Which Comes First Geography Or Politics

Globals, Locals, and Mobals: In the book “The Power of Place,” Harm de Blij introduces a new viewpoint of geography. Geography is much more than the terrain and physical makeup of the world. It is the culture, education, conditions, foods, politics, language, and opportunities. These things make people and places unique, and capture the true meaning of Human Geography.

The Five Themes of Geography are: Location – Absolute points on a map or grid or Relative to where something may be; Place – The physical and/or human characteristics of a locations; Human/Environment Interactions – How humans have impacted the landscape or environment; Relationship between places Movement – How humans interact on the earth (i.e. how they communicate over distance (short or long)) and Regions – a unit of space that has commonalities defined by physical, human and environmental geography. The Explorers of the New World may have not known what the Five Themes of Geography were but they quickly learned. Of the five themes the ones that they all took advantage of was the physical Location and Place as they learned to navigate

Geography will never mean the same to me, the more I read the more I’ve learned it’ so much more than land and boundaries. What I’ve learned from this literature it seems to be the study of issues that affect people and the environment, and ways to solve the world’s problems. Geography is important because it affects all aspects of life. No matter what you are talking or thinking about geography is somehow involved. Everything in the world has a direct connection to place, location, interaction, movement, and region.

“In 2002, 85 percent of 18-to-24-year-old Americans surveyed by the National Geographic Society could not find either country on a map. And it gets worse: Sixty-nine percent failed to find Britain’s, 29 percent could not find the Pacific Ocean, and nearly a third believed the U.S population to be somewhere between 1 and 2 billion.”

The Dumas family was surprised at Americans lack of knowledge of geography. To respectfully tell the people that they did not live where they thought they would say, “ You’ve heard of India, Japan, or China? We’re on the same continent” (Dumas 90).

How other countries view America’s position in the world varies not only based on America’s actions within the international arena, or foreign policy, but also how Americans view the actions of their leaders and policy makers. For both internal and external views, America’s “standing” revolves around two primary elements – how well the US government does what it says it is going to do and how well it stands up to threats against it. While these are not the only elements considered, America’s credibility and pride are viewed as key to how well it will respond to interactions both within and outside its borders. A country’s world view, or standing, can vary over time and be impacted by a number of things such as where a country is located,

In his article “Lost in America,” Douglas McGray highlights the issues of isolationism in the American educational system. The article was issued by Foreign Policy magazine in 2006. Through his article, McGray expresses his concerns about the lack of focus of the American educational system on the learning of foreign cultures. McGray’s target audience is people that can make changes in the educational curriculum, which signifies that his intended audience includes American legislators involved in American curriculum policies. McGray, who is co-creator and editor-in-chief of Pop-Up Magazine, claims that Americans are neglecting a valuable resource that is essential for the future generations’ success in the competitive world market. In his article “Lost in America,” McGray uses anecdotes to build credibility and trust, uses hyperboles to surprise and instigate fear, and motivates his audience with a call to action, to provide American legislators the actual state of the American education and effectively persuade them to incorporate foreign culture studies into the American educational curriculum.

Document “A” relates to the prompt because it shows the main physical features of the Roman Empire. This document shows that geography plays a big part in trading, along with, strategizing during battle. The first thing that pops out is The Mediterranean Sea, and how it helped influence the Roman trade and travel. It shows the Sahara Desert and how this helped shield them from many invaders. It also shows the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These were important trade routes, as well as, easy places to sneak up on other cultures in an attempt to overtake them. The map also displays mountains in the area of Italy that could act as a refuge from other tribes/cultures, if a war broke out.

- Geopolitics: the study of the relationships of physical geography and human geography on international politics and/or relations.

Many Americans seem to be anxious about how the world perceives them, and are disturbed by what seems to be its declining image and position in many countries. Some wonder if the end is near for U.S. dominance or influence. The following are some quotations from recently published materials that are worth considering.

Geography influences culture in many ways. A civilizations geography determines what kind of god(s) they believe in as well as influences from other cultures. These features provide a stepping stone for cultures that are solely based on geography.

“America was conducting business as usual, but others were joining the game.” (Zakaria, 221). All this time we thought we were on top, we were actually slowly becoming less and less of leader and more a bystander as the rest of the world is slowly rising around us. Zakaria shows in that quote that as America has been continuing business like always, and because of this we have failed to realize our standing with the world around us. In the book The Post-American World, Zakaria shows us the challenges that America faces today. I believe the United States is most affected by our ignorance, competition, and worldly participation.

The Spanish were able to overtake the Incas, who´s population were in the millions, while they were a mere few hundred. How did they do it? Civilizations started off from the beginning as inequal. The geography predicted the success of the civilization. The climate produced the growth of beneficial agriculture. Domesticated animals were also invented, which allowed them to develop immunity. The production of steel was invented as a huge advantage. They did not develop at the same pace because of this. Europe was thriving and dominating because of nearly pure luck with their geography which lead to effects on food, animals, sickness, and inventions that boosted their power.

Some would say that the U.S. centric history taught in public schools presents a one-sided perspective, encourages over-nationalism, and impedes U.S. foreign relations. Those who carry these beliefs have coined the term “Americentrism”. Americentrism is defined as “the idea or perceived bias to judge other cultures and nations by American standards or to center around America in news” (Rationalwiki). This in turn is derived from the concept of “ethnocentrism,” or the “idea of judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture” (Wikipedia). One cannot deny that the United States centers everything it possibly can around itself. This includes everything from the nation’s curriculum taught in public schools to its day-to-day news. However, that is exactly what happens in every country across the globe. It is only normal for a country to center things around itself because its audience is its own population. This is not necessarily a negative thing either. The majority of people are not interested in the world as a whole. Instead, they want to know what is happening around them on a local, state or national level because that is what applies to them personally. In the case of the United States, there is a definite focus on all things American in the classroom, but due to numerous external and internal factors, the effects of this focus are negligible in the grand scheme of things. Nevertheless, that does not mean that people’s perspectives cannot be

Maybe some people will think human geography has no relation between physical geography. But I think human geography has a great effect on physical geography, and physical geography has a great effect on human geography too.