CHAPTER I

MODULE I

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of this learning module, you are expected to demonstrate the
following competencies:
a. summarize the history of human geography;
b. explore responses to the questions that human geographers ask about where
activities and events happen and why they happen where they do;
c. define the basic geographic concepts used; and
d. apply the methods of geographic analysis.
Pre- Assessment

Instructions: Answer the following questions briefly, atleast 1-3 sentences based on your own knowledge.

1. What is the meaning of GEOGRAPHY?

2. What are the branches of GEOGRAPHY?

3. What is the importance of GEOGRAPHY in our lives? Cite some example

INTRODUCTION:
Did you Know?
 The word Geography came from two Greek words "geo" (Earth) and "graphos" (to write).
Geography literally means description about Earth.

What is Geography?
 Geography is the science that studies the features of the Earth and its connection to
people and the environment.
Divisions of Geography
Today, geography is commonly divided into two major branches - cultural geography
(also called human geography) and physical geography.

Cultural geography is the branch of geography dealing with human culture and its impact
on the Earth. Cultural geographers study languages, religion, foods, building styles, urban
areas, agriculture, transportation systems, politics, economies, population and demographics,
and more.

Physical geography is the branch of geography dealing with the natural features of the
Earth, the home of humans. Physical geography looks at the water, air, animals, and land of
the planet Earth (i.e. everything that is part of the four spheres - the atmosphere, biosphere,
hydrosphere, lithosphere). Physical geography is closely related to geography's sister science
- geology - but physical geography focuses more on the landscapes at the surface of the Earth
and not what is inside our planet.

History of Geography
The history of geography as a scientific discipline can be traced back to the Greek scholar
Eratosthenes. It was further developed in the modern era by Alexander von Humboldt .

Discussion:

I. Orientation of the Course

 The Historical Evolution of Geographical thought

 Ancient Geography
 Modern Geography
 Approaches to Geography Today

History of Geography as a Timeline

Geography Timeline

 500 BCE ~ Oldest Known Map of the World

The first known world map is Imago Mundi, also known as the
Babylonian Map of the World.
The map, inscribed on a clay tablet, depicts Babylon in the center
of the continent, with parallel lines at the bottom indicating the
southern marshes. The Zagros Mountains are represented by a
curving line coming from the north and northeast. All of the sites on
the circular map are labeled in cuneiform script.

Imago Mundi from Babylonia, 500 BCE.

 240 BCE ~ Calculation of the circumference of the Earth by Eratosthenes
A Greek scholar living in Egypt, Erastosthenes, observed the position of the sun around the
summer solstice and used the distances between Egyptian cities to calculate the approximate
circumference of the Earth.

 200 – 300 BCE – Compass Invented

Sometime around 200-300 BCE, the Chinese invented the compass. From William
Lowrie’s Fundamentals of Geophysics (p. 281): “Early in the Han Dynasty, between 300-200
BC, the Chinese fashioned a rudimentary compass out of lodestone… the compass may have
been used in the search for gems and the selection of sites for houses… their directive power
led to the use of compasses for navigation.”

 Circa 194 BCE – Eratosthenes Geography

Written at some point in the forty-year period after 245 BCE, Eratosthenes published his
three-volume work entitled Geographika. Eratosthenes was the first to use the term
‘geography’ and is considered the father of geography.

From Wikipedia: In his three-volume work Geographika, he described and mapped his entire
known world, even dividing the Earth into five climate zones: two freezing zones around the
pole, two temperate zones, and a zone encompassing the equator and the tropics.
He had invented geography. He created terminology that is still used today. He placed grids
of overlapping lines over the surface of the Earth. He used parallels and meridians to link
together every place in the world.
It was now possible to estimate one’s distance from remote locations with this network over
the surface of the Earth. In Geographika the names of over 400 cities and their locations were
shown: this had never been achieved before. Unfortunately Geographika has been lost to
history, but fragments of the work can be pieced together from other historians like Pliny,
Polybius, Strabo, and Marcianus.

19th century reconstruction of Eratosthenes’ map of the known world, c. 194 BC. Map from:
Bunbury, E.H. (1811-1895), A History of Ancient Geography among the Greeks and Romans
from the Earliest Ages till the Fall of the Roman Empire. London: John Murray, 1883.
 150 CE ~ Ptolemy’s Geographia
-Ptolemy described and organized all information about the world’s geography throughout the
Roman Empire of the 2nd century in his work Geographia, written around AD 150.

Ptolemy’s Geographica, translated by Emanuel Chrysoloras and Jacobus Angelus. Harley 7182
ff. 58v-59, 3rd quarter of the 15th century, British Library.

 April 1507 ~ First Map to Name America

The Waldseemüller map Universalis Cosmographia, created by German cartographer Martin
Waldseemüller in April 1507, is the first map of the Americas in which the name “America” is
mentioned. The Waldseemuller Map has been called “America’s birth certificate”.
It is noteworthy for being the first map to show both the Western hemisphere and the Pacific
Ocean as independent entities, in addition to being the first map to utilize the word
“America.”

1507 Waldseemüller Map. Library of Congress.

 1625 ~ Geography Delineated Forth in Two Bookes
Carpenter’s book, Geography Delineated Forth in Two Bookes, is generally recognized as the
first English geography book published. Source: Tyner, J. A. (2015). Stitching the World:
Embroidered Maps and Women’s Geographical Education. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

 1650 ~ Bernhardus Varenius’s Geographia Generalis

Varenius’ Geographia Generalis laid out the main principles of geography on a broad scientific
basis, based on what was known during his time.
Absolute geography, relative geography, and comparative geography are the three sections
of the work.

The first looks into mathematical facts about the earth as a whole, its shape, dimensions,
motions, and measurement, among other things.
The second section looks at how the sun and stars affect the world, as well as climates,
seasons, apparent time differences across locations, day length variations, and so on.

The third section discusses the actual divisions of the earth’s surface, their relative positions,
globe and map production, longitude, navigation, and other topics briefly.

 14 September 1769 ~ Birth of Alexander von Humboldt

Widely acknowledged as one of the founders of modern geography, Alexander von Humboldt
was born in Berlin, Germany in 1769. Von Humboldt traveled extensively through South
America where he studied the flora, fauna, and topography of the continent.

Note:
His Essay on the Geography of Plants was based on the then novel idea of studying the
distribution of organic life as affected by varying physical conditions.

Photograph of Alexander von Humboldt taken in the 1850s.

Image: Library of Congress, public domain.

 1817 ~ First Isothermal Chart

Alexander Von Humboldt creates the first isothermal chart, “Carte des lignes isothermes.”
This map was the first to show the use of isotherms, a term Humboldt coined for lines of equal
temperature.
“Carte des lignes isothermes.” by Humboldt, 1817. This map was the first to show the use of
isotherms, a term Humboldt coined for lines of equal.

 1830 ~ Geographical Association (UK) founded

The Geographical Association is founded at a meeting at Christ Church, Oxford, led by Sir
Halford Mackinder, Douglas Freshfield (Honorary Secretary of the RGS) and ten others, mainly
Masters from public schools. A subscription of five shillings is set.

 1830 ~ Founding of the Royal Geographical Society

The Geographical Society of London was founded in 1830 as an institution to promote the
advancement of geographical science, gaining its Royal Charter in 1859.
The Society’s purpose has not changed, but it has expanded its global interests to include
publishing, the support of field research and expeditions, lectures, conferences, and
developing its collections.

 1876 ~ Real Sociedad Geográfica Established

In 1876, Real Sociedad Geográfica (Royal Geographic Society), the oldest geography society
in Spain, was founded with the original name of Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid.

 3 March 1879 ~ Establishment of the United States Geological Survey

Originally called the Geological Survey, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) was
charged with “classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure,
mineral resources, and products of the national domain.”
The USGS is a fact-finding federal organization that focuses on four main scientific areas:
biology, geography, geology, and hydrology.

 October 1884 ~ Prime Meridian Established

The International Meridian Conference held in October 1884
in Washington, D.C. selected the Greenwich Meridian as an
international standard for zero degrees longitude.

The prime meridian is the line drawn north to south at 0° (0

degrees) longitude. Credits: NASA

 January 1888 ~ National Geographic Society is founded

The National Geographic Society was founded in January of 1888 with the intention “to
increase and diffuse geographic knowledge.” More than 500 million people monthly are now
reached by the various media products of the National Geographic Society.

 1904 ~ Association of American Geographers (AAG) is founded

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) is a nonprofit scientific and educational
society founded in 1904. The association has more than 10,000 members from over 60
countries.

 1915 ~ National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) Established

Founded in 1915 by George J Miller in order fill in a gap in geographic education. Originally
called the National Council for Geography Teachers (NCGT), the name was changed in 1956.

 1962 ~ Canada Land Inventory (CLI) is Created

Roger Tomlinson, also known as the Father of GIS, is famed for being a pioneer in the field of
Geographic Information System (GIS). His early work fifty years ago with the Canada Land
Inventory (CLI) in 1962 is widely recognized as the beginnings of GIS.

 1970 ~ First Law of Geography

The first law of geography was developed by Waldo Tobler in 1970

and it makes the observation that ‘everything is usually related to
all else but those which are near to each other are more related
when compared to those that are further away’.

Tober’s First Law of Geography: the orange dots closest to the red
dot are more related than the orange dots that are farther way.

 1984 – 1994 ~ Five Themes of Geography

The five themes of geography were developed by the National Council for Geographic
Education and the Association of American Geographers to help with geography education at
the K-12 levels. The five themes were replaced by the National Geography Standards in 1994.

 24 September 1991 ~ Launch of Geography in the UK National Curriculum

The Geography National Curriculum is launched at the Royal Geographical Society with an
address given by the Rt. Hon. Kenneth Clarke, Secretary of State for Education and Science in
the government of John Major.

 1994 ~ National Geography Standards Established

Replacing the five themes of geography, a set of eighteen learning standards was created by
the National Council for Geographic Education called the National Geography Standards.

 1 May 2000 ~ End of Selective Availability

On May 1, 2000, the White House announced the end of Selective Availability. Selective
Availability (SA) was the practice of distorting GPS signal locations which reduced the spatial
accuracy for civilizations using GPS units. In order to correct the GPS signal locations, users
had to differentially correct the GPS data separately. The end of SA opened up GPS use to the
commercial market.

 10 May 2003 ~ Australian Curriculum: Geography endorsed

Ministers of Education representing the States and Territories of Australia endorsed the
Australian Curriculum: Geography from Foundation (5 year olds) to Year 10 (16 year olds).
The first time Australia had a national approach to teaching the discipline of Geography.
In August 2013 it became the first of all subjects to be published from Foundation to Year 12.

NOTE:
The science of geography is likely the oldest of all sciences. Geography is the answer to the
question that the earliest humans asked, "What's over there?" Exploration and the discovery
of new places, new cultures, and new ideas have always been basic components of
geography.
Thus, geography is often called the "mother of all sciences" as studying other people and
other places led to other scientific fields such as biology, anthropology, geology,
mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, among others.

REFERENCES:
History of Geography as a Timeline
Caitlin Dempsey | July 24, 2014 | Geography Basics·
https://www.geographyrealm.com/history-geography-timeline/

Matt Rosenberg
Updated on June 13, 2017
http://geography.about.com/

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.

Geography in the ancient world

“Greeks, beginning in the sixth century BCE, were able to travel far and wide,
and by the third century BCE had determined the size and shape of the earth, using
nothing but mathematics and simple tools”.

ANCIENT GREEK CONTRIBUTIONS

 Greek philosopher believe in a division of World into five region. (Americas,
Oceania, Asia, Africa, and Europe).
 At each of the poles was an uncharitably cold region.
 While extrapolating from the heat of SAHARA, it was deduced that the area
around the equator was unbearably hot.
 Between these extreme regions both the northern and southern hemisphere
had a temperature belt suitable for human habitation.
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?) wrote 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 Panamain 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 reachedthe 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.

MIDDLE AGES
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.

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

TASK 1

A timeline graphic organizer helps in illustrating chronological events visually. Each event
is characterized by its start date, the event's name, and the end date. Different circumstances
may happen separately, or they may also overlap each other entirely or partially. A straight
line indicates the direction of the events from one branching point to the other. It is an
excellent tool in strategic planning, education, and reviews.

Directions: After reading the module, make a timeline Graphic Organizer ( History of
Geography as a Timeline)

Here’s the example

(1)
(2)

(3)

TASK 2

Essay
Directions:Feel free to express your thought and ideas.
What are the inter-connections of SCIENCE and SOCIAL STUDIES subject in GEOGRAPHY?
Expand your ideas and Cite some example.(10 points)
GEOGRAPHY 1 Instructor: ANALIZA T. DICTADO