Geography 1
Weeks 1-2
Objectives : ✔✔ Summarize the history of human geography
Explore responses to the questions that human
geographers ask about where activities and events happen
and why they happen where they do
✔ Define the basic geographic concepts used
✔ Apply the methods of geographic analysis
What Is Human
Geography?
Human geography is the
study of the spatial
organization of human
activity and ofpeople's
relationships with the
environment around them.
The term geography comes
from the Greek words Geo
(Earth) and graphy (to write);
thus, geography literally
means "to write about the
earth."
ANCIENT
GEOGRAPHY
The Greek philosopher Aristotle
(384-322 B.C.) demonstrated the world
was a sphere. Eratosthenes (276?-194?
B.C.), who coined the term geography,
was able to employ simple geometric
principles to estimate the distance around
the world to within four hundred miles.
Strabo (64 or 63 B.C.-A.D. 23?), who,
between 8 B.C. and A.D. 18, wrote the
seventeen-volume work Geography, which
systematically described the relationships
between humans and their natural
environments in different regions of the
known world.
Ptolemy (A.D. 100?-170?) wrote Guide to
Geography, an eight-volume work that
sought to describe the entire known
world, and created detailed maps with
advanced coordinate systems.
The accepted maps ofthe earth at the
time were called T-0 maps, showing a flat
round earth consisting ofAsia, Europe,
and Africa, with Jerusalem the map's
center.
Chinese geographers, such as Phei Hsiu,
were able to produce maps more accurate
than those oftheir contemporary European
cartographers due to the knowledge
gained from Imperial China's admirals
who had navigated the Pacific and Indian
Oceans.
The Muslim geographer alIdrisi
(1100-1165) was hired by Roger II, the
Christian king of Sicily, to collect all
geographic knowledge, which resulted in
the creation of "Roger's Book."
Christopher Columbus, was inspired by
Ptolemy's book. He accepted Ptolemy's
underestimation ofthe distance around the
earth and his overestimation of the size of
Asia. Relying on these estimates, Columbus
attempted to reach Asia by sailing west.
Ofcourse he instead stumbled upon the
Americas, although Columbus died believing
he had in fact reached Asia.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the German
philosopher, saw geography as a spatial
science. He believed that, much as history
deals with changes over time, geography
deals with changes over space.
The German geographer Alexander von
Humboldt (1769-1859) traveled
throughout the world, including spending
five years in South America looking at
biological geography (the distribution
ofrocks, plants, and animals).
Carl Ritter (1779-1859), another Gennan
geographer, also saw geography as an
integrative science, and he is credited
with founding regional geography.
Related to these two geographers and their
views on human interaction with nature was
the approach called environmental
determinism, which claimed that the physical
environment scientifically caused human
activities. In this now discredited view, the
environment is responsible for people's
physical features (skin color, height, etc.) as
well as for differences in their cultural
activities.
Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), another
German geographer, advanced this idea by
tying it to Charles Darwin's theories on
survival of the fittest.
Along with his American student Ellen
Churchill and another American, Ellsworth
Huntington, Ratzel argued that civilized
cultures were the result of seasonal
temperate climates where humans had to
adapt to differing conditions.
Carl Sauer (1889-1975) was one influential
American geographer who rejected
environmental determinism and contributed
to the idea of environmental possibilism.
Geography can be broadly divided into two
main branches, physical geography and
human geography.
Physical geography deals with earth's natural
processes, such as landforms, climates,
soils, vegetation, and hydrology.
Human geography deals with the spatial
organization of human activity and of
people's relationships with the environment
around them.
Another way to divide geography is between
systematic geography and regional
geography.
Systematic geography focuses on a certain
geographical theme, such as climate or
economics, and examines it throughout the
world.
Regional geography focuses on certain
regions, such as Latin America or Africa, and
examines several geographical themes for
that particular area.
