Historical Development of Geography
(Rubenstein p. 7-11)
First geographer? Probably an unknown ancient who crossed a river or climbed a
hill, observed what was on the other side, and returned home to tell about it –
and to scratch the first rough map in the dirt
Early history – geography is synonymous with navigation. Sailors and traders
made charts of useful information for finding their way, noting distinctive
landmarks such as rock formations, islands, and direction of ocean currents
Ex. Polynesian people made 3-D maps called “stick charts,” made of strips from
palm trees and sea shells. The shells represented islands and the palm strips
represented patterns of waves between the islands
Ancient Greek contributions
 Thales of Miletus (ancient port city near Turkey) (624-546?BC) applied
principles of geometry to measuring land area
 Thales’ student, Anaximander (610-546?BC) argued that the world was
shaped like a cylinder and made a world map based on information from
sailors
 Aristotle (384-322BC) was the first to demonstrate that the earth was
spherical, noting that matter falls together toward a common center, that
during an eclipse Earth’s shadow on the moon is circular, and that the groups
of stars visible at night change as one travels north or south
 Astronomer Pytheas sailed to Iceland in 325 BC and worked out a method
for determining latitude by observing the position of stars
 Eratosthenes (276-194?BC) was the scholar who first used the word
“geography” from the Greek “geo” meaning “Earth” and “graphy” meaning “to
write.” He accepted that the Earth was round, as few did in his day, and
calculated its circumference within an amazing 0.5% accuracy. In one of the
first geography books, he described the known world and correctly divided
Earth into 5 climatic regions (a torrid zone across the middle, two frigid
zones at the extreme north and south, and two temperate bands in between)
Eratosthenes also prepared one of the earliest maps of the known world
 Ptolemy (100-170 AD) wrote an 8 volume Guide to Geography based on
information gathered by Roman merchants and soldiers. He prepared
numerous maps, which were not improved upon for more than a thousand
years
Roman contributions
 Strabo (63BC-24AD) exhaustively described the known world in his 17
volume work, Geography. He regarded Earth as a sphere at the center of
a spherical universe
Ancient China
 Ancient writings from the 5th century BC describe economic resources of
different provinces
 Phei Hsiu (Fei Xiu) “father of Chinese cartography” produced an elaborate
map of the country in AD 267
Middle Ages
 Geographic inquiry continues outside of Europe
 ad-Idrisi (1100-1165?) prepared a world map and geography text in 1154
 Ibn-Battutah (1304-1368?) rote Rihlah (Travels) based on his journeys
through the Muslim world for more than 3 decades
 Vikings sail west from Scandinavia to Iceland in 860. Erik Thorvaldson
(Erik the Red) having been banished from Iceland, sailed to Greenland in
982 and established permanent settlement in 986. Bjarni Jerjulfsson left
Iceland in 985 to join Erik’s colony, but sailed too far south and reached
Newfoundland, but did not land. In 1001 Leif Eriksson (son of Erik the
Red) sailed off course and landed in Newfoundland and set up a camp.
 Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492 to try
to discover a sea passage between Europe and Asia that would eliminate
the long and difficult trip around Africa. Columbus made 4 voyages across
the Atlantic and died in 1506 believing that he had reached Asia. Other
explorers realized the error, and within one year of his death the first
European map was published showing the existence of a landmass in the
Western Hemisphere.
 first European to see the Pacific was Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who viewed
it from a mountain in Panama in 1513.
 first ship to sail around the world was the Victoria, captained for most of
the voyage by Ferdinand Magellan. The ship left Spain in 1519, passed
from the Atlantic to the Pacific through what is now known as the “Straits
of Magellan” and reached the Phillipines in 1521. Magellan was killed in a
fight, but another crew member, Juan Sebastian del Cano, sailed across
the Indian Ocean, around Africa and completed the around-the-world
voyage back to Spain in 1522.
 Exploits of explorers led to a resurgence in geographic thought. Germany
Bernhardus Varenius (1622-1650) published Geographia Generalis, which
became the standard treatise on systematic geography.
Geography Grows as a Science
 German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) placed geography within a
framework of scientific knowledge. He argued that all knowledge can be
classified logically or physically. (Logical classification organizes
plants/animals into a systematic framework of species, based on
characteristics, regardless of when or where they existed. Physical
classification identifies plants/animals that occur together in particular
times and places.) Descriptions according to time comprise history;
description according to place comprise geography. History studies
phenomena that follow one another chronologically; geography studies
phenomena that are located beside one another.
Two Opposing Views
 Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and Carl Ritter (1779-1859) (German
geographers) argued that geography should move beyond describing the
earth’s surface to explaining why certain phenomena were present or
absent. Urged geographers to use methods of scientific inquiry used by
natural scientists. Human geographers should apply laws from natural
sciences to understanding relationships between the physical environment
and human actions. They concentrated on how the physical environment
caused social development, an approach called environmental determinism.
 Freidrich Ratzel (1844-1904) and his American student, Ellen Churchill
Semple (1863-1932) claimed that geography was the study of influences
of the natural environment on people. Another American, Ellsworth
Huntington (1876-1947) argued that climate was the major determinant of
civilization (temperate climate of northwestern Europe produced greater
human efficiency and better health conditions)
 The geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment
relationships is now known as cultural ecology. To explain the relationship
between human activities and the physical environment, modern
geographers reject environmental determinism in favor of possibilism (the
physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the
ability to adjust to their environment)
Regional Studies
 Another school of geographic thought, regional studies, developed in
France during the 19th century. Also called the cultural landscape
approach, it was initiated by Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918) and Jean
Brunhes (1869-1930). It was later adopted by American geographers,
including Carl Sauer (1889-1975) and Robert Platt (1880-1950).
 They rejected the idea that physical factors simply determine human
actions. They argued that each place has its own distinctive landscape
that results from a unique combination of social relationships and physical
processes. Everything in the landscape is interrelated.