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2. Learning Geography:
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Five Themes
Five Themes in Geography
Geographers work to understand the differences
and similarities among places on Earth. They study
the “where” just as historians study the “when” of
things. To gain this understanding, geographers
focus on five main themes: (l), location, (2) place,
(3) people-environment relations, (4) movement,
and (5) region. By focusing on these five themes,
geographers are able to gain a clear and organized
vision of Earth. These themes help us to see our
world in ways that satisfy our curiosity and build
our understanding.
Location
Geographers study wlrere things are located. For
geographers, locations are reference points in space
in the same way that dates are reference points in
time for historians. Absolute location is the exact
position of a mountain, river, lake, city, or town on
Earth’s surface. Relative location is the position of
a location on Earth’s surface in relation to other
locations.
Absolute locations do not change in their degrees
of longitude and latitude, just as dates do not
change. This matters a great deal to astronauts, airplane pilots, and navigators who need to know precise distances and directions. Laser beams that
bounce off satellites can now pinpoint absolute locations on Earth within an inch or two through what
are called Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS).
The absolute locations of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Madrid, Spain; Ankara, Turkey; and Beijing,
China, for example, are all the same distance north
of the equator. Their locations in relation to the
Atlanta, Georgia, is closer to
Detroit, Michigan, than it is to
Miami, Florida.
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Prime Meridian can be found on a world map. Absolute location does not tell us, however, that
Philadelphia is an important industrial and port
city with access to the Atlantic Ocean. It does not
tell us that Madrid and Ankara are capital cities near
the geographical centers of their countries. It does
not tell us that China’s capital city of Beijing is located on the North China Plain sixty miles from
the Yellow Sea and just inside the Great Wall of
China. Absolute location tells us only where these
important cities are located, nothing more.
In the same sense, the absolute locations of your
house, your street, your neighborhood, and your
school are registered in local government offices.
This is vital information for planners, property
owners, and tax collectors. Absolute location does
not, however, tell us much about where you live.
We do not know, for example, whether you live in a
central city, in a suburb, or on a farm. Nor do we
know whether you live on a highway, on a side
street, or on a rural road.
Knowing relative location gives us much more
information. It tells us the ways in which a location
is positioned relative to other locations on Earth’s
surface. Relative location, for example, tells us that
the city of Philadelphia is located on the Delaware
River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The
Schuylkill River, which joins the Delaware River in
Philadelphia, gives the city access to the interior.
Moreover, Philadelphia is one of a number of cities
that line the East Coast of the United States. Like
most of these cities, Philadelphia is located on a
narrow coastal plain between the Appalachian
Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.
Similarly, the relative location of your home tells
us where you live with respect to other locations in
your area. It tells us whether you live in the center
of a city or in the countryside, how far you travel to
your school, and whether there are any movie theaters or parks near your home.
Relative locations change through time. Two
hundred years ago, Philadelphia’s site at the junction of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers was CNcial to the city. Sailing ships from all over the world
traded at docks along the Delaware River, and
barges moving up and down the Schuylkill River
gave Philadelphia access to farmland in the interior.
Waterfalls on the river provided industry an inex-
CHAPTER 1 Learnmg the Geoeraphv of Our Planet
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pensive source of energy. Overland transport was
more difficult and expensive than water transportit was two days by stagecoach to New York Civ.
Mail was so slow that news of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia took
twenty-nine days to reach Charleston, South Carolina, about 500 miles away.
Today, Philadelphia’s relative location has
changed. Highways, railroads, and airlines connect
the city with distant points in the United States and
abroad. Forty miles of riverfront are lined with industries. Low-cost water transportation and direct
access to international trade are still locational
advantages. Railroads and roads across the Appalachian Mountains carry raw materials for manufacturing to and from Philadelphia. Overland trips
that took days now are completed in hours.
Philadelphia is still well connected to other locations, but its increased access to world resources and
trade is an important change in relative location.
Geographers emphasize the theme of location
because it is basic to understanding the world. Location helps to define the distribution of climates,
vegetation, natural resources, and patterns of
human settlement. Where are natural resources
vital to industry located? Where is good farmland
to be found? Where are new industries being built?
What transportation and communication systems
link specific locations with others? Which countries
are located in areas where there is warfare? All of
these questions require knowledge of absolute and
relative location. They help us understand where
and why events take place.
Place
A place is a particular city, village, or area with
distinctive physical and human characteristics that
distinguish it from other places. Geographers study
places to understand human activity in a physical
setting. Each place has distinctive landforms, bodies
of water, climate, soils, and vegetation. Each is occupied by people with a particular religion, language, and set of political beliefs. These people
build homes, stores, factories, places of worship,
and roads. Each place’s set of physical and human
characteristics gives it meaning and character. In
this sense, all places are unique.
UNIT 1 \Vorld Geographv
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Return for a minute to the example of Philadelphia. The city was founded in 1681 by William
Penn and settled by English Quakers, Swedes, and
Germans. It was a planned community two miles
long and one mile wide set on a peninsula between
the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. A grid of northsouth, east-west streets divided the city into blocks.
Rows of brick townhouses lined the streets. A large
square at the center was reserved for public buildings, and smaller squares were laid out as parks.
A hundred years later, Philadelphia was the
largest city in the United States and our federal capital. Philadelphia boasted 40,000 residents, the best
water supply of any American city, and the country’s oldest continuously inhabited street. Its population of artisans and merchants made Philadelphia
one of the most important cities in North America.
Its moderate climate, fertile farmland, river location, access to the sea, and talented people were significant factors in Philadelphia’s growth and
development.
Today, Philadelphia sprawls over many square
miles and has a metropolitan population of nearly
6 million. Textile factories, shipbuilding facilities,
oil refineries, and other industries occupy the riverfront and are situated along the main railroad lines
that enter the city. Air, rail, and road networks connect Philadelphia with cities on the East Coast and
far beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Residential
areas spread outward from the city to smaller suburban communities in three states. Philadelphia is a
different place now than it was when our country
was founded. It has been shaped and reshaped by
human ideas, aspirations, and activities.
V Philadelphia, a grid-pattern town, was an early, important port city on the east coast of America.
What factors it1 its relative location were important in its earl,v development in the 17OOs?
CHAPTER 1 Learnmg the Geogrsphv of Our Planet
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The term acid ruin was first used
in England in 1872 to describe the
air of industrial Manchester.
A Modem Plliladelplzia differ in size, architecture, and relative
location as compared with historic Philadelphia. What factors of relative location have changed over the last 300 years?
People-Environment Relations
Geographers study interactions between people
and environment to understand how human beings use the Earth. The word environment comes
from the French word meaning “circle” or “surroundings.” An environment may be as small as
your neighborhood or as large as the world.
Environment is the space you occupy, your place,
your natural and social surroundings.
People modify environments to make them
more or less productive or more or less comfortable. Each environment presents opportunities and
limitations to human activity. How people change
environments and adapt to them depends on their
beliefs, ideas, economy, social organization, and
technology.
The Great Plains of central North America show
how interactions between people and environments explain why things are located where they
are. In the early 18OOs, this level, treeless grassland
was incorrectly believed to be unfit for farming.
One government map labeled the area “The Great
American Desert.” Bison-hunting tribes of Plains Indians occupied these grasslands. These Native
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Americans were skilled horsemen and horsewomen
who migrated northward in summer and southward in winter, living off of enormous herds ot
bison, some as large as 12 million animals.
Uncertain rainfall, scarcity of firewood, winter
blizzards, and summer grass fires made the Great
Plains unattractive to pioneer farmers crossing the
Mississippi River and heading west. The tarmers
also incorrectly believed that land without trees was
infertile. These settlers, therefore, bypassed the
Great Plains and moved across the grasslands in
wagon trains, headed for the tree-covered lands of
Oregon and California. To farmers from the eastern
United States, the Great Plains was an unfamiliar
environment whose climate was very different from
that back home. Thus the Great Plains remained
thinly populated until after the Civil War in the
1860s.
When railroads penetrated the Great Plains,
bison hunters, farmers, and cattle herders began to
move onto the Plains Indians’ hunting grounds.
They soon destroyed the bison herds on which
Plains Indian life was based, and cattle replaced
bison on these grasslands. Soon after the slaughter
of the bison, Native Americans living on the plains
were driven off the land, rounded up and shunted
onto reservations, or killed.
Once railroads could inexpensively transport
beef to markets in Eastern cities, cattle were rounded up and driven to railhead cowtowns on the
southern plains. Earlier, in 1862, Congress had
passed the Homestead Act, which entitled every
adult American to 160 acres of land in the Great
Plains if they paid $10 and promised to produce a
crop in five years. Encouraged by the construction
of railroads, and lured by cheap land, thousands of
settlers cut into the thick grassland sod and established farms and permanent settlements on the
Great Plains. Slowly the environment of this region
was transformed.
Final mastery of the Great Plains environment
was accomplished by technology. The steel plow
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A The Great Plains of central North America were occupied by bison-hunting Native Americans.
Now this environment is one of the great wheat-growing and cattle-raising areas of North America.
How do these two facts relate to the theme ofpeople-environment relations?
cut through the thick turf, windmills pumped water
to the soil’s surface, and barbed wire fenced off
cropland from animals. Mechanical reapers, binders,
threshers, and other farm machines produced a torrent of grain from the Great Plains.
Today, this environment is one of the great
wheat-growing and cattle-raising areas of the world.
Generations of people transformed the Great Plains
into a carefully managed human landscape divided
into farms and ranches. Droughts in the 1880s and
1930s spelled disaster for many settlers and gave
rise to the name “dust bowl” to describe the region.
However, new techniques of animal raising and
methods of dryland farming have again made the
Great Plains a productive human environment.
Changing people-environment relations on the
Great Plains created new landscapes and new ways
of living.
Movement
Movement is the study of interactions among
people and other life forms located in different
places and different environments. Three types of
movement are of special interest to human geographers. These are migration, transport, and the
spread of ideas.
Migrations of people on Earth’s surface have
changed patterns of living and altered environments around the globe. The large-scale migration
of Europeans, Africans, Latin Americans, and Asians
to the United States created a nation of immigrants
who contributed their knowledge and strength to a
growing country. Europeans brought labor and
technology to help the United States become a
leading industrial nation. Africans, imported
against their will, provided labor to build the agri-
CHAPTER 1 Learning the Geographer of Our Planet
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cultural economy of the South. Latin Americans,
themselves migrants to North and South America,
helped to develop the unique landscapes of the
Southwest and California. Today, Asians form an increasing portion of the new immigrants to the
United States. These movements of people brought
together a rich blend of cultures and talents that
form the fabric of America’s human geography
today.
Movement of goods by transport networks provides a second vital connection among places on
Earth’s surface leading to today’s complex patterns
of world trade. In the United States, the gradual
building of turnpikes, canals, railroads, interstate
highways, and airlines united the nation by providing more effective means of connecting people and
resources.
The opening of the Erie Canal that linked the
Hudson River Valley with the Great Lakes in 1825,
for example, resulted in the growth of New York
City, which is at the mouth of the Hudson River.
New York City became the nation’s largest port,
trading the resources of the interior for other products. Transport networks to the fertile farmland and
abundant mineral deposits of America’s interior
supported the growth of other large cities along the
Atlantic coast, as well as newer cities in the central
and western United States. Railroads made Chicago
the hub of the Middle West. Natural transport
routes like the Mississippi River channeled flows of
goods between the north and the south. Spreading
transportation networks led to the growth and expansion of places along those networks. Efficient,
modern movement of goods is a reliable measure
of a country’s well-being. Few places can thrive
without goods and services from other places and
without allowing for economic specialization and
the interdependence of regions.
The spread of ideas, attitudes, and discoveries
through communication and trade is a third type
of movement that geographers study to understand places. The spread of Christianity from the
Middle East into Europe led to its establishment
there, as well as in regions later settled by migrating
Europeans. Technological and scientific discoveries
that led to the Industrial Revolution in England in
the 1750s spread to other lands, where they now
form the underpinnings of industry in the countries of the technological world. New methods of
farming changed landscapes. New modes of manufacturing led to the growth, decline, or relocation
of industries.
No place can rely only on ideas developed at that
location. The distinctive character of a place is often
based on ideas that the people of that place have
accepted and made part of their life and environment. A great number of these ideas developed in
different places and different times and as they
spread created cultural changes that are now seen as
patterns of unity and variety worldwide.
Region
Regions are parts of Earth’s surface that share one
or more characteristics that distinguish them from
surrounding areas. Geographers divide the world
into regions to show similarities and differences
among areas, just as historians divide time into historical periods.
Regions can be based on a single characteristic or
on many. A region’s unifying characteristics may be
political, cultural, economic, or environmental.
They can be as small as your neighborhood or as
large as you choose. California, for example, is a political region within whose borders the laws of the
state of California apply. The Great Plains, in contrast, is an environmental region whose landforms,
climate, soil, and vegetation distinguish it from the
Rocky Mountains to the west and the more humid
parts of the Central Plains to the east.
Regions often describe very complicated combinations of culture, economy, and environment.
This is the case when we use terms like New
England, the South, Scandinavia, or the Far East. Such
terms usually carry meanings that extend far beyond the location of these regions. They call to
mind the customs of the people, the environments
in which they live, their heritage, and certain economic activities.
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Culture regions are defined by the language, history, and economy of large parts of Earth’s surface.
When we study Latin America, China, the Middle
East, or Japan, we identify these regions as sharing
common characteristics and ways of living that distinguish them from other culture regions. Geographers use regions to divide the world into more
understandable segments that show patterns of
unity and diversity.
The Geographer’s Eye
Geographers view the world from a perspective
that is different from that of historians, anthropologists, and other social scientists. Geographers’ curiosity about location, place, people-environment
relations, movement, and region reflects their conviction that it is important to understand patterns
of human activity on Earth. The emphasis is always
on wlzere things are located and why they are located there.
Never has the geographer’s eye been more important to the well-being of the people of the United
i Ates. The United States is now deeply entwined in
a global economy and environment. Global interaction has become a reality, as events throughout the
world affect our lives daily. Markets for our industrial and farm products extend around the globe. Our
own dependence on oil and mineral resources from
many countries involves Americans with faraway
lands and peoples. Political changes on other continents transform our relations with foreign countries. The skills and talents of individual Americans
are increasingly employed by multinational corporations that cross political boundaries. Interactions
with peoples from other parts of the world occur
frequently. As you learn about the different culture
regions of this human world, you will gain perspective on forces that will affect your own life.
REVIEW- -QUESTIONS
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1. What is the difference between absolute location
and relative location?
2. How does a geographer define the word place?
3. What types of movement are of special interest
to geographers?
4. On a global scale, how are culture regions
defined?
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THOUGHT QUESTIONS
1. What characteristics give each place a meaning
that distinguishes it from other places? Describe
those that distinguish your neighborhood,
town, or city from others nearby.
I3. Why do people modify environments, and what
human factors determine how people change
their environments? Loo!; out the window and
describe the changes people have made in the
landscape you see. Have environmental changes
in your town or city become issues of political
debate?
3. Why do geographers divide the world into regions, and what characteristics can unify regions? What is the name of the region in which
you live? What are its boundaries?
-‘ CHAPTER
.z S U M M A R Y
The planet Earth is made up of land, water, and
air. It revolves around the sun in the solar system.
The Earth has special characteristics that define life
as we know it: the Earth’s daily rotation gives us day
and night, the annual revolution around the sun
gives us our year, and the tilt of the Earth’s axis
gives us the seasons. Geographers use many special
terms, such as solstice and eqhox, to describe the
effects on the Earth of rotation, revolution, and tilt.
Learning these terms will be useful, because you
will encounter them often in your lifetime.
All map projections contain distortion because of
the problem of projecting a sphere onto a flat surface. Many methods of projecting maps have been
devised to make up for this distortion. Each method
gives us a map with a special feature. Examples of
these features are: true compass direction, equal
areas, local accuracy, or accurate distance from one
or two points. There is no one good map. To use a
map correctly you need to know which features will
serve your purposes and which will not.
The five fundamental themes of geography are
location, place, people-environment relations,
movement, and region. Know the five themes well,
as we will use them throughout our study of geography.
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