Yr12 - Historical Factors Affecting Development - Mozambique vs New Zealand

Historical Factors - Mozambique

• Mozambique was colonised by the Portuguese in 1498.
• They turned the indigenous population into slaves and took a lot of the countries wealth in the form of gold and ivory.
• From 1964-1974 - Mozambique War of Independence. Anti-colonial viewpoints spread across Africa and the widespread belief that the white European population were still gaining benefits that would never reach the indigenous population, war broke out and the fight for independence began.
• 1975 - Mozambique became independent from Portugal. Within the year 250,000 Portuguese left the country. (some were forced to leave by the new Mozambique Government and only allowed to take what they could carry - other left before this independently).
• 1977-1992 - Mozambique Civil War. The new independent government was a Marxist one (belief that everyone is equal and wealth should be spread evenly) and was supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union. Opposition groups were formed who did not want the country run in this way and a long and violent civil war began. South Africa and other nearby countries kept the conflict going by supplying weapons and supporting resistance fighters.
• 1992 - Civil War ended. UN peace keeping force was initially sent. 
• 1993 - 1.5 million Mozambique refugees returned to the country from neighbouring countries they had fled to during the war and drought.
• 1994 - first democratic elections held.
• 2000 - Devastation cyclone hits the country. Caused widespread flooding and destroys infrastructure (roads, rail, power supplies, homes, businesses).

Historical Factors - New Zealand

• One of the last land masses settled by humans!
• Settled by eastern Polynesians between 1250-1300 (although these dates are disputed!)
• 1769 - British explorer James Cook discovered the country. Whalers and sealers followed. Then many European settlers!
• 1801-1840 - Musket wars between Maori tribes killed 30-40,000 Maori.
• 1840 - Treaty of Waitangi signed - NZ became a British Colony.
• 1860-1870 - New Zealand land wars - due to confiscation of Maori land as more and more European Settlers arrived.
• 1907 - NZ became a dominion within the British Empire, which reflected its self governing status.
• 1914-1918 - NZ fought in the first World War.
• 1949-1945 - NZ fought in the second World War.
• 1947 - NZ adopted the Statute of Westminster which meant England could no longer enforce laws on New Zealand.

Yr 12 - Case Study Mozambique vz New Zealand - Fact Files

MOZAMBIQUE FACT FILE

Location - South East Africa. Bordered by Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South Africa.
Population - 24,692,144 (2014 estimate)
Size - 801,537 km2
GDP - $14,600 billion
GDP per capita - $650
HDI - 0.393 (low 178th)
Life Expectancy - 49.8yrs
Infant Mortality Rate - 62/1000 births
Birth Rate - 39/1000
Literacy Rate - 48%

NEW ZEALAND FACT FILE

Location - Island in the south western Pacific. 1,500 km east of Australia.
Population - 4,596,700 (2015 estimate)
Size - 268,000 km2
GDP - $191,730 billion
GDP per capita - $42,017
HDI - 0.910 (high 7th)
Life Expectancy - 81yrs
Infant Mortality Rate - 5/1000 births
Birth Rate - 13/1000
Literacy Rate - 99%

MOZAMBIQUE CLIMATE

Tropical climate with two seasons. Wet season from October to March and a dry season from April to September. Rainfall can be heavy along the coast but it can be dry inland towards the mountains. Cyclones can be common in the wet season causing flooding near the coast.

NEW ZEALAND CLIMATE

Mild and temperate maritime climate. (no extremes of temperature and influenced by the sea as we are an island!). Rain varies across the country and it can be very wet on the west coast and very dry in central Otago. Snow falls in the winter months on the high ground and on the South Island but it is sub-tropical in the very far north.

MOZAMBIQUE ECONOMY

Mozambique has a large number of natural resources, such as oil and natural gas which was found recently and may improve the wealth of the country in the future. At the moment the economy is based largely on agriculture (farming). There is some industry, which is mainly food and drink, however there is also some chemical manufacturing and aluminium and petroleum production.
The warm climate, beaches and wildlife also means that the country's tourism sector is growing. There main trading partners at the moment are South Africa, Portugal, Brazil, Spain and Belgium.

NEW ZEALAND ECONOMY

Historically New Zealand has made a lot of money from primary industries like mining and forestry. Agriculture has also been a major income, particularly since the availability of refrigerated shipping and the country was able to export meat and diary products. The UK was traditionally the main market but when it joined the European Union in 1973, New Zealand lost out to competitors from within Europe.
In 2008 China and New Zealand signed the New Zealand and China free trade agreement which will hopefully secure income for the future. New Zealand is very dependent on international trade, food products made up 55% of its exports in 2014 and wool was the second largest.
The service sector (banks, shops, tourism, anything that provides a service) makes up the largest section of industry. Tourism is very important as people travel from all over the world to view the countries natural beauty. Tourism employs 9.6% of the workforce and contributes $15 billion to the total GDP.

So why are these countries so different? Why is New Zealand so much more developed that Mozambique?

Yr13 - Impacts of Tourism on Rotorua Revision

If you get a question on the impacts of Tourism you will probably have to draw a map to illustrate these impacts. Make sure you follow the geographic conventions and add in a north point, title and key! The picture below is an example of a map that was drawn in a paper that gained an Excellence.

The impacts of Tourism in Rotorua are listed in another post on this blog but it is always a good idea to add in some up to date figures and information that demonstrates you understand your case study fully. So below are some up to date figures and information that would add detail to your case study knowledge!

Up to date figure on visitors to Rotorua for July 2015 which show an increase in visitors of 18% on the same period last year. With the greatest increase in visitors from North America and Australia.

Snapshot of Rotorua from Stats NZ has some interesting info on the population of Rotorua from the last census. There is still a large percentage of the population working in retail and accommodation, industry linked to Tourism. The average income and wealth is still low in comparison to the rest on NZ. Presumably this is linked to low paid and seasonal Tourism jobs.

Article on Rotorua winning a Tourism award from 2015 - so very new and relevant to this year. Demonstrates how Tourism is increasing this year.

Another article from this year describing, and giving some useful figures, on how much the Chinese market is increasing. Figure below are from this article.

Tourism growth May 2014 - May 2015 (against national average)

* Chinese market spend up 300 per cent .
* International electronic card spend up 28.6 per cent (16.7 per cent).
* Domestic card spend up 8.4 per cent (4.5 per cent).
* Domestic spend up 6.7 per cent (4 per cent).
* International spend up 8 per cent (7 per cent).
* Commercial accommodation visitor numbers up 7.3 per cent (5 per cent)

Another article describing the economic impact of tourism in Rotorua.

Yr 12 - Development Revision - Measuring Development

How can we measure development?

The above video is made for UK students but covers a lot of what we need to know when trying to measure development.

You need to be able to explain the advantages (good things) and limitations (things they can't tell you) of the following ways of measuring the development of different countries.

Development Indicator	What it is?	Notes
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
GDP – Gross Domestic Product	The value of output (everything made) produced within a country during a time period.	Reliability of data? How accurate is the data that is collected? Distribution of income? How is the income distributed – does a small proportion of the population earn a high percentage of the income or is income more evenly spread? Quality of life? Can changes in economic growth measure changes in the quality of life
GDP/GNP per head/per capita	Takes account of the size of the population. The figure is the amount each person within a country would have if the wealth was spread evenly.
SOCIAL INDICATORS
Life Expectancy	Is the average lifespan of someone born in that country.	This can be affected by factors such as wars, natural disasters and disease. The higher the life expectancy the more developed the country.
Birth Rate	Measures the number of babies born per thousand people per year.	The higher this is, the less developed a country is supposed to be. The UK has around 13 babies born per year for every 1,000 people.
Adult Literacy	- Is the percentage of the adult population able to read and write.	The more people who can read the more developed a country and the better the education available in that country.
Infant Mortality	Measures the number of children who die before they reach the age of one for every thousand live births per year.	The figure of 1000 is used so that countries of vastly different size can be compared. t. It is one way of finding out what is happening within a country.
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX	The HDI measures a country in three basic dimensions of human development: Life Expectancy, Literacy Rate and GDP per capita.	It gives a measurement up to a total of 1. The nearer the figure is to 1 the more developed a country is! NZ = 0.913

Yr11 - Plate Tectonics Revision

You need to be able to explain the processes that cause earthquakes. This means that you need to be able to explain how and why earthquakes occur.

Earthquakes happen every day in New Zealand. There are around 14,000 earthquakes in and around the country each year. Most are too small to be noticed, but between 150 and 200 are big enough to be felt.

The earthquakes are caused by the movement of the earths crust which is broken into sections called plates. These plates float on the liquid rock of the Mantle. The plates are moved by convection currents in the mantle, which circulate round forcing them to move towards and away from each other. They move at a very slow rate, normally just a few centimeters each year. About the same rate as finger nails grow.

Earthquakes are most common in areas where two plates meet. These areas are called plate boundaries. New Zealand lies on the plate boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate.

When two plates are forced together, or past one another, they sometimes get stuck and stress energy builds as they try to keep moving. When they finally move this energy is released and an earthquake occurs. The energy is released in the form of seismic waves which travel through the earths surface. Earthquakes normally take place at faults which are existing cracks or fissures in the earths crust.

The strength of the earthquake depends on the size of the movement and the depth of the movement. The deeper beneath the earths surface that the actual movement occurs (the focus = point at which the earthquake or movement actually occurred) the less it will be felt at the surface (the epicenter = point on the earths surface directly above the focus). The shallow earthquakes, ones where the movement is nearer the surface, are they ones that tend to cause the severe damage.

Level 3 - Triangular graphs

Some advice and guidance on how to use and interpret these graphs.

These types of graphs are great for comparing three components (things/factors) influence or strength.

Each component needs to be in a percentage. (out of 100)

Each axis is divided into 100 and lines are draw across  from one side to the other to carry the values of each component.

The position of the dot on the graph indicates which component (thing/factor) has the greatest influence or strength.

The graph above shows the employment structure in various different countries. (The percentage of people who work in Agriculture, Services and Industry).

In Myanmar the majority of the population work in Agriculture and less that 10 % work in Services and Industry.

In Malaysia 50% of the population work in Services, 23% in Industry, and the rest in Agriculture.

Yr11 - Assessment practice on Extreme Natural Events

The question below is an extract from a past paper on Extreme Natural Events.

Answer the question in the comment section below this post. The person who writes the best answer will win a small prize!