Region (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what a region is according to its geographical, cultural, economic or political meaning and examples of each one.

amazon region — Geographic, economic or political characteristics can define a region.

What is a region?

When we talk about a region, we may be referring to different things, depending on the context, but they all necessarily have to do with a portion of the earth's surface, whose constituent elements tend to be similar or homogeneous thus allowing us to understand it as a unit.

Obviously, the limits of said region depend on what these constitutive elements are, and that question depends on the specific perspective we use.

In this way, by the term region we usually distinguish some portion of territory, belonging to a country, a State or a community, whose geographical, population, economic or political characteristics are identifiable and comparable with those of some other territorial portion.

Obviously, this is a useful concept for geography, but also for politics, economics, culture and numerous other fields of knowledge that require a geographical perspective.

Thus, regions can be indicated in the territory of a country, but also when exploring the flow of a given language across a continent, when studying the extent of a forest, a mountain range or even when contemplating the historical development of an area. of the planet. Any surface in the world can be considered a region: natural, cultural, economic, political, etc.

natural or geographical region

Siberian natural region — The Siberian region is characterized by its large plains and its cold climate.

We speak of a natural region (or its synonym in certain senses, geographical region) to refer to a sector of the earth's surface whose physical characteristics (relief, hydrography, climate, vegetation, etc.) are relatively uniform thus allowing us to distinguish a complete and homogeneous natural unit.

Obviously, they do not consider anything linked to humanity: neither cities, nor cultures, nor history. Only things related to nature. Examples of this are:

The Amazon region. The expanse of dense South American jungle that covers part of the territory of almost all the countries of the subcontinent.
The Siberian region. Characterized by the enormous frozen plains of northern Russia, with almost polar climates and scarce vegetation.
The intertropical zone. Climatic zone that is between the two tropics of the planet (Cancer and Capricorn), and that houses the warmest and most humid temperatures, without there being defined seasons.

cultural region

On the other hand, when talking about cultural regions, reference is made to the dominant cultural form in the population of a territory that is, to its religious, linguistic, ethnic values or even its constitutive history, regardless of the physical or natural features of the territory it inhabits.

All of humanity can be classified into cultural regions, although always with a certain margin of error. Its delimitation depends on how willing we are to generalize, since culture is a rather difficult aspect to define scientifically in separate categories. Examples of cultural region are:

The Caribbean region Although its name comes from the Caribbean Sea, the portion of the Atlantic Ocean that unites the Caribbean countries, in reality when using this name we are referring to a very particular set of American populations, the result of the colonization of the Americas by Europeans. , and whose culture is the result to varying degrees of the intense miscegenation that occurred in the region, mixing white Europeans, black Africans and indigenous settlers in a single great mestizo culture.
The Balkan region Also referred to as The Balkans, it is a group of Eastern European countries, most of them located in the Balkan Peninsula (or around it) and endowed with a cultural and linguistic diversity that turns them into a true cultural archipelago. full of tensions, exchanges and complex identity processes.
The Bavarian region Forming part of German culture itself, Bavaria or the Bavarian region is located in the south of the country, bordering Austria, Lichtenstein and the Czech Republic. Festivals like Oktoberfest are manifestations of their local culture, different from that of the rest of the country in many aspects.

You may be interested: World Overpopulation

economic region

The economic regions or productive regions are, like the previous cases, territorial areas in which a certain economic activity takes place or in which a certain economic resource is abundant. Therefore, they constitute more or less homogeneous sectors within the productive map of a territory.

Thus, the economic regions within a nation are determined by the main economic activity that takes place there: livestock regions, wine regions, industrial regions, etc. For example:

Silicon Valley This is the name given to a region of the State of California, in the United States, near the San Francisco Bay, where most of the headquarters of the large American technology companies are located: Google, Facebook, Apple, among many others. .
The economic region of the North Caucasus One of the twelve economic regions of the Russian Federation and located in the descent of the northern part of the Caucasus mountain range, it is a true mine of hydrocarbons in the form of oil, coal and natural gas, and whose extraction is carried out by the Russian State. galore.
The Pampas economic region Located in the heart of Argentine territory, it covers the three most important provinces of the country: Córdoba, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires, whose lands are some of the most fertile in the country. Therefore, it is a region of important agricultural and livestock production.

Political region

Political regions, unlike the previous cases, are due to a rather conventional, that is, arbitrary, criterion that responds to the how nations organize and politically divide their territories.

All countries do it: they structure themselves as a collection of small states, governed by central or federal methods, and whose boundaries are usually determined historically.