Historical Development of Geography
Herodotus (485-425 BC)
-he made marvelous topographical
descriptions
Erastosthenes- he accepted that earth is
round and calculated its circumference
-he divided the earth into
five climatic descriptions.
Hipparchus-He drew imaginary lines on
the earth’s surface to describe the
location of places.
Thales of Miletus- applied geometric
principles to the measurement of land
areas.
Anaximander- argued that the world shaped
like a cylinder. He made a map of the
world based on information from sailors of
Miletus.
Aristotle- was the first to demonstrate the
earth was sphere. He observed all matter
tended to fall together towards a common
center.
He also explained that the earth’s
shadow on the moon was circular and
that the configuration of stars changes
as one traveled to the north or south.
Strabo- wrote the seventeen volumes
geographics providing an
encyclopedic description of the old
world. He regarded the earth as sphere
at the center of spherical universe.
Ptolemy-wrote an eight volume guide to
geography. He prepared a number of
maps whose quality was unsurpassed
for more than a thousand years.
Well known Geographers
Bernhard Varenius- a German wrote
Geographica Generalis. His book served
as the standard treatise on systematic
geography for more than a century.
Immanuel Kant- was a German
philosopher who provided the
philosophical underpinning of
geography. He justified its place among
science.
Alexander von Humboldt & Carl
Ritter- they championed
empiricism & inductive
explanation through field
observation. This means that
geography should use scientific
methods to explain the reasons for
the presence or absence of certain
phenomena.
Friedrich Ratzel & Ellen Churchill
-they believed that geography was the
study of the influences of the natural
environment on people. Ratzel was
recognized as the founder of human
geography.
Ellworth Huntington- an early American
geographer argued that climate was a
major determinant of civilization.
Paul Vidal da la Blache & Jean Brunhes-
They developed what is known as the
regional geography approach,
sometimes called the cultural landscape
Carl Saver & Robert Platt- both
American geographer, adopted the
regional geography approach developed
by Blache & Brunhes.
Relationship of Geography with other
Disciplines
Climatology- deals with general weather
conditions
Meteorology- science of the atmosphere
and the origin of the prediction of
weather.
Phytogeography- is related to botany the
science that deals with plants, their life,
structure & growth.
Zoogeography- related to zoology the science
of animal life in the area & ecology , the
study of interrelationship of organisms &
their environment.
Human geography – is related to one or more
Social Sciences.
Economic geography- is related to economics.
Political geography – is related to political
science. Both studies the comparative
government.
Social geography- converges with
sociology & anthropology. Both deal
with the people in the communities
and their relations to the total
environment.
Geography is also related to history &
archeology. Geographical geography
is concerned with the significance of
geography in the explanation of
historical events.
