ways that grew and evolved over time. The Anasazi, for example, constructed pueblos, interconnected residences and ceremonial centers made of adobe built into cliff sides or on mesas. Irrigated agriculture appeared in the southwest, while in the more humid east hunting and gathering was productive. The Lakota and other Plains tribes gave up their village ways of life and became nomadic buffalo hunters after the Spanish introduced the horse to North America. The Inuit livelihood was based around hunting sea mammals and fishing. [pp. 607-608]
     

275. 
     The French were the original settlers of what is now Canada, establishing several cities along the St. Lawrence River. French economic activity in the area was based on agriculture and the fur trade, and only French Catholics were allowed to settle in the region. French Canada was conquered by Britain in 1759, and the French residents of this area became British subjects. They did not join the English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard during the American Revolution, and this laid the basis for the establishment of two separate countries in North America. French populations increased rapidly in Canada until the late twentieth century. About 20 percent of Canadians are French in culture and language, and they are largely concentrated in Québec. A genuine sense of difference between French and British Canadians led to two attempts since 1980 to gain political independence for the Province of Québec. [pp. 612-613]
     

276. 
     For several centuries immigration has been one of the central factors in the development of the United States and Canada. Initially immigration to North America came from western and northern European countries, propelled by religious persecution in Europe, the colonization of new lands by Europeans, and then the expansionist efforts of the U.S. and Canada after independence. Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, East Asia, and Latin America arrived in large numbers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Approximately 500,000 African slaves were also brought to the United States between 1619 and 1807. Racial and ethnic tensions were historically widespread in the U.S., but with increasing diversity in the twenty-first century, the country is becoming more tolerant to cultural pluralism. In fact, by 2007 ethnic minorities made up the majority in four states – Hawaii, New Mexico, California, and Texas. Canada officially declared itself a multicultural country in 1988 in order to prevent such tensions on its side of the border. [pp. 612-616]
     

277. 
     English is the major non-indigenous language of both the United States and Canada, although Canada is officially bilingual with French. Spanish is a widespread language in the United States, and urban areas of both countries feature speakers of numerous other languages from all over the world. Roman Catholicism is the largest single faith in both countries, with about half of all Canadians and a quarter of Americans practicing it. Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, and many other Christian churches comprise most of the remainder of the population, though the U.S. also has about 5 million Jews and 1 million Muslims. [pp. 616-617]
     

278. 
     The United States has the world’s largest economy, and both the U.S. and Canada are among the wealthiest countries in the world. Canada is a major food exporter, and also exports minerals (such as coal and natural gas) and timber products. While the United States produces large quantities of many things, including minerals and wood (and is the world’s largest agricultural exporter), it is also a major importer of raw materials. The U.S. and Canada have both seen many of the goods they used to manufacture shift to production plants in foreign countries where costs are lower; information technology and the services sector are now more important than manufacturing. The U.S. and Canada generally share good economic relations, though occasional trade “wars” between them have flared up. [pp. 617-626]
     

279. 
     Despite the occasional trade disputes between them, involving commodities such as wheat, lumber, and salmon, the United States and Canada have good economic relations; the trend has been towards free trade and greater economic cooperation. A free trade agreement was enacted in 1988, and was expanded to include Mexico as NAFTA went into effect in 1994. The great economic, social, military, and political power of the United States has usually overshadowed Canada; many Canadians have felt overlooked and under-appreciated by Americans. Canada is a member of NATO but has disagreed with U.S. foreign policy on occasion, most recently during the 2003 Iraq war. [pp. 624-625]
     

280. 
     The U.S. emerged from the Cold War as the world’s superpower. Nevertheless, the country continues to debate its isolationist versus interventionist role in world affairs. It is evident that a global economy is here to stay, and with China expected to eclipse the U.S. economically by 2027, the U.S. government is anxious to expand world markets. On the political front, the Bush administration has been preoccupied with a war on state-sponsored terrorism. Domestic and international opinion immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001 favored retaliation, but many now have concerns about a new American imperialism. It is clear that the U.S. needs the support of the international community in dealing with the perceived nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran, and has sought to involve China and Russia accordingly. [pp. 626-627]
     

Chapter 1: Objectives and Tools of World Regional Geography

Chapter 2: Physical Processes that Shape World Regions

Chapter 3: Human Processes that Shape World Regions

Chapter 4: A Geographic Profile of Europe

Module 4.1: The European Core

Module 4.2: The European Periphery

Chapter 5: A Geographic Profile of Russia and the Near Abroad

Module 5.1: Fragmentation and Redevelopment in Russia and the Near Abroad

Chapter 6: A Geographic Profile of the Middle East and North Africa

Module 6.1: The Middle East and North Africa: Modern Struggles in an Ancient Land

Chapter 7: A Geographic Profile of Monsoon Asia

Module 7.1: Complex and Populous South Asia

Module 7.2: Southeast Asia: From Subsistence Farming to Semiconductors

Module 7.3: China: The Giant

Module 7.4: Japan and the Koreas: Adversity and Prosperity in the Western Pacific

Chapter 8: A Geographic Profile of Oceania

Module 8.1: Australia and New Zealand: Prosperous and No Longer So Remote

Chapter 9: A Geographic Profile of Sub-Saharan Africa

Module 9.1: The Assets and Afflictions of the Sub-Saharan Countries

Chapter 10: A Geographic Profile of Latin America

Module 10.1: Middle America: Land of the Shaking Earth

Module 10.2: South America: Stirring Giant

Chapter 11: A Geographic Profile of the United States and Canada

Module 11.1: Canada: From Sea to Sea

Module 11.2: The United States: Out of Many, One

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