Chapter 9: The Changing South

In this chapter, we learned mainly about slavery and manufacturing of the Changing South. I was surprised in the number of slaves in the South. As I researched on the slavery in California, a type of slavery existed among the native people before the arrival of the European colonists. As Anglo settlers from the Southern and Eastern United States came to California, many free and enslaved people of African ancestry were part of the California Gold Rush (1848-1855), and many were able to buy their freedom and freedom for their families, primarily in the South with the gold they found. There has been Slavery from the decades of native Indians through under Mexican rule and under the United States’ rule. It was a surprising fact to me that there existed a form of slavery before even European colonists arrived. As I see the history of slavery, I doubted that slavery is a human nature. And I realized the reason why people fought so long time to break down slavery.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Chapter 8: Appalachia and the Ozarks

Mountains and forests of Appalachia and the Ozarks are the main characteristic of those areas. So, I researched on mountains and forests of Los Angeles. The highest point in Los Angeles is Mount Lukens, also called Sister Elsie Peak. Located at the far reaches of the northeastern San Fernando Valley, it reaches a height of 5,080 ft. Los Angeles has both flat areas and hilly areas. Santa Monica hills north of Downtown, areas north of Downtown around Silver Lake, the entire eastern parts of Los Angeles, the Crenshaw area, the San Pedro area, and areas around the San Fernando Valley are hilly areas in Los Angeles. Los Angeles forms a structure of a basin. So, it suffers from air pollution in the form of smog. When I hiked a mountain and stood in the peak of the mountain, I was disappointed by smog. We can clearly see the line of grey smog area, separated from clear blue section.

Chapter 7: The Bypassed East

Fishing is important to the Bypassed East’s economy so I decided to talk about fishing in Los Angeles and its port. Even though fishing in the Bypassed East is important for living, Los Angeles is not. There are many spots for fishing in California, like Playa Del Rey and Pyramid Lake. Most of them are just for entertainment. The Port of Los Angeles is a port complex that occupies 7,500 acres of land and water along 43 miles of waterfront. It adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach, employs 16,000 people, and is the busiest container port in the United States. So, I would say there is a big difference between Los Angeles and the Bypassed East in the use of positional aspects.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Chapter 5: The North American Manufacturing Core

The fact that Los Angeles is the second largest city does mean something. It’s not only many people but also the fact that it leads business, trade and culture. Los Angeles is the largest manufacturing center in the West, one of the world’s busiest ports, a major financial banking center, and the largest retail market in the United States. The city had 500,000 workers in manufacturing activities in 2003. The largest components are apparel (68,300 jobs), computer and electronic products (60,000 jobs), transportation products (54,600 jobs), fabricated metal products (49,900 jobs), food products (44,800 jobs), and furniture (27,400 jobs). Steel fabrication is the second largest industry in manufacturing, followed closely by fashion apparel. Before I researched on manufacturing in Los Angeles, I didn’t think it’s this much. I was impressive.

Source: http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-West/Los-Angeles-Economy.html

Chapter 4: Megalopolis

Los Angeles is not located in Megalopolis region. However, Los Angeles is somehow related to characteristics of Megalopolis region. Since Megalopolis is located in East Coast, Los Angeles is located in West Coast. It’s a significant advantage to be around a coast line. Urban growth in those places benefited from access to good ports for transportation and trade and from an abundance of rivers to provide water power for manufacturing. Like New York is the largest city in the U.S., Los Angeles is the second largest city in the U.S. Those two cities have been getting situational advantages. The textbook mentioned the most important aspect of Megalopolis’s situation was its position relative to Europe. Los Angeles’s most important aspect would be its position relative to Asia.

Chapter 3: Foundations of Human Activity

In this chapter, we learned mainly about historical settlements and cultures. Los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. As Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821, Los Angeles became a part of Mexico. However, Mexican-American War occurred from 1846 to 1848. The origin of the war is territorial expansionism of the United States. At the end of the war, the United States took California. Today, Los Angeles is one of the largest multi-cultural cities. So, there are a wide variety of religions, including Catholic, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism and others.

Source: en.wikipedia.org; A People’s History of the United States by Zinn

Chapter 2: Geographic Patters of the Physical Environment

According to the figures in the textbook, “Physiographic regions” and “Climate regions”, Los Angeles is located in Pacific Mountains and Valleys and Mediterranean or Dry Summer Subtropical. With these physical environments, I believe Los Angeles is one of the finest places to live. I was born in Korea and lived for like 15 years. The weather of Korea has four distinct seasons with colder winter and hotter summer than Los Angeles. One of geographic influences that affect on climate is latitude. Latitudes of Los Angeles and Korea are similar (34N for LA and 37N for Korea). And both are around coast. I tried to find what factors are related on the difference in weather between Los Angeles and Korea. The only thing I could think of was topography and precipitation, but I couldn’t find any specific data. Or small difference of 3 degree latitude may cause the weather difference. My curiosity came from the fact that I couldn’t see any snow in Los Angeles since I’ve seen snow every winter in Korea.

Chapter 1: Regions and Themes

I selected Los Angeles as the city I want to talk about. I am an international student from Korea. I’ve lived in the United States for 8 year. However, I realized that I didn’t know much about this city. With this course I want to know about where I live more geographically.

Los Angeles, California is located on the West Coast of the United States. According to the figure in the textbook, “Regions of the United States and Canada”, Los Angeles is in California region. Since we learned mainly about urbanization, I researched on the urbanization of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the second largest city or metropolitan area in the United States (New York is the largest city in the U.S.) and 13^th in the world in 2003. I was surprised in the fact that Seoul Korea is the second largest metropolitan area in the world. The population of Los Angeles diverges with how the area is defined. Los Angeles itself is 3.8 million, which is the largest city in California. The population of Los Angeles metropolitan area (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan) is 17.7 million people.

Source: en.wikipedia.org