The Historical Development of Geography

Geography has always played a major role in the development of civilizations, colonies and nations. For the British colonies in North America, geography came to be the most influential factor in their evolution during the 1600’s. Geography was vital in impacting and determining the economy, lifestyle, and population of the colonies, with the most obvious differences between the north and the south.

History and geography are undividable; they represent two fundamental dimensions of the same phenomenon. History is the broader field, which involves human experience from the perspective of time. Geography's concern is narrower; its main focus is on human interaction with the physical environment from the perspective of space. Therefore, it can be said that these dimensions of time and space are in a perpetual interactive feedback loop in which one dimension is affected by the other one. History is as much shaped by geography as it is by almost any other factor. The physical geography of any region is the stencil upon which its history is drawn. Knowing what the features of the stencil are, it fluently allows us to understand the history more quickly and easily.

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

From the mathematical developments made in Mesopotamia, to the pyramids in Egypt, to the intricate black pottery of China, to the highly advanced drainage system in India these ancient cultures have shaped our developments over time. Though they have all contributed to our cultures and thinking, these cultures and cities are unique and very different. Despite this, the overall development and growth of these civilizations follow similar patterns which unite the histories of people all over the world. Ancient cultures and civilization are hard to compare due to their individuality, but despite this the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Chinese Civilizations are significantly different than that of the Indian

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.

“Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future”. This is a quote by one of the most successful and innovative men to ever live, Walt Disney. He was successful because he constantly kept looking to make a better future for himself and others. He did this through interactions with the world and everything around him. Interactions such as these can push mankind forward. They lead to innovations that revolutionize the world we live in. It only takes one great idea to change the world and make it a better place for everyone. Human geography deals with how human actions influence and impact other humans and the world’s environment.

During the years of 3500 BC to 2500 BC, the geography of a land often impacted a civilizations development in great measures. Depending on the resources available or the detriments present due to certain topographical characteristics like rivers or deserts, a civilization could flourish or collapse. By studying the geographic features of growing societies like the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris Rivers as well as the Mediterranean Sea of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the link between developing cultures and geography will be examined through sources, including Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land edited by Jaromir Malek and Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek. To determine the extent

1) Some examles of a primary source document are diaries, manuscripts and letters 2) Political maps show the boundaries and locations of countries, states, cities, towns and counties. Topographic maps show information including roads, elevation, rivers andother water bodies and political boundaries. A cartographic map graphically represents a geographical area, usually on a flat surface and may involve political, cultural, or other non­geographical divisions of a geographical area. 3) A nomad is a member of a group that has no permanent home, wandering from place to place in search of food and water. 4) The key discovery of the Neolithic Revolution is agriculture andthe domestication of animals. This was beneficial becasue it allowed nomads to not

2. Ptolemy 's Geography: It was the work of Ptolemy, an astronomer who lived in the Roman Empire in the second century. It summarized the knowledge of the classical world about geography. It was more accurate than medieval cartography, as it showed the world as round; however, since the Americas were unknown, the world resulted much smaller. Ptolemy’s Geography, merged with the latest information from mariners, constituted the maps that European explorers used in their expeditions.

We have learned in basic K-12 schooling that the Earth is spherical in shape. The earliest recording of this concept was c. 6th century BCE in ancient

(between June 20th and June 22nd) the Greek Astronomer, Eratosthenes had heard of a famous well in a Egyptian City called Syene (now known as Aswan) located around the Nile River. He knew that every year on the solstice, there was no shadow on the bottom of well but instead the rays of sunlight reflected back, and not on the sides of the well as on other days. He came to a conclusion that the sun was directly overhead in Syene at noon every year. He knew that in his hometown Alexindra, the sun was never directly above him even on the solstice. He assembled a pole in Alexindra to study and calculate the shadows position eventually proving that no sun was directly above but faintly south. Knowing that the earth was curved and knowing the distance between the two cities, Syene and Alexandra he calculated the planets circumference by doing simple geometry. “Eratosthenes could measure the angle of the Sun’s rays off the vertical by dividing the length of the leg opposite the angle (the length of the shadow) by the leg adjacent to the angle (the height of the pole). This gave him an angle of 7.12 degrees. He knew that the circumference of Earth constituted a circle of 360 degrees, so 7.12 (or 7.2, to divide 360 evenly by 50) degrees would be about one-fiftieth of the circumference. He also knew the approximate distance between Alexandria and Syene, so he could set up this

All through history, geographic features have impacted the improvement of civilizations and districts. These features have both advanced and constrained interactions with other civilizations and regions. Today, I will inform you about two main geographic features that have substantially influenced the development of ancient Egypt and have promoted or limited the interaction of this civilization with another civilization or region. These geographic features are the Nile river and the Mediterranean sea. Throughout this essay, you will also learn about how the ancient Egyptian civilization compares to modern Egypt.

The lives of humans of the ancient world were greatly affected by the geography of the region that they lived in. The geography dictates what the people would eat, builds, and grow and where they would live. Based on the documents people of the ancient world lives were different to each other because of their geography. On example of how geography shaped the lives of earlier humans is document 2. Document 2 shows a map of Paleolithic, Neolithic China and where civilizations were located.

Much of my passion for Geography is derived from the fact that it depicts relevance to all aspects of society. It is dynamic in a sense that my perception and understanding is constantly evolving with the growth in understanding and perception. What intrigues my further pursuit of geography is how Geography unlike other subjects has direct links to both human and physical attributes. By further pursuing geography at a higher education level, I wish to enrich my understanding of the wider significance of issues being faced and how it affects society on a local and global level. It is important to identify and understand the interconnecting aspects of the world around us and apply such knowledge towards a more sustainable future. Geography

Physical geography is that branch of natural science which deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the domain