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a group’s decision about where to settle. Different cultur-
al groups can perceive the same physical environment in
different ways, and their varied responses to the same en-
vironment influence settlement patterns. A good example
appears in a part of the European Alps shared by German-
and Italian-speaking peoples. The mountain ridges in that
area — near the point where the borders of Switzerland,
Italy, and Austria meet — run in an east–west direction.
Thus, each ridge has a sunny, south-facing slope and a
shady, north-facing slope. German-speaking people, who
rely on dairy farming, long ago established permanent set-
tlements some 650 feet (200 meters) higher on the shady
slopes than the settlements of Italians, who are culturally
tied to crops that grow best on the sunny slopes.

Figure 7.9 Australia’s “dead heart.” This picture was taken Economic Development
west of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory, which is just
about at the center of the continent. The climate here is inhospita- Economic development and technological advances can
ble and settlements are sparse. Marianne Purdie / Alamy Stock Photo affect population distribution. The coalfields of western
Europe are a good case in point. Before the industrial age,
many coal-rich areas — such as the Midlands of England,
Climate southern Wales, and the lands between the headwaters
of the Oder (or Odra) and Vistula rivers in Poland — were
Climate factors influence where people settle. Most of the only sparsely or moderately settled. The development of
world’s sparsely populated zones have difficult climates steam-powered engines and the increased use of coal in
from the viewpoint of human habitation (see Figure 7.1). the iron-smelting process, however, created a tremen-
The thinly populated northern edges of Eurasia and dous demand for coal. Industries grew up near the Euro-
North America are excessively cold, and the belt of pean coalfields, and people flocked to these areas to find
sparse population extending from North Africa into the work. In other words, after a technological and economic
heart of Eurasia matches the pattern in major desert development increased the value of coal, many sparsely
zones of the Eastern Hemisphere. Australians speak of populated areas containing that resource attracted large
the “dead heart” of their continent, an interior land of numbers of people. A similar phenomenon occurred in
excessive dryness and heat, and sparse human popula- many mining towns in Colorado and other western states
tions (Figure 7.9). Humans are largely creatures of the in the United States in the nineteenth century. Mining
humid tropics, subtropics, and midlatitudes, and they attracted many people from other parts of the country,
have not fared well in excessively cold or dry areas. Small but when the mineral resources ran out, residents left
populations of Inuit (Eskimo), Sami (Lapps), and other and once-booming places turned into ghost towns.
peoples live in some of Earth’s less hospitable areas, but
these regions do not support large populations. Though Disease
humans have proven remarkably adaptable to living in
many different physical environments, there are limits. Disease also affects population distribution. The Black
Death of the mid-14th century killed up to 75-200 mil-
Culture lion people, effectively wiping out many human settle-
ments in Eurasia and Africa. An estimated 50 million
Though some population settlements start out as adap- people worldwide perished in the 1918 Spanish flu pan-
tations to physical conditions, these patterns sometimes demic, including about 5 percent of India’s population.
become tightly woven into the cultural fabric. Thus, living Some diseases attack valuable domestic animals, depriv-
in crowded settlements or having large families may have ing people of food and clothing resources. These diseas-
deep roots in both nature and culture. In addition, per- es have an indirect effect on population density. Their
ceptions of the physical environment play a major role in effect is indirect because they may not kill people but

14 Unit 2 Population and Migration Patterns and Process
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