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HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL
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See also:HISTORY OF See also:GEOGRAPHICAL THEORY The earliest conceptions of the See also:earth, like those held by the See also:primitive peoples of the See also:present See also:day, are difficult to discover and almost impossible fully to grasp. See also:Early generalizations, as far as they were made from known facts, were usually expressed in symbolic See also:language, and for our present purpose it is not profitable to speculate on the underlying truths which may sometimes be suspected in the old mythological cosmogonies. The first definite geographical theories to affect the western See also:world were those evolved, or at least first expressed, by the Greeks.' Early The earliest theoretical problem of See also:geography was the See also:creek See also:form of the earth. The natural supposition that the earth ideas. is a See also:flat disk, circular or elliptical in outline, had in the See also:time of See also:Homer acquired a See also:special definiteness by the introduction of the See also:idea of the ocean See also:river bounding the whole, an application of imperfectly understood observations. Thales of Fiat earth See also:Miletus is claimed as the first exponent of the idea of a of Homer. spherical earth; but, although this does not appear to be warranted, his See also:disciple Anaximander (c. 58o B.C.) put forward the theory that the earth had the figure of a solid See also:body See also:hanging freely in the centre of the hollow See also:sphere of the starry heavens. The See also:Pythagorean school of philosophers adopted the theory of a spherical earth, but from metaphysical rather than scientific reasons; their convincing See also:argument was that a sphere being the most perfect solid figure was the only one worthy to circumscribe the dwelling-See also:place of See also:man. The See also:division of the sphere into parallel zones and some of the consequences of this generalization seem to have presented themselves to Parmenides (c. 450 B.C.); but these ideas did not See also:influence the Ionian school of philosophers, who in their treatment of geography preferred to See also:deal with facts demonstrable by Hecataeas. travel rather than with speculations. Thus Hecataeus, claimed by H. F. Tozer 2 as the See also:father of geography on See also:account of his Periodos, or See also:general See also:treatise on the earth, did not advance beyond the primitive conception of a circular disk. He systematized the form of the See also:land within the See also:ring of ocean—the ok ou &i,j, or. habitable world—by recognizing two continents: See also:Europe to the See also:north, and See also:Asia to the See also:south of the midland See also:sea. See also:Herodotus. Herodotus, equally oblivious of the sphere, criticized and ridiculed the circular outline of the oekumene, which he knew to be longer from See also:east to See also:west than it was broad from north to south. He also pointed out reasons for accepting a division of the land into three continents—Europe, Asia and See also:Africa. Beyond the limits of his See also:personal travels Herodotus applied the characteristically See also:Greek theory of symmetry to See also:complete, in the unknown, outlines The idea cf lands and See also:rivers analogous to those which had been ofsym- explored. Symmetry was in fact the first geographical metry. theory, and the effect of Herodotus's See also:hypothesis that the See also:Nile must flow from west to east before turning north in See also:order to See also:balance the See also:Danube See also:running from west to east before turning south lingered in the maps of Africa down to the time of Mungo See also:Park.' To See also:Aristotle (384–322 B.c.) must be given the distinction of See also:founding scientific geography. He demonstrated the sphericity of the A concise See also:sketch of the whole history of geographical method or theory as distinguished from the history of geographical See also:discovery (see later See also:section of this See also:article) is only to be found in the introduction to H. See also:Wagner's Lehrbuch der Geographic, vol. i. (See also:Leipzig, 1900), which is in every way the most complete treatise on the principles of geography. 2 History of See also:Ancient Geography (See also:Cambridge, 1897), p. 70. 3 See J. L. Myres, " An See also:Attempt to reconstruct the Maps used by Herodotus," Geographical See also:Journal, viii. (1896), p. 605.earth by three arguments, two of which could be tested by observation. These were: (I) that the earth must be spherical, because of the tendency of See also:matter to fall together towards a See also:common centre; (2) that only a sphere could always throw a circular See also:shadow on the See also:moon during an See also:eclipse; and (3) that the shifting of the See also:horizon and the See also:appearance of new constellations, or the disappearance of See also:familiar stars, as one travelled from north to south, could only be explained on the hypo-thesis that the earth was a sphere. Aristotle, too, gave greater definiteness to the idea of zones conceived by Parmenides, who had pictured a torrid See also:zone uninhabitable by See also:reason of See also:heat, two frigid zones uninhabitable by reason of See also:cold, and two intermediate See also:temper-See also:ate zones See also:fit for human occupation. Aristotle defined the temperate zone as extending from the tropic to the See also:arctic circle, but there is some uncertainty as to the precise meaning he gave to the See also:term " arctic circle." Soon after his time, however, this conception was clearly established, and with so large a generalization the See also:mental horizon was widened to conceive of a geography which was a See also:science. Aristotle had himself shown that in the See also:southern temperate zone winds similar to those of the See also:northern temperate zone should See also:blow, but from the opposite direction. While the theory of the sphere was being elaborated the efforts of See also:practical geographers were steadily directed towards ascertaining the outline and configuration of the oekumene, or habitable Fitting the world, the only portion of the terrestrial See also:surface known oelmmene to the ancients and to the See also:medieval peoples, and still to the retaining a shadow of its old See also:monopoly of geographical sphere. See also:attention in its See also:modern name of the " Old World." The fitting of the oekumene to the sphere was the second theoretical problem. The circular outline had given way in geographical See also:opinion to the elliptical with the See also:long See also:axis lying east and west, and Aristotle was inclined to view it as a very long and relatively narrow See also:band almost encircling the globe in the temperate zone. His argument as to the narrowness of the sea between West Africa and East Asia, from the occurrence of elephants at both extremities, is difficult to understand, although it shows that he looked on the See also:distribution of animals as a problem of geography. See also:Pythagoras had speculated as to the existence of See also:antipodes, but it was not until the first approximately accurate measurements of the globe and estimates of the length and breadth of the problem oekumene were made by Eratosthenes (c. 25o B.c.) that of the the fact that, as then known, it occupied less than a See also:quarter Antipodes. of the surface of the sphere was clearly recognized. It was natural, if not strictly logical, that the ocean river should be extended from a narrow stream to a world-embracing sea, and here again Greek theory, or rather See also:fancy, gave its modern name to the greatest feature of the globe. The old instinctive idea of symmetry must often have suggested other oekumene balancing the known world in the other quarters of the globe. The Stoic philosophers, especially See also:Crates of Mallus, arguing from the love of nature for See also:life, placed an oekumene in each quarter of the sphere, the three unknown world-islands being those of the Antoeci, See also:Perioeci and Antipodes. This was a theory not only attractive to the philosophical mind, but eminently adapted to promote exploration. It had its opponents, however, for Herodotus showed that sea-basins existed cut off from the ocean, and it is still a matter of controversy how far the pre-Ptolemaic geographers believed in a See also:water-connexion between the See also:Atlantic and See also:Indian oceans. It is quite clear that See also:Pomponius See also:Mela (c. A.D. 40), following See also:Strabo, held that the southern temperate zone contained a habitable land, which he designated by the name Antichthones. Aristotle See also:left no See also:work on geography, so that it is impossible to know what facts he associated with the science of the earth's surface. The word geography did not appear before Aristotle, Aristotle's the first use of it being in the Ilept Koaµwe, which is one ro- of the writings doubtfully ascribed to him, and H. Berger graphkal considers that the expression was introduced by Eratos- views. thenes.4 Aristotle was certainly conversant with many facts, such as the formation of deltas, See also:coast-erosion, and to a certain extent the dependence of See also:plants and animals on their See also:physical surroundings. He formed a comprehensive theory of the See also:variations of See also:climate with See also:latitude and See also:season, and was convinced of the See also:necessity of a circulation of water between the sea and rivers, though, like See also:Plato, he held that this took place by water rising from the sea through crevices in the rocks, losing its dissolved salts in the See also:process. He speculated on the See also:differences in the See also:character of races of mankind living in different climates, and correlated the See also:political forms of communities with their situation on a seashore, or in the See also:neighbour-See also:hood of natural strongholds. Strabo (c. 5o B.c.–A.D. 24) followed Eratosthenes rather than Aristotle, but with sympathies which went out more to the human interests than the mathematical basis of geography. He Strabo. compiled a very remarkable work dealing, in large measure from personal travel, with the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. He may be said to have set the See also:pattern which was followed in succeeding ages by the compilers of " political geographies " * Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen (Leipzig. 1891), See also:Abt. 3, p. 6o. Aristotle and the sphere. dealing less with theories than with facts, and illustrating rather than formulating the principles of the science. See also:Claudius See also:Ptolemaeus (c. A.D. 150) concentrated in his writings the final outcome of all Greek geographical learning, and passed it across See also:Ptolemy. the gulf of the See also:middle ages by the hands of the See also:Arabs, to form the starting-point of the science in modern times. His geography was based more immediately on the work of his predecessor, See also:Marinus of See also:Tyre, and on that of See also:Hipparchus, the follower and critic of Eratosthenes. It was the ambition of Ptolemy to describe and represent accurately the surface of the oekumene, for which purpose he took immense trouble to collect all existing determinations of the latitude of places, all estimates of See also:longitude, and to make every possible rectification in the estimates of distances by land or sea. His work was mainly cartographical in its aim, and theory was as far as possible excluded. The symmetrically placed hypothetical islands in the See also:great continuousocean disappeared, and the oekumene acquired a new form by the See also:representation of the Indian Ocean as a larger Mediterranean completely cut off by land from the Atlantic. The terra incognita uniting Africa and Farther Asia was an unfortunate hypothesis which helped to retard exploration. Ptolemy used the word geography to signify the description of the whole oekumene on mathematical principles, while See also:chorography signified the See also:fuller description of a particular region, and See also:topography the very detailed description of a smaller locality. He introduced the simile that geography represented an artist's sketch of a whole portrait, while chorography corresponded to the careful and detailed See also:drawing of an See also:eye or an See also:ear.' The See also:Caliph al-See also:Mamun (c. A.D. 815), the son and successor of See also:Harun al-Rashid, caused an Arabic version of Ptolemy's great astronomical work (Avvratts Iceytovrt) to be made, which is known as the Almagest, the word being nothing more than the Gr. peylorrt with the Arabic article al prefixed. The geography of Ptolemy was also known and is constantly referred to by Arab writers. The Arab astronomers measured a degree on the plains of See also:Mesopotamia, thereby deducing a See also:fair approximation to the See also:size of the earth. The caliph's librarian, See also:Abu Jafar Muhammad See also:Ben Musa, wrote a geographical work, now unfortunately lost, entitled Rasm el Arsi (" A Description of the World "), which is often referred to by subsequent writers as having been composed on the See also:model of that of Ptolemy. The middle ages saw geographical knowledge See also:die out in Christendom, although it retained, through the Arabic See also:translations of Ptolemy, a certain vitality in See also:Islam. The verbal inter-Oeography pretation of Scripture led Lactantius (c. A.D. 320) and In the other ecclesiastics to denounce the spherical theory of the middle earth as heretical. The wretched subterfuge of See also:Cosmas ages- (c. A.D. 550) to explain the phenomena of the apparent movements of the See also:sun by means of an earth modelled on the See also:plan of the Jewish See also:Tabernacle gave place ultimately to the See also:wheel-maps —the T in an 0—which reverted to the primitive See also:ignorance of the times of Homer and Hecataeus.2 The See also:journey of Marco See also:Polo, the increasing See also:trade to the East and the voyages of the Arabs in the Indian Ocean prepared the way for the reacceptance of Ptolemy's ideas when the sealed books of the Greek See also:original were translated into Latin by See also:Angelus in 1410. The old arguments of Aristotle and the old measurements of Ptolemy were used by Toscanelli and See also:Columbus in urging a westward voyage to See also:India; and mainly on this account did the Revival of See also:crossing of the Atlantic See also:rank higher in the history of geography. scientific geography than the laborious feeling out of the coast-See also:line of Africa. But not until the voyage of See also:Magellan shook the scales from the eyes of Europe did modern geography begin to advance. Discovery had outrun theory; the See also:rush of new facts made Ptolemy practically obsolete in a See also:generation, after having been the fount and origin of all geography for a See also:millennium.
The earliest See also:evidence of the reincarnation of a See also:sound theoretical geography is to be found in the See also:text-books by See also:Peter Apian and Ap/anns. See also:Sebastian See also:Munster. Apian in his Cosmographicus See also:liber,
published in 1524, and subsequently edited and added to by Gemma Frisius under the See also:title of Cosmographia, based the whole science on See also:mathematics and measurement. He followed Ptolemy closely, enlarging on his distinction between geography and chorography, and expressing the See also:artistic See also:analogy in a rough See also:diagram. T his slender distinction was made much of by most subsequent writers until See also:Nathanael See also:Carpenter in 1625 pointed out that the difference between geography and chorography was simply one of degree, not of See also:kind.
Sebastian Munster, on the other See also:hand, in his Cosmographia
universalis of 1544, paid no regard to the mathematical basis of
M~7ns!er. geography, but, following the model of Strabo, described
the world according to its different political divisions,
and entered with great zest into the question of the productions
' See also:Bunbury's History of Ancient Geography (2 vols., See also:London, 1879), See also:Miller's Geographi Graeci minores (2 vols., See also:Paris, 1855, 1861) and Berger's Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen (4 vols., Leipzig, 1887–1893) are See also:standard authorities on the Greek geographers.
2 The See also:period of the early middle ages is dealt with in Beazley's See also:Dawn of Modern Geography (London ; See also:part i., 1897; part ii., 1901; part iii., 1906); see also Winstedt, Cosmos Indicopleusles (1910).of countries, and into the See also:manners and costumes of the various peoples. Thus early commenced the separation between what were Fong called mathematical and political geography, the one subject appealing mainly to mathematicians, the other to historians.
Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries the rapidly accumulating See also:store of facts as to the extent, outline and See also:mountain and river systems of the lands of the earth were put in order by the generation of cartographers of which See also:Mercator was the See also:chief; but the writings of Apian and Munster held the See also: See also: The reason why this great man took so much care in correcting and See also:publishing our author was, because he thought him necessary to be read by his See also:audience, the See also:young gentlemen of Cambridge, while he was delivering lectures on the same subject from the Lucasian See also:Chair." 3 The treatise of Varenius is a model of logical arrangement and terse expression; it is a work of science and of See also:genius; one of the few of that age which can still be studied with profit. The English See also:translation renders the See also:definition thus: " Geography is that part of mixed mathematics which explains the See also:state of the earth and of its parts, depending on quantity, viz. its figure, place, magnitude and See also:motion, with the See also:celestial appearances, &c. By some it is taken in too limited a sense, for a See also:bare description of the several countries; and by others too extensively, who along with such a description would have their political constitution." Varenius was reluctant to include the human See also:side of geography in his See also:system, and only allowed it as a concession to See also:custom, and in order to attract readers by imparting interest to the sterner details of the science. His division of geography was into two parts—(i.) General or universal, dealing with the earth in general, and explaining its properties without regard to particular countries; and (ii.) Special or particular, dealing with each country in turn from the chorographical or topographical point of view. General geography was divided into—(1) the See also:Absolute part, dealing with the form, dimensions, position and substance of the earth, the distribution of land and water, mountains, See also:woods and deserts, See also:hydrography (including all the See also:waters of the earth) and the See also:atmosphere; (2) the Relative part, including the celestial properties, i.e. latitude, climate zones, longitude, &c.; and (3) the Comparative part, which " considers the 3 From translator's See also:preface to the English version by Mr See also:Dugdale (1733), entitled A Complete System of General Geography, revised by Dr Peter See also:Shaw (London, 1956). particulars arising from comparing one part with another "; but under this See also:head the questions discussed were longitude, the situation and distances of places, and See also:navigation. Varenius does not treat of special geography, but gives a See also:scheme for it under three heads—(1) Terrestrial, including position, outline, boundaries, mountains, mines, woods and deserts, waters, fertility and fruits, and living creatures; (2) Celestial, including appearance of the heavens and the climate; (3) Human, but this was added out of deference to popular usage. This system of geography founded a new See also:epoch, and the book—translated into English, Dutch and See also:French—was the unchallenged standard for more than a See also:century. The framework was capable of accommodating itself to new facts, and was indeed far in advance of the knowledge of the period. The method included a recognition of the causes and effects of phenomena as well as the See also:mere fact of their occurrence, and for the first time the importance of the See also:vertical See also:relief of the land was fairly recognized. The physical side of geography continued to be elaborated after Varenius's methods, while the See also:historical side was See also:developed separately. Both branches, although enriched by new facts, remained stationary so far as method is concerned until nearly the end of the 18th century. The compilation of " geography books " by uninstructed writers led to the pernicious See also:habit, which is not yet wholly overcome, of reducing the general or " physical " part to a few pages of concentrated See also:information, and expanding the particular or " political " part by including unrevised travellers' stories and uncritical descriptions of the various countries of the world. Such books were in fact not geography, but merely compressed travel. The next marked advance in the theory of geography may be taken as the nearly simultaneous studies of the physical earth See also:Bergman. carried out by the See also:Swedish chemist, Toi'See also:bern Bergman, acting under the impulse of See also:Linnaeus, and by the German philosopher, Immanuel See also:Kant. Bergman's Physical Description of the Earth was published in Swedish in 1766, and translated into English in 1772 and into German in 1774. It is a See also:plain, straight-forward description of the globe, and of the various phenomena of the surface, dealing only with definitely ascertained facts in the natural order of their relationships, but avoiding any systematic See also:classification or even See also:definitions of terms. The problems of geography had been lightened by the destructive See also:criticism of the French cartographer D See also:Anville (who had purged Kant. the See also:map of the world of the last remnants of traditional fact unverified by modern observations) and rendered richer by the dawn of the new era of scientific travel, when Kant brought his logical See also:powers to See also:bear upon them. Kant's lectures on physical geography were delivered in the university of See also:Konigsberg from 1765 onwards.' Geography appealed to him as a valuable educational discipline, the See also:joint See also:foundation with See also:anthropology of that " knowledge of the world " which was the result of reason and experience. In this connexion he divided the communication of experience from one See also:person to another into two categories—the narrative or historical and the descriptive or geographical; both history and geography being viewed as descriptions, the former a description in order of time, the latter a description in order of space. Physical geography he viewed as a See also:summary of nature, the basis not only of history but also of " all the other possible geographies," of which he enumerates five, viz. (I) Mathematical geography, which deals with the form, size and movements of the earth and its place in the See also:solar system; (2) Moral geography, or an account of the different customs and characters of mankind according to the region they inhabit; (3) Political geography, the divisions according to their organized governments; (4) See also:Mercantile geography, dealing with the trade in the surplus products of countries; (5) Theological geography, or the distribution of religions. Here there is a clear and formal statement of the interaction and causal relation of all the phenomena of distribution on the earth's surface, including the influence of physical geography upon the various activities of mankind from the lowest to the highest. Notwithstanding the form of this classification, Kant himself treats mathematical geography as preliminary to, and therefore not dependent on, physical geography. Physical geography itself is divided into two parts: a general, which has to do with the earth and all that belongs to it—water, See also:air and land; and a particular, which deals with special products of the earth—mankind, animals, plants and minerals. Particular importance is given to the vertical relief of the land, on which the various branches of human geography are shown to depend.
See also: His monumental Vergleichende Geographie, which was to have made the whole world its theme, died out in a See also:wilderness of detail in twenty-one volumes before it had covered more of the earth's surface than Asia and a portion of Africa. Some of his followers showed a tendency to look on geography rather as an See also:auxiliary to history than as a study of See also:intrinsic See also:worth. During the rapid development of physical geography many branches of -the study of nature, which had been included in the cosmography of the early writers, the physiography. of Geography Linnaeus and even the Erdkunde of Ritter, had been so much advanced by the labours of specialists that natural their connexion was See also:apt to be forgotten. Thus See also:geology, science. See also:meteorology, oceanography and anthropology developed into distinct sciences. The absurd attempt was, and sometimes is still, made by geographers to include all natural science in geography; but it is more common for specialists in the various detailed sciences to think, and sometimes to assert, that the ground of physical geography is now fully occupied by these sciences. Political geography has been too often looked on from both sides as a mere summary of See also:guide-book knowledge, useful in the schoolroom, a poor relation of physical geography that it was rarely necessary to recognize. The science of geography, passed on from antiquity by Ptolemy, re-established by Varenius and Newton, and systematized by Kant, included within itself definite aspects of all those terrestrial phenomena which are now treated exhaustively under the heads of geology, meteorology, oceanography and anthropology; and the inclusion of the requisite portions of the perfected results of these sciences in geography is simply the gathering in of See also:fruit matured from the See also:seed scattered by geography itself. The study of geography was advanced by improvements in cartography (see MAP), not only in the methods of survey and See also:projection, but in the representation of the third See also:dimension by means of See also:contour lines introduced by Philippe Buache in 1737, and the more remarkable because less obvious invention of isotherms introduced by Humboldt in 1817. The " argument from See also:design " had been a favourite form of reasoning amongst See also:Christian theologians, and, as worked out by See also:Paley in his Natural See also:Theology, it served the useful purpose The teleo- of emphasizing the fitness which exists between all the togtee inhabitants of the earth and their physical environment. guinent in It was held that the earth had been created so as to fit geography. the wants of man in every particular. This argument was tacitly accepted or explicitly avowed by almost every writer on the theory of geography, and Cari Ritter distinctly recognized and adopted it as the unifying principle of his system. As a student of nature, however, he did not fail to see, and as See also:professor of geography he always taught, that man was in very large measure conditioned by his physical environment. The apparent opposition of the observedfact to the assigned theory he overcame by looking upon the forms of the land and the arrangement of land and sea as See also:instruments of Divine See also:Providence for guiding the destiny as well as for supplying the requirements of man. This was the central theme of Ritter's See also:philosophy; his See also:religion and his geography were one, and the consequent fervour with which he pursued his See also:mission goes far to account for the immense influence he acquired in See also:Germany.
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