I | INTRODUCTION |
Geography, science that deals with the distribution
and arrangement of all elements of the earth's surface. The word
geography was adopted in the 200s bc by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes and
means “earth description.” Geographic study encompasses the environment of the
earth's surface and the relationship of humans to this environment, which
includes both physical and cultural geographic features. Physical geographic
features include the climate, land and water, and plant and animal life.
Cultural geographic features include artificial entities, such as nations,
settlements, lines of communication, transportation, buildings, and other
modifications of the physical geographic environment. Geographers use economics,
history, biology, geology, and mathematics in their studies.
II | BRANCHES OF GEOGRAPHY |
Geography may be divided into two fundamental
branches: systematic and regional geography. Systematic geography is concerned
with individual physical and cultural elements of the earth. Regional geography
is concerned with various areas of the earth, particularly the unique
combinations of physical and cultural features that characterize each region and
distinguish one region from another. Because the division is based only on a
difference in approach to geographic studies, the two branches are
interdependent and are usually applied together. Each branch is divided into
several fields that specialize in particular aspects of geography.
A | Systematic Geography |
Systematic geography includes physical
geography and cultural geography. These classifications are made up of
specialized fields that deal with specific aspects of geography.
A1 | Physical Geography |
Physical geography includes the following
fields: geomorphology, which uses geology to study the form and structure of the
surface of the earth; climatology, which involves meteorology and is concerned
with climatic conditions; biogeography, which uses biology and deals with the
distribution of plant and animal life; soils geography (see Soil; Soil
Management), which is concerned with the distribution of soil; hydrography,
which concerns the distribution of seas, lakes, rivers, and streams in relation
to their uses; oceanography, which deals with the waves, tides, and currents of
oceans and the ocean floor (see Ocean and Oceanography); and cartography,
or mapmaking through graphic representation and measurement of the surface of
the earth.
A2 | Cultural Geography |
This classification, sometimes called
human geography, involves all phases of human social life in relation to the
physical earth. Economic geography, a field of cultural geography, deals with
the industrial use of the geographic environment. Natural resources, such as
mineral and oil deposits, forests, grazing lands, and farmlands, are studied
with reference to their position, productivity, and potential uses.
Manufacturing industries rely on geographic studies for information concerning
raw materials, sources of labor, and distribution of goods. Marketing studies
concerned with plant locations and sales potentials are based on geographic
studies. The establishment of transportation facilities, trade routes, and
resort areas also frequently depends on the results of geographic studies.
Cultural geography also includes political
geography, which is an application of political science. Political geography
deals with human social activities that are related to the locations and
boundaries of cities, nations, and groups of nations.
Military geography provides military
leaders with information about areas in which they may need to operate. The many
other fields of cultural geography include ethnography, historical geography,
urban geography, demography, and linguistic geography.
B | Regional Geography |
Regional geography concerns the differences
and similarities among the various regions of the earth. This branch of
geography seeks explanations for the variety among places by studying the
special combination of features that distinguishes these places. Regional
geographers may study the development of a small area such as a city. This study
is called microgeography. Or they may focus on large areas, called
macrodivisions, such as the Mediterranean region or an entire continent.
Regional geographers identify macrodivisions according to their cultural
characteristics.
Regional geographers may divide
macrodivisions into many smaller areas that share specific characteristics. For
example, they may consider language, the type of agriculture or economy
practiced by the population, terrain, or a combination of these factors to
distinguish areas from one another.
III | METHODS OF GEOGRAPHY |
The chief goal of the geographer is to
describe the human environment on earth. To do this, it is necessary to collect
geographical data; record the results of geographic studies in the form of
charts, graphs, textbooks, and especially maps; and analyze the information.
Geographers make use of a variety of techniques and tools for achieving these
goals.
A | Collecting Data |
Geographers may collect data in the field
or from secondary sources, such as censuses, statistical surveys, maps, and
photographs. Advances made since World War II (1939-1945) in the use of aerial
photography, including the use of special films, and in techniques for obtaining
three-dimensional views of the landscape from the air have enabled geographers
to perform more detailed studies of the earth and its resources (see
Aerial Survey). Geographers also have made use of radar, artificial
satellites, underwater crafts called bathyspheres, and deep drilling into the
earth's crust to obtain information about the features of the earth.
B | Mapping |
The map is the most important tool of
geography and may be used to record either simple data or the results of a
complicated geographic study. In addition to providing a wealth of factual
information, the map permits visual comparison between areas because it may be
designed to indicate, by means of symbols, not only the location but also the
characteristics of geographic features of an area.
Geographers have developed a standard
pattern of map symbols for identifying such cultural features as homes,
factories, and churches; dams, bridges, and tunnels; railways, highways, and
travel routes; and mines, farms, and grazing lands.
C | Analyzing Geographic Information |
Techniques that use mathematics or
statistics to analyze data are known as quantitative methods. The use of
quantitative methods enables geographers to treat a large amount of data and a
large number of variables in an objective manner. Frequently, geographers
collect data and form a theory to explain their observation. They then test this
theory using quantitative methods. Sometimes the theories are expressed as
mathematical statements, called models. Nevertheless, in geography theories are
not expected to be universally precise, but rather to explain an observed
tendency.
IV | HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY |
Hundreds of individuals have contributed to
the development of geography, and the fruits of their work have accumulated over
several thousand years. Many travelers, surveyors, explorers, and scientific
observers have added to this growing store of information. Only since the late
1700s, however, has it been possible to collect and record truly accurate
geographic information. Modern concepts of geography were not widely supported
until the mid-1800s.
A | Early Geographers |
The earliest geographers were concerned
with exploring unknown areas and with describing the observable features of
different places. Such ancient peoples as the Chinese, Egyptians, and
Phoenicians made long journeys and recorded their observations of strange lands.
One of the first known maps was made on a clay tablet in Babylonia about 2300
bc. By 1400 bc, the shores of the Mediterranean Sea
had been explored and charted, and during the next thousand years, early
explorers visited Britain and navigated most of the African coast. The ancient
Greeks, however, gave the Western world its first important knowledge relating
to the form, size, and general nature of the earth.
During the 300s bc, the Greek philosopher and scientist
Aristotle became the first person to demonstrate that the earth was round. He
based his hypothesis on the arguments that all matter tends to fall together
toward a common center, that the earth throws a circular shadow on the moon
during an eclipse, and that in traveling from north to south new constellations
become visible and familiar ones disappear. The Greek geographer Eratosthenes
was the first person to accurately calculate the circumference of the
earth.
The Greeks' travels, conquests, and
colonizing activities in the Mediterranean region resulted in the accumulation
of considerable geographic information and stimulated geographic writing. The
Greek geographer and historian Strabo wrote a 17-volume encyclopedia titled
Geography, which served as a valuable source of information for military
commanders and public administrators of the Roman Empire.
During the ad 100s, the Alexandrian astronomer
Ptolemy compiled most Greek and Roman geographic knowledge up to his time. He
also proposed new methods of mapmaking, including projection and the creation of
atlases. In his famous Geographike syntaxis, Ptolemy divided the
equatorial circle into 360 degrees and constructed an imaginary north-south,
east-west network over the surface of the earth to serve as a reference grid for
locating the relative positions of known landmasses, such as islands and
continents. Although he used less accurate measurements of the circumference of
the earth than those of Eratosthenes, Ptolemy nevertheless contributed useful
descriptions and maps of the known world. His maps clearly indicated his
understanding of the problems involved in representing a spherical earth on a
flat surface.
B | Medieval Geography |
During the Middle Ages, Europeans carried
on little travel and exploration and practically no advancement in geography.
Among Europeans, only the Vikings of Scandinavia were active in exploration. The
Arabs of the Middle East, however, interpreted and tested the works of the
earlier Greek and Roman geographers and explored southwestern Asia and Africa.
As early as the 700s, Arab scholars were translating the works of the Greek
geographers into Arabic. Only after these Arabic texts were translated into
Latin did Greek geographic learning spread into Europe. Among the major figures
of Arab geography were al-Idrisi, who was known for his detailed maps, and Ibn
Battūtah and Ibn Khaldun, both of whom wrote about their extensive travels. The
Mongols and Chinese also learned much about the geography of Asia.
The trips of Venetian explorer Marco Polo
in the 1200s, the Christian Crusades of the 1100s and 1200s, and the Portuguese
and Spanish voyages of exploration during the 1400s and 1500s opened up new
horizons and stimulated geographic writings. During the 1400s, Henry the
Navigator of Portugal supported explorations of the African coast and became a
leader in the promotion of geographic studies. Among the most notable accounts
of voyages and discoveries published during the 1500s were those by Giambattista
Ramusio in Venice, by Richard Hakluyt in England, and by Theodore de Bry in what
is now Belgium. Voyages and studies during this period proved beyond a doubt
that the earth is a sphere. Previously, many people, including Christian
leaders, believed the earth was flat.
C | Geography from the 17th to the 19th Century |
Important in the history of geographic
method is Geographia generalis (1650) by the German geographer Bernhardus
Varenius. Varenius suggested that geography be divided into three separate
branches: the first dealing with the form and dimensions of the earth; the
second with tides, climates, seasons, and other variables that depend upon the
relative position of the earth in the universe; and the third dealing with
comparative studies of particular regions on the globe. His work remained a
standard authority for more than a century.
The first comprehensive geographic work
printed in English was published in 1625 by the English geographer Nathaniel
Carpenter, who emphasized the spatial relationships among the physical features
on the earth's surface. His approach became an important geographic point of
view.
Many other European contributors increased
geographic knowledge during the following two centuries. During the 1700s, the
German philosopher Immanuel Kant played a decisive role in placing geography
within the framework of science. Kant divided knowledge gained from observation
into two categories. One category, comprising phenomena recorded according to
logic, resulted in such classifications as the orders, genera, and species of
plants and animals, regardless of when or where they occur. The other category
included phenomena perceived in terms of time and space—classification and
description according to time is viewed as history, and classification and
description according to space is viewed as geography. Kant subdivided geography
into six branches, one of which, physical geography, was considered essential to
the five other branches. The other branches recognized by Kant were
mathematical, moral, political, commercial, and theological geography.
Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter,
both of Germany, made major contributions to geographic theory in the early
1800s. An extensive traveler and a brilliant field observer, Humboldt applied
his knowledge of physical processes to the systematic classification and
comparative description of geographic features observed in the field. He devised
methods for measuring the phenomena he observed. Humboldt produced a number of
excellent geographic studies based on his travels in America. His work
Kosmos (1844), which describes the physical geography of the earth, is
considered one of the great geographic works of all time.
The views of Ritter differed in part from
those of Humboldt. Whereas Humboldt promoted the systematic approach of treating
physical features separately, Ritter endorsed a regional approach to geography.
He stressed the comparative study of particular areas and the features that
characterize those areas. His 19-volume work Die Erdkunde im Verhältnis zur
Natur und Geschichte des Menschen (Geography and Its Relation to Nature
and the History of Man,1822-1859) is an excellent geographic analysis of
Asia and parts of Africa. Ritter was a keen field observer, well trained in
natural sciences and history. He called his work comparative geography,
considering it comparable to comparative anatomy, and proceeded from observation
to observation to arrive at laws and principles. Ritter also believed that
without systematic studies regional studies would be impossible.
Another German geographer, Friedrich
Ratzel, also made significant contributions to geographic knowledge. He is best
known for his work Anthropogeographie (1882), which attempted to show
that the distribution of people on the earth had been determined by natural
forces. Describing geography as the science of distribution, he favored the
study of restricted areas, which he claimed would provide the basis for
generalizations about larger areas or about the world as a whole. The German
geographers Ferdinand von Richthofen and Alfred Hettner brought the ideas of
Humboldt, Ritter, and Ratzel into a coherent system. Die Geographie: Ihre
Geschichte, ihr Wesen, und ihre Methoden (Geography: Its History, Its
Nature, and Its Methods,1927), by Hettner, is a valuable work on the history
of geographic methods.
Outstanding among French geographers of
the late 1800s was Paul Vidal de la Blache, who opposed the idea that the
physical environment strictly determines human activities. He believed that
human beings could mold their physical environment. He favored studies of small
areas, stressing both physical and cultural processes in the distribution of the
earth's features.
During the 1800s, many geographic
societies emerged. Many sponsored geographic study and exploration and published
geographic journals. Among the earliest of these societies were those founded in
Paris, Berlin, and London, during the 1820s and 1830s. Of particular
significance to geography in the United States was the founding of the American
Geographical Society in 1851 and the National Geographic Society in 1888.
International geographic conferences were initiated in 1871 at Antwerp,
Belgium.
D | The 20th Century |
During the first half of the 1900s, many
geographic writers—British, American, French, and German—continued to carry on
the tradition of early pioneers in geography. Studies of small areas all over
the world, based on field observations, extended the frontiers of geographic
knowledge, but the methods inherited from the late 19th century remained
essentially unchanged. Beginning in the 1950s, however, geographers made
increasing use of quantitative methods. The change in methodology in the 1950s
and 1960s was so rapid that it is sometimes called the quantitative revolution.
Geographers have also broadened their efforts to find practical applications for
geographic studies.
Quantitative methods have been
particularly useful in applications of location theory, a branch of geography
that studies the factors that influence the location of geographic elements,
such as towns or factories. Location theory was introduced by the German
agriculturist Heinrich von Thünen in the early 1800s. The German geographer
Walter Christaller made great contributions to location theory during the 1930s,
by analyzing the location of urban centers. But it was not until the 1950s that
their work was widely valued.
By the 1960s the field of geography had
divided into several schools of thought. Disagreement between scholars of
different schools—such as those who supported quantitative method and those who
favored the descriptive approach—sometimes arose. Since the 1970s, however,
different methods have been commonly used together and applied to many new areas
of geographic study.
Computers have become a particularly
useful tool in geography. During the 1960s, the Canadian government built the
first geographic information system, or GIS, a computer system that records,
stores, and analyzes geographic information. These computer systems can create
two- or three-dimensional images of an area that are used as models in
geographic studies. They are designed to process massive amounts of data, and
help scientists conduct research much more quickly and accurately. The GIS has
many applications in government and business. By the early 1990s, about 100,000
of these systems were in operation.
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