Cultural North America

Colonization:

• Colonization of North America first started in the late 1500’s into the 1700’s by the Europeans. Many people trace their ancestry back to Europe, which makes for very diverse and multicultural societies

United States: • 1607 England founded the first permanent

English settlement at Jamestown, Roanoke was also settled but residents disappeared, land was colonized for new land for farming and trade for furs

Canada:

• France and England colonized, important for fur trading too, French and Indian War resulted in France loosing the war and having to give up Canada to England

Quebec region:

• 90% of all French-speaking people in Canada live in this region, they repeatedly try to gain their independence from Canada but they have not had the votes, they are heavily Catholic.

• Canada has struggled with their national identity because of the attempts to separate by Quebec

North America Characteristics

• Highly developed:1. High Literacy rate (reading and writing)2. High standard of living3. Highly urbanized

- Have incidents of pollution like acid rain in cities especially in the northeastern US

- Urban sprawl- which is the conversion of farmland to urban areas

4. Highly Mobile population (planes, trains, cars, busses, subways ect)- Highways and interstates, drive up services, gas stations, motels

5. Very strong infrastructure - Federal Express, United Postal Service (UPS), and the US Postal Service

- Transportation networks like highways

6. Very diverse population with multicultural society - Arts that reflect the cultural heritage of multicultural societies - Bilingual signs

7. Democratic form of government both US and Canada

8. Have the world’s largest unfortified border between the United States and Canada

9. US globalization - McDonalds, Coca-cola, music and blue jeans

10.There is a widening gap between the rich and the poor, the rich are

getting richer and poor are getting poorer

US organizational membership

1. Red Cross- an international organization that cares for the sick and wounded and for disaster victims

2. United Nations- headquarters is in New York City

3. NATO- a military alliance of countries that supports democracy and security for member nations

Site versus Situation

1. Site is the actual location of a city:- New York city, New York is a harbor site- Richmond, VA is a fall line city; this is the

division between the Piedmont and the Atlantic coastal plains areas of Virginia that is known for water falls

- Pittsburg, Pennsylvania- a confluence site, place where several rivers meet together to form one river

- Quebec city- where the St. Lawrence river narrows

2. Situation is the relative location of a city - Omaha, Nebraska, and Sacramento

California- cities that grew up on the transcontinental railroad

Cities in the US can Change function

• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania- the early function was for defense; later became important in the steel manufacturing industry; now importance has shifted to diverse industry such as finance and light manufacturing

• New York City- changes in trade patterns to include not only coastal and transatlantic trade, but trade from the Great Lakes via the Erie canal; it is a worldwide trade center and finance center

Cultural Landmarks:

• US Capitol building: in Washington, DC; Congress meets here; presidential inauguration is done in front of this building

• Golden Gate Bridge: San Francisco, CA; suspension bridge

• Independence Hall: Philadelphia, PA; where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was signed

• St. Louis Gateway Arch: St Louis, MO; tallest national monument in US, monument is to celebrate westward expansion

• Niagara Falls: between Ontario and New York, waterfall formed by glaciers