HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT

ASSIGNMENT 3

SUBMITTED TO
PROF. MADAN MOHAN
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

SUBMITTED BY
DIYA VINOD KUMAR K
MASTERS IN GEOGRAPHY

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Describe the German Scholar's contributions to the development of geography
and also who laid foundations for establishing 'Geography as a ‘Modern
Science' and their roles in the scientific development of Geography with special
reference to the Bernhardus Varenius and Immanuel Kant as well as the
Alexander von Humbolt and Carl Ritter during the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Introduction
Germany has made enormous contributions to the field of geography. The Germans made
significant advancements and maintained a strong philosophical and scientific foundation for
this subject throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and even earlier. Three stages can be
distinguished in the German contributions:
i) Pre- classical period,
ii) The Classical Humboldt-Ritterian period, and
iii) Post Classical period

● Pre-Classical Period: Subject-specific specialization gained importance following

the start of the scientific revolution. The impact of this revolution, which Kepler's
works brought about.

The influence of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton was so great that German
geographers began characterizing the field as a subfield of mixed mathematics;
academics who attempted to characterize geographical areas faced harsh criticism.
The roots of scientific geography were laid by several traditions that developed over
time.
The geography compendia were created by Peter Apian, Sebastian Muster, and
Cluverius during the pre-classical era. Both the Strabo-inspired Roman and Ptolemaic
traditions were revived by these scholars. Astronomer and cartographer Apian (c.
1495–1552) is well-known for his two publications. The first one is an astronomical
treatise and the second one deals with the concepts of geometry and astronomy. He
accepted the notion of geocentric universe and also recognised Aristotle’s view of
ekumene. In 1530, he produced a heart-shaped world map where both latitudes and
longitudes have been shown by curved lines.
 Munster (1489-1552) is renowned for his work “Cosmographia Universalis’ which
was published in 1544. This work has been regarded as one of the authoritarian works
on world geography for many decades. Ho too recognised the geocentric approach of
the universe.

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 Cluverius (1580-1622) was the first geographer to discuss universal geography. He
revived the Munster tradition and wrote "Introduction in Universam Geographiam," a
1616 work that covered the geographical history of Germany.
In addition to these, a multitude of German scholars published a multitude of works that
contributed in one way or another to the development of geographical thinking. It is
important to include the names of Mercator and Waldseemuller. They are both
acknowledged for creating globe maps that are still in use today.
Published in 1507, Waldseemuller's map bore the name Carta Marina. Mercator created the
world map in 1538, and it was the only map used for navigation in the middle and low
latitudes. Despite new ideas and scientific advancements, their contributions have not became
less significant.
 Bernhardus Varenius, a German scholar, had a lasting impact on geographical
studies spanning over a century (1622-1650). He was among the first academics to
draw attention to the distinctions between the nature and content of physical and
human geography. He thought it was possible to make accurate inferences about
natural events using the techniques of the natural sciences to a large degree. However,
as human groupings are more susceptible to probability than certainty, they cannot be
applied to them. Human group generalizations must be limited to a specific period
and location.
His contributions eventually gave rise to the dualisms and dichotomies between physical and
human geography and, more importantly between regional (special) and systematic
(universal) geography though he asserted that they were mutually interdependent branches of
geography. Varenius was the first to describe the differences in the amount of insolation
received at different latitudes on the earth and pointed out that the highest temperatures
on the earth are recorded in the hot deserts of the tropical areas and not in the equatorial belt.
He was also one of the first to explain the world’s wind systems by stating that the air masses
close to the equator gets heated up and thins out to be replaced by cold and heavy air masses
from the Polar Regions.
The most important work Varenius produced was "Geographia Generalis," published in
1650. It was an early attempt to bring together the three disciplines of geography: chorology
(the study of space), general geography (systematic), and mathematics and physics.
There were three sections to this book:
i. The absolute or terrestrial portion that deals with the earth's dimensions, form, and
physical geography, including the locations of continents, seas, and atmosphere.
ii. The cosmic or relative portion, which describes how the earth and other celestial bodies
relate to one another and how the sun affects the world's climate.
iii. The comparison section, which focuses on navigational principles and the relative
locations of several locations.
Varenius promoted the description of specific locations in the prologue of his book
Geographia Generalis, stating that these should take into consideration:
a) Celestial circumstances including climate;
b) Terrestrial factors which include relief, soil, vegetation, and biotic life, and
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c) human conditions, such as habitation, trade, government structures, and population.
Therefore, the earth's surface along with these factors should be the primary emphasis of
geography as a discipline. Many believe Varenius' Geographia Generalis could have been
completed in two volumes, but his untimely and premature death in 1650 prevented this from
happening.
 Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) in his early writings, such as "General Natural History
and the Theory of the Heavens" (1755), were more closely tied to theoretical
astronomy than geography. It remained the same even in his books on earthquakes
that discussed the earth's innards.
But several of his later writings, including "Critique of Pure Reason" (1781) and "Critique of
Judgement" (1798), contain references to specific places. His 1798 work "Anthropology from
Pragmatic Point of View" included a detailed geographical account of the world's races and
ethnic groups. By rejecting the teleological idea, Kant broke geography's tight relationship to
theology in his well-known "Critique of Pure Reason." . This put an end to the Aristotelian
era in geography. He insisted that explanations for any phenomenon should be sought in
chronologically antecedent events.
According to Kant, the advancement of human civilization was largely determined by the
topography of each given location. Kant created a physical geography that was
fundamentally "anthropocentric" in both form and content. Kant defined physical geography
as encompassing both human-made and naturally occurring features that are visible on the
surface of the earth. It appears that Kant developed this position by borrowing it from
Buffon's "Historie Naturelle," and Ritter subsequently embraced it. Physical geography,
according to Kant, is the foundation of knowledge about the world and is necessary to further
philosophical research as well as to build our fundamental concept of the globe as the
home of humanity.
Kant proposed that there are two methods to acquire empirical knowledge: (i) by pure reason,
or (ii) via the senses. Once more, senses can be separated into two categories: (i) inner senses
and (ii) outside senses. The world as seen by the nature that is perceived by the external
senses is Nature, while the seele (soul) or mensch (man) is perceived by the inner senses.
Physical geography deals with Nature, whereas anthropology (which he used as an analogy
to the term psychology used today) deals with the soul or man.
Kant argued that there are two ways to classify knowledge:
1. Logical categorization, which groups objects based on morphological similarities and
may lead to the development of systematic sciences like zoology with animals; the
study of rocks in geology; or social groups in sociology.
2. Physical classification that groups objects according to the same space or time. He
claimed that the only way history and geography are different from one other in this
regard is that history is tied to time, whilst geography is related to space. While
geography examines phenomena scattered beside one other on space (nebeneinander),
history studies phenomena that follow one another (nachienander) and have relation
to time (chronological).

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Every person's experience is limited to a particular period and place, thus other people's
experiences must be added to his own to complete his understanding. There are two
categories of this kind of knowledge that is obtained indirectly from others:(i) story or, (ii)

illustrative. Geography is descriptive, while history is narrative. Thus, the whole spectrum of
empirical knowledge is comprised of geography and history, with geography covering space
and history covering time. More specifically, empirical knowledge can be categorized based
on time and space.
Regarding the concept of ‘space’, Kant pointed out in his ‘Critique of Pure Reason’
that space is not something objective or real, neither is it any substance but, it is something
which is subjective and essentially a mental construct. It is governed by an unchanging law
and provides a kind of framework for coordinating things and events all of which can be
perceived with the outer senses. Immanuel Kant may rightly be regarded as the ‘father of
exceptionalism’ as he was opposed to generalisations and believed that history and
geography were methodologically different from the other sciences as, they were concerned
with the study of the unique and the ‘exceptional.’
In Germany throughout the 1800s, a movement that could be called "neo-Kantianism" began.
Those who adhered to this tradition attempted to distinguish between the natural sciences and
the historical and cultural [Link] is thought to have planted the seeds for a different
dualism inside the field of geography. They maintained that the cultural and historical
sciences dealt with items that were primarily mental creations and hence needed to be
understood, while the natural sciences dealt with those that could be perceived externally and
thus be explained. Therefore, the latter is concerned with what is called the "idiographic,"
whereas the former is concerned with the "nomothetic."
The idiographic or empirical approach focuses primarily on describing specific locations in
the context of their lands, seas, or regions; it does not aim to construct laws. This explains the
contrast between the two techniques. On the other hand, the nomothetic or deductive
approach aims to identify pertinent laws for a place and draws conclusions from them.
Apart from physical geography, Immanuel Kant may also be credited for pioneering several
other branches of geography as well:
∙ Mathematical geography dealing with the shape, size, form and movements of the earth
and, its position in the solar system.
∙ Moral geography that describes the customs and traditions of humans in different places.
∙ Political geography which essentially studies the interrelationship between political units
and their physical set up.
∙ Commercial geography which probes into the fact that why one country has abundance of
some commodities but may be deficient in others; a situation believed to give rise to
international trade.
∙ Theological geography which tries to analyse the changes theological principles
experiences in different spatial units.

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Kant believed that representation by cartographic means is not important because physical
geography describes the natural composition of the earth and includes almost everything on
it, including the atmosphere, mountains, rivers, oceans, humans, plants, and animals. Even if
such maps existed, they should only be used for educational purposes.
Geographers have repeatedly emphasized that Kant gave geography a central place among
the sciences. Kantianism is credited with helping to shape modern human geography,
particularly the "possibilistic approach" of the French school and "humanistic geography."
● The Classical Humboldt-Ritterian Period: Every new law of nature that is
discovered results in the establishment of a few more general laws. This is especially
true of Humboldt and Ritter, who developed the majority of the theoretical ideas of
geography in the late nineteenth century, so it is appropriate to refer to them as the
"Founding Fathers of Modern Geography."
Both of these researchers produced a significant number of syntheses based on the
knowledge that was accessible. Hartshorne (1976) described the geography they presented as
"classical geography" because of their dominance over the discipline's foundational period,
which was marked by their uniform and straightforward approaches.
 Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) set the standard for the growth of geography
both inside and outside of Germany. Using contemporary tools, he traveled
approximately 40,000 kilometers, and many followed him to traverse the southern
Andes. Adventurers arrived in Lima, Peru-Guyana On the riverbanks, there were
fragments of bird, which are highly renowned. Furthermore, the present cold water
level in Peru was also recorded—and for the first time. Measurements were made of
this current's temperature and velocity. Acapulco embarked on a campaign from
Guayaquil to Mexico Port in March 1803, visiting various regions of Mexico and
observing the impact of topography on the cultural scene. Washington briefly stayed
in Philadelphia as part of the ongoing campaign before returning to France in 1804.
Because of his spirit of adventure, Humboldt visited the Vesuvius Volcano in Italy in 1806.
After finishing, he recorded his observations and experiences in thirty books written in
French, which were subsequently translated into numerous other dialects. It inspired a great
deal of young scientists to study the global unemployment map. Humboldt provided an
explanation in his writings for why Mexicans were prosperous: they made greater use of the
country's land resources. He also proposed the idea of excavating a canal across the isthmus.
The Russian Tsar sent Humboldt an invitation to Petersburg, or Leningrad, in 1829, and gave
him the mission of locating Siberia's uncharted territory on the other side of the Ural
Mountains. A consistent temperature log during the Siberian campaign, and Pressure was
maintained. The conclusion drawn from these remarks was that the same latitude's
temperatures are inwardly directed from the coast. The Tsar set up numerous meteorological
stations across Russia based on his recommendations.
Aside from that, Humboldt also invented the concept of a continent. Permafrost was a term
created to describe the frozen features of Siberian soil. Following its introduction into
geographical literature, the term "climatology" has come to refer to any fluctuations in the
atmosphere, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, winds, atmospheric purity and
degree of visibility.

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Humboldt's seminal work was released in 1845 and was widely embraced, having been
translated into numerous foreign languages. The first volume of Kosmos, a thorough
chronicle of Humboldt's travels and explorations, was released in 1845, and the fifth book
was released following his passing in 1862. An overview of the entire cosmos is provided in
the first volume. The second volume, which is based on the works of poets and landscape
painters, presents a depiction of nature through the ages, starting with the ancient Egyptians.
Humboldt addresses the laws of astronomical space in the third volume. The fourth volume
discusses man; he held that all races of man shared a common ancestor and that no race was
superior to another.
Regarding geography, Humboldt separated it into urography and geography and coined the
term "cosmography." He believes that urography is a form of descriptive astronomy that is
associated with celestial bodies. Geographical was, however, restricted to spatial geography,
which is associated with the terrestrial portion. He defined geography as the description of
the earth (Erdbeischreibung), which has to do with how occurrences in one region are related
to one another.
Humboldt highlighted the value of the experimental technique of study and supported the
inductive approach. He researched comparative comparisons of different regions, particularly
deserts and steps. They stress the significance of the data's geographic representation about
the value of maps and maps for geographical research. He used to accept the concept of
underlying casualties—accidental relationships—and held a belief in the unity of nature.
Humboldt thought that all members of the human race shared a common ancestor and that
there was no race that was better or worse than any other. In addition, he stressed the
significance of measuring natural phenomena carefully and conducting field observations.
This theory served as a creative and modeling methodology.
● Carl Ritter (1779-1859) is also known as one of the founders of modern
geographical [Link] to Humboldt, he has had a greater impact on the
evolution and advancement of geography. Among his early geographic endeavors are
two works authored between 1804 and 1807 that discuss Europe. He wrote
"Handbuch der Physischen Geographie," a comprehensive and systematic geography
of the world, in 1810, but it was never published. Ritter indicated in this work that he
was interested in the inductive method.
Ritter considered geography to be a descriptive and empirical science. He proclaimed
geography to be the Earth Science, encompassing the place's characteristics in respect to the
temporal, formal, and physical aspects of the environment. The first feature was
topographical, meaning it had to do with how the Earth's surface naturally divides. The
second covered the distribution of water, the sea, and the atmosphere—the elements that
support human life. The spatial component of natural history, which included the distribution
of minerals, plants, and animals, was referred to as the third condition. Ritter thus states that
geography is the area of study that brings together all its features, events and relations with
the world as an independent entity and reflects the relationship of man and man with this
unified 'whole' is.
He claimed that the central theory of geography is 'the relationship of all events and the
nature of nature to humankind'. He makes rhetoric of geography claiming that the Earth goes
beyond the real purpose in the form of science, that is, the earth is described as a human

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geography; making his geography anthropocentric. In the words of Tatham (1967) Ritter’s
man-oriented geography clearly states “the earth
and its inhabitants stand in the closest reciprocal relation and one cannot truly presented in all
its relationships without the other. History and geography must always remain inseparable.
Land effects the inhabitants and the inhabitants the land”.
The core idea that Ritter created was the idea of unity in diversity. According to him, the
biological components of the environment in which man creates sculpture for his cultural
expression share a fundamental coherence surroundings. This method considers all
environmental factors, both cultural and physical, and recognizes how they are
interconnected to comprehend the geography of an interstate unit. According to a regional
perspective, every naturally defined area is united in terms of its output, people, culture,
climate, and history. This is known as unity in variety.
Ritter was a teleologist, and his geographical interpretation appeared to be an attempt to
conceptually understand what science was unable to explain. In order to bring the
components of each continent together, he even attempted to create "a law of the
arrangement." To put it briefly, Ritter provided a methodical framework for geography that
lasted for several centuries for use by upcoming researchers. The classical era of geography
ended in 1859 with the deaths of Humboldt and Ritter.
● The Post Classical Period : Germany's post-classical era recognized the necessity for
a professionally recognized paradigm to direct geography studies. During this period
in the mid-1800s, several fields were impacted by the materialistic scientific
philosophy that placed an emphasis on causality and natural laws in addition to
mechanical explanation. As a result, "professionalism" became essential in academia.
Since there was no established paradigm, each of the recently appointed academics
defined geography according to their own standards, which influenced geographical
thinking. As a result, geography gained academic standing and became recognized
as a permanent, separate field. It is believed that Peschel's contributions led to the
creation of this new geography. The emergence of this new geography is credited to
the works of Peschel, Richthofen, Ratzel, Penck and Hettner. Their contribution led to
Germany becoming the leading nation for the development of academic geography.
● Oscar Peschel (1826–1875) was the first geography professor in [Link]
challenged the Humboldt-Ritterian tradition by giving geography a new perspective,
direction, and [Link] viewed geography as a scientific, methodical, and
science. His geography history book, Geschichte der Erdkunde, was first published in
1865. He disregarded men from the study of geography even if he acknowledged its
dualism. In modern Germany, his morphological research has generated scholarly
interest in physical geography. However, his premature passing at the age of 49
prevented him from finishing his work, which was a huge loss to Germany's
developing "new geography."
Under the capable direction of Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833–1905), who continued the
scientific attitude inspired by Peschel, the incomplete achievements of Peschel prospered.
According to him, geography's goal is to highlight the different things happening in
different places across the globe. He proposed a system for studying geography that
involved first
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studying the physical environment of the first area—that is, the soil, plants, creatures, and

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relief—and then looking at how humans adapted to that environment. He asserts that the
primary goal of geography is to identify how humans interact with the natural world and its
biological elements. For him, geography is the study of the objects and phenomena found on
Earth's surface.
● Richthofen ditinguished 'General' and'regional' geography for the first time. He
emphasized that in order to emphasize an area's salient characteristics, regional
geography should be descriptive. In addition, to get ready for this hypothesis
should explain the observable qualities while attempting to produce regularity of
patterns and patterns of distinctive traits.
According to him, the spatial distribution of individual occurrences around the world is
connected to general geography.
He stressed that regional effort was necessary for systematic regional studies. He
distinguished between "chorography," which is a non-explanatory description that
provides information for systematic geography, and "chorology," which he employed for
regional
studies. Richthofen identified various research approaches for various sized sectors, which he
named (in the order of increasing size):
(i) Erdteile (major divisions of the world);
(ii) Lander (major regions);
(iii) Landschaften (Landscape or the small regions);
(iv) Ortlichkeiten (localities).
German geography during the latter part of the 1800s was dominated by Frederick Ratzel.
Being Darwin's contemporaries, he was impacted by Darwin's theory of species, particularly
the concepts of "struggle and natural selection." and "organization and association." Ratzel
developed a methodical study of human geography by contrasting the lifestyles of various
tribes and nations.
His curiosity for races and nations led him to undertake sufficient regional research, at which
point he defined 'anthropogeography' as the main field of geographic study and coined the
term. In 1882, the first volume of his seminal work Anthropogeographie was released. He
pioneered the idea that natural and cultural phenomena might be studied methodically
through his work. He talks about the importance of the population's cultural background and
historical growth in the second volume, which was revised in 1891. According to Dickinson,
he addresses the reasons behind human settlements in his first volume and emphasizes the
distributional facts in his second.
In his 1896 work "Political Geography," Ratzel equated the "State" to an organism. He
emphasized that, similar to certain basic organisms, a state must either develop or perish
or cease to exist at any point. The 'living place' concept was this, which generated a debate
about the superior and low levels, with proponents arguing that the best individuals (nations)
must remain "at the expense of neighboring countries."
In 1930, Ratzel's doctrine dominated German policy, which ultimately contributed to the
outbreak of World War II. Many people consider him to be the founding father of
political geography. Thus, it is accurate to state that Ratzel's primary goal in his writings

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was to transform geography from an inventory to an explanatory science.

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● Alfred Hettner's (1859–1941) methodological breakthroughs, paved way for
German geography to achieve new heights . He wrote his book "Europe," which was
released in 1907, following his extensive travels. The second book was released in
1924. These two volumes
combined to form the "Foundations of Regional Geography" later on. He defines geography
as the study of the territories or as a chorological science. He emphasized the value of
regional geography and the need of publicizing the event. The understanding of the many
regions of the Earth, he believed, was the distinctive subject of geography as each region is
unique due to the presence of human habitation.
Hettner rejected the idea that geography could be either normal or regional, saying that,
similar to other academic disciplines, geography should have both distinctive qualities
(regional geography) additionally universal (geography in general).
Hettner seemed to have made a substantial contribution to the theory of Possibilism
because he rejected environmental determinism. Even the notion that geography may be
nomothetic or idiographic but not both was rejected by him. For many years, German
geography was
shaped by his theories about how geographical studies should be organized.
● Albrecht Penck (1858-1945) was a major German geologist from the early part
of the twentieth century, who gave the concept of 'geomorphology'. He is
appreciated for his roles in the advancement of contemporary physical geography.

Conclusion
In addition to him, academics like Christaller, Passarge, Koppen, Schott, Phillipson, Kjellen,
and Haushofer made significant contributions to several fields of geography. The
foundations of contemporary scientific geography were laid by these geographers, who made
major
contributions to the field of landscape science and fostered the ideas of chorology,
landscape morphology, unity in diversity, and other ideas.
As a result, the twentieth century has seen a greater degree of unification of basic concepts in
German geography than in previous decades. Hettner's methodological arguments, in particular,
have become recognized as geography "classics" that no German researcher would overlook
while discussing the discipline's approach. Apart from him scholars like Passarge, Koppen,
Schott, Phillipson, Christaller, Kjellen and Haushofer made valuable contributions to
different branches of geography. These geographers made significant contributions to the field
of landscape science and flourished the concepts of chorology, landscape morphology, Unity in
diversity and so on, to lay the foundations of modern scientific geography.
Thus, German geography in the twentieth century has been marked by a greater degree of unity
of fundamental concepts than ever before. In particular, Hettner's methodological discussions
have come to be regarded as "classics" in geography which no German scholar would ignore in

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any consideration of the methodology of the discipline.

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