Introduction

Most of this course has focused on physical geography, but this lesson will touch on human geography. Human geographic regions are dynamic and changeable. Changes in political boundaries are not uncommon, and sometimes they are barely noticeable. In some cases, such as congressional districts, city boundaries, or school boundaries, the changes occur because of growing or declining populations. However, sometimes changes in political boundaries, especially changes in the boundaries of countries, have a huge impact on the lives of people. In most cases the changes are a result of many factors, including cultural and economic reasons or physical reasons. Sometimes the changes are made peacefully and sometimes they are the made as the result of war.

In this lesson we are going to focus on the main aspects of human geography and the ways that we organize information about our world. We will consider how regions are formed, and we will look at some of the effects that physical geography has on human geography. Having an understanding of the way regions are divided helps us to clarify the world around us.

• Objective 1:  Explain the types of regions.
• Objective 2:  Discuss the relationship between cultural traits and physical regions.
• Objective 3:  Compare economic systems.
• Objective 4:  Discuss the relationship between the physical characteristics of an area and its cultural, economic, and political regions.
• Objective 5:  Identify Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont on a map.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. For more information about this and other OCW projects at BYU, visit http://ocw.byu.edu.