Social Studies - 2019-20
WG.10 c - Economic Characteristics of North Africa and Southwest Asia
The student will analyze the characteristics of the North African and Southwest Asian regions by
c) explaining important economic characteristics;
Adopted: 2015
BIG IDEAS
UNDERSTANDING THE STANDARD
Most of the economies in North Africa
and Southwest Asia are dominated by
the petroleum industry.
ESSENTIALS
Economic characteristics
- Heavy reliance on primary economic activity (oil drilling, agriculture, pastoralism)
- Major producer of the world’s oil
- Oil revenues: Positive and negative effects
- Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
- Water: The region’s most precious resource
- Great variation in standard of living, ranging from very high to poverty-stricken
- Regional conflicts; political unrest that affects tourism
- Aswan High Dam: Positive and negative effects
- Suez Canal: Enhanced shipping routes in the region
- Guest workers
- Wide range of per capita incomes and levels of development
- Contemporary trade routes (sea lanes)
- Trade important to region from
earliest time
KEY VOCABULARY
Updated: Jun 13, 2018