Glossary
Confucianism
A philosophy that humans are perfectible through self-cultivation and self-creation developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher, Confucius.
Confucianism
A movement based on Confucius’s teachings, a Chinese philosopher who lived about 500 B.C.
Congo
Location: Central Africa Official name: Republic of the Congo Formation (date of independence / date current borders were established): 1960 / 1960 Capital city: Brazzaville Population: 3.8 million / 29 people per sq mile (11 people per sq km) Total land area: 132,046 square miles (342,000 square km) Language(s) spoken: Kongo, Teke, Lingala, French (official …
Constitutional monarchy
A government in which the ruler’s powers are limited by a constitution and a nation’s laws.
Consumer goods
Goods that individuals acquire for short-term use.
Consumer organisms
Animals that cannot produce their own food within a food chain.
Consumption overpopulation
The concept that a few persons, each using a large quantity of natural resources from ecosystems across the world, add up to too many people for the environment to support.
Containerization
The prepackaging of items into larger standardized containers for more efficient transport.
Continental divide
The line of the highest points in North America marks the separation between rivers flowing eastward and westward.
Continental drift
The hypothesis that all continents were once joined into a supercontinent that split apart over millions of years.
Continental islands
Once attached to nearby continents, these are the islands north and northeast of Australia, including New Guinea.
Continental shelf
The Earth’s surface from the edge of a continent to the deep part of the ocean.
Continentality
A region’s distance from the moderating influence of the sea.
Convection
The transfer of heat in the atmosphere by the upward movement of the air.
Convectional precipitation
The heavy precipitation that occurs when air is heated by intense surface radiation, then rises and cools rapidly.