History of Geography

Geography is a discipline that is both old and young. In the course of its development, three periods of ancient geography, modern geography and modern geography have been clearly formed.

Since ancient times to the end of the 18th century, is the ancient geography period, mainly descriptive records of geographic knowledge, and these records are mostly fragmentary, the lack of theoretical system, geography has not yet appeared within the disciplinary differentiation of geography is basically in the country's geography closed under the conditions of development.

In the early days, the most notable achievements were those of China and ancient Greece. China's "Shangshu - Yugong", "Guanzi - ground staff", "Mountains and Seas", "Water Classic" and other works, are the world's relatively early history of geography. In the later period, the European geographic discovery emerged Columbus, Da Gama, Magellan and other geographic explorers, their discoveries greatly promote the development of geography.

From the beginning of the 19th century to the 1950s, is the period of modern geography. The formation of modern geography is marked by the German Humboldt's Cosmos and Littell's General Theory of Geography two books came out.

Modern geography was a product of the Industrial Revolution and matured with the development of industrial society. During this period, various doctrines rose up and schools of thought were established. Almost all the departmental disciplines of geography appeared and were established in this period, and therefore it was also a period of vigorous development of departmental geography.

Humboldt laid the foundation for physical geography and phytogeography, and later Richthofen of Germany and de Madon of France made important contributions to the development of physical geography; Davis of the U.S. and Penck of Germany respectively founded the doctrine of erosion cycle and the theory of parallel regression of mountain slopes, which marked the establishment of geomorphology; Wohlhahn's Handbook of Climatology in Austria, Voyerkov's Global Climate and Russian Climate, and Voyerkov's Climatology and Global Climate of Germany were also established during this period. Global Climate and Russian Climate" of Austria Vohannen, "World Climate and Russian Climate" of Russia Voeyekov, and "World Climate Classification" of Germany K?ppen laid the foundation of climatology; Wallace of England laid the foundation of animal geography by dividing the world's fauna into zoo-zones; Dokuchayev's soil zone doctrine of Russia laid the foundation of soil geography; Littell and Latscher of Germany established humanistic geography and so on. Among other things, human geographers expressed a deep-seated desire to understand the complexity and subtlety of human experience, and thus to pay more attention in practice to quality rather than quantity, adjectives rather than nouns, psychology rather than economics. If idealized, the human geographer should be such an Alexander Humboldt, armed with a sea of facts - that is, nouns. But he must also love nature, be able to sense it and seek its meaning, just as his brother Wilhelm Humboldt did. "What does it mean? What does it really mean?" This question must be forever tucked away in the consciousness of the humanist geographer so that he can be a moralist and a philosopher at the same time.

From the 1960s to the present is the period of modern geography. Modern geography is a product of the modern scientific and technological revolution and develops with the progress of science and technology, marked by the birth of geographic quantitative methods, theoretical geography and the emergence of applications such as computerized mapping, geographic information systems and satellites. Modern geography emphasizes the unity, theorization, quantification, behavior and ecology of geography.

Methodological and technical disciplines in geography - geographic quantitative methods, cartography, etc., will take the lead in gaining more development; comprehensive sub-disciplines, applied sub-disciplines, such as integrated physical geography, urban geography, tourism geography, medical geography, behavioral geography, resource geography, population geography, etc. will have faster development; the trend of studying humanities in geography will be strengthened, and the proportion of humanistic geography in geography will increase. From ancient times to the end of the 18th century. Geography in this period was a product of the agricultural and pastoral society before the Industrial Revolution, characterized as follows:

①Descriptive records of geographical knowledge. Early records are mostly fragmentary, and in the middle and late stages of the emergence of a number of geographic writings, but mostly lack of theoretical system.

②Disciplinary differentiation within geography has not yet occurred. Early scholars were encyclopedic, geography and other disciplines mixed together. To the late, after the Renaissance, mainly in Europe, the natural sciences and humanities division, but the division within geography is still not obvious. It was not until the 19th century that geography became clearly differentiated, and that was during the period of modern geography.

3) The geography of each country was basically developed under the closed conditions of that country, and its contents were diversified.

Several ancient civilizations in the world each accumulated valuable geographical knowledge, respectively, the formation of Ancient Egyptian geography, Ancient Greek and Roman geography, Ancient Indian geography, Ancient Arab geography and Ancient Chinese geography. In the early period, the achievements of ancient China and ancient Greco-Roman were the most outstanding. In China, there were works such as "Shangshu - Yugong", "Guanzi - Geomembers" and "Shanhaijing", and in ancient Greece and Rome, there were the works of Eratosthenes, Strabo and Ptolemy and so on. In the middle, Europe entered the medieval era, geography declined for a while; China's geography has made gratifying progress and achievements, Pei Xiu "Yugong geographical map" and "six bodies of mapping" drawing principles, Li Daoyuan "water scripture," Xuanzang, "Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty," Li Jifu, "Yuanhe County Atlas" and so on; Arab geography rose in this period, such as Masuqi, Strabo, and Ptolemy. The rise of Arab geography in this period, such as the important contributions of Masoudi, Idrisi and others. In the late period, Chinese and European geography had the most achievements. In China, there were Zheng He's "seven expeditions to the West", Luo Hongxian's "Broad Opinion Map", Xu Xiake's travelogues, Gu Yanwu's "Book of Benefits and Diseases of the Counties under the Sky" and "Zhaowei Zhi", and Gu Zuyu's "Chronicle of the Reading of History and Square Opinions", etc. In Europe, the geographic discoveries brought out geographic explorers such as C. Columbus and V. da Gamma Magellan, which gave a great push to the development of geography, and there were G. G. Gamma Magellan, and other important geographers, who made great contributions to geography, such as G. Mazzudi. In Europe, the Great Geographical Discovery produced geographic explorers such as C. Columbus and V. Daaga Magellan, which greatly promoted the development of geography and led to the emergence of G. Mercator's Atlas, B. Valenius' General Geography, and other works and maps. (See History of Chinese Geography.) Medieval Europe was a dark age of economic and cultural decline. The unity of church and state and the closed small monarchies narrowed people's geographic horizons, and the rulers tried to make geography a slave of Christianity, and there was a reaction of geographic thought. Not only the excellent tradition of ancient Greece and Rome in geography was not inherited, but religious superstition and astrology were used to explain all geographical phenomena. For example, Cosmas, a sixth-century merchant, wrote The Topography of Christendom, replacing the spherical theory with the horizon theory. In the book, the Holy Ark of Moses is used as the shape of the earth, and the earth is regarded as a flat rectangle, the length of the east and west is twice as long as the length of the north and south, surrounded by oceans and seas, and outside of which there is a land, that is to say, the place where the heaven is located.

After the twelfth century, due to the Crusades, the Europeans widened their geographic horizons; the establishment of the feudal centralized state and the establishment of the Church University, the ancient Greek and Roman classics from the Arabic translation; plus the compass from China, so that the development of commercial navigation, so that the geographical works of Europe and the map drawing began to appear some turnaround.

From the seventh century A.D., Islam united the scattered Arab tribes and ruled Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula, and Baghdad became the academic center of the Islamic world. Years of conquest, Mecca Hajj and commercial navigation activities, and make the Islamic world as the hub of East-West exchanges, the emergence of many great Muslim travelers, such as Masoudi and so on. The decimal system and the compass were introduced to Europe from China through India and the Arab world during this period.

The achievements of ancient Arab geography can not be ignored. For example, in 921, Balki collected the climatic observations of Arab travelers and compiled the first Atlas of the World's Climate; a little later, Makdisi proposed a scheme to divide the world into 14 climatic zones; in the early eleventh century, Avicenna observed the mountainous regions of Central Asia, and proposed that the movement of folded and uplifted mountains and the process of erosion and cutting the topography of the homogeneous changes.

China in this period had great achievements in square records, geography of history, extraterritorial geography, physical geography and maps. For example, Fa Xian's biography of Fa Xian and Xuan Zang's Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty are still important documents for the study of the history and geography of Central Asia and India; Li Daoyuan's "Notes on the Water Scripture" is still a key work for the evidence of the evolution of China's water resources and the water environment; and Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bianchuan" puts forward the role of the river's erosion, transportation, and accumulation and is used to explain the formation of the North China Plain, which is four centuries older than the similar Western insights.

Two major geographic events occurred in the near ancient period from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries A.D.: China's Zheng He's "seven voyages to the West" and the West's great geographic discoveries. Although the time of Zheng He's voyages to the West was more than half a century earlier than the geographical discovery started by Columbus, and the scale of the fleet and the technology of navigation were far better than that of Columbus, its social significance and influence on geography were far less than that of the geographical discovery.

Mutual travel and exploration among peoples has been going on for a long time. However, travel and exploration and geographic discovery is not the same thing, said Columbus is the discoverer of the New World, it is from the discovery of this major social event.

The impact of the Great Geographic Discovery on geography was enormous. The successful use of the compass in long-distance navigation and the precise determination of longitude during the geographic discoveries led to an innovation in cartography as a result of this improved technology and accumulation of data.

In the early 16th century, Appian drew a cardinal map of the earth, and his disciple Mercator became the first to depict the entire surface of the earth on a flat surface when he drew a full map of the world in equidistant cylindrical projection suitable for navigation in 1569. In China, the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci compiled a world map that changed the old concepts of "heaven is round and earth is square" and "China resides in the center of the universe" used by Chinese scholars.

In addition, through the geographic exploration and discovery from the end of the 15th century to the 18th century, some geographic works of high academic value appeared. German Münster's Cosmographia, published in 1544, is considered an early masterpiece of geographical discovery; and German Valenius's Ordinary Geography distinguished the field of geography for the first time into two major parts, monographs and general treatises, with the former describing regional features and the latter revealing global laws.

After the emergence of capitalism in China at the end of Ming Dynasty, fieldwork and theoretical explorations were also carried out during the same period, such as Xu Xiake's "Xu Xiake's Travels", in which there were already a lot of discussions on the causes of geography. However, the ancient Chinese geographic writings are mostly descriptive records, lack of research on the overall law of the earth's surface, which is one of the reasons for the backwardness of modern Chinese geography.

From the 1920s to the 1720s, Western Europe witnessed the "Renaissance," a flourishing of art and science that enabled scholars to generalize some of the laws of nature and human activity. At that time, the geographic investigation and discovery, for philosophers and scientists to provide a wealth of nature, humanities and the relationship between the two specific material; at the same time, the newborn geographic materialism and give the development of geography to the immeasurable impact of the 17th-century French philosopher Montesquieu put forward the climatic determinism, the 18th-century German philosopher I. Kant's duality, have become the methodology of modern geography based on.

In short, from the 15th to 18th centuries, geography was in a period of transition from ancient to modern. Western geography took more than three centuries to complete the technical innovation, data accumulation and the establishment of the philosophical basis of geographic materialism three aspects of preparation for the establishment of modern geography in Europe and the United States to create the prerequisites. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, China also began to explore the overall surface law, but due to the lack of innovation in technical means, the accumulation of scientific data is not enough, especially the rulers are still advocating the theory of heavenly destiny, etc., the new geography can not rise. From the early 19th century to the 1950s. The formation of modern geography was marked by the release of the German books A.von Humboldt's Cosmos and C. Little's General Theory of Geography. Modern geography is a product of the industrial revolution, and with the development of industrial society and maturity, its characteristics are as follows:

1) it originated in Germany, and then from Europe to the world spread, the formation of modern geography with the characteristics of each country. Among them, besides Germany, there are France, Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and so on (see the history of German geography, the history of French geography, the history of British geography, the history of American geography, the history of Soviet geography).

②This is a period of diverse doctrines and schools of thought, the influential doctrines are: "environmental determinism" represented by E.C. Semple and E. Huntington in the United States, "possible theory" represented by France's P. Vidal Blanc and J. Bruner, and "possible theory" represented by France. Possibility Theory" advocated by P. Vidal Blanche and J. Bruner of France, "Ecological Regulation Theory" advocated by H. H. Barrows of the United States, "Adaptation Theory" proposed by P. M. Rothbeck of the United Kingdom, and "Cultural Landscape Theory" advocated by C. O. Saul of the United States. The "Cultural Landscape Theory" advocated by C.O. Saul of the United States, as well as the "Regional Theory" represented by A. Hertner of Germany and R. Hartmann of the United States.

③This was a period of great division within geography. Humboldt laid the foundation for physical geography and phytogeography, and later F.von Richthofen of Germany and Madon of France made important contributions to the development of physical geography; W.M. Davis of the United States and W. Penck of Germany respectively founded the doctrine of erosion cycle and the theory of parallel regression of slopes, which marked the establishment of geomorphology; the "Handbook of Climatology" of J.F.von Hann of Austria, "Global Climate and Russian Climate" of A.I. Voyev of Russia and "The Climate of the World and Russian Climate" of A.I. Voev of Russia were the first to be published in the United States. Kov's Global Climate and Russian Climate and W.P. K?ppen's Classification of the World's Climate in Germany laid the foundation of climatology; A.R. Wallace's division of the world's fauna in Britain laid the foundation of zoogeography; V.V. Dokuchaev's doctrine of soil zonation in Russia laid the foundation of soil geography; Littell and F. Latscher in Germany established human geography; Latscher's theory of the national organism, H.J. Mackinder's land-centeredness in Britain, and I. Bowman's self-determination of peoples in the United States laid the foundation of political geography, and so on.

The end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century saw the establishment of a large number of geography departments in the universities of the developed countries of the West, so that geography began to become a professional field. With the further development of geography, there was a differentiation of the branches. after the independent development of meteorology, oceanography, soil science, etc., some geographers emphasized the direction of regions or landscapes, while other scholars pursued the humanistic movement, which made the humanistic branch of geography flourish. after the 1930's, geography gradually transitioned to the participation in the economy, and the applied geography in the West and the Soviet Union's construction Geography came into being.

Modern geography has made many achievements in the course of its development and has formed three traditions and three schools of thought: the ecological tradition and the environmental school, the descriptive tradition and the regional school, and the synthesizing tradition and the landscape school.

Modern geography has also achieved many significant results in its development. For example, the United States Murray in the mid-19th century put forward the first atmospheric circulation model, published the first book of modern oceanography, "Marine Physical Geography"; Russia, Dokuchayev in the late 19th century put forward the doctrine of soil zonation and the doctrine of natural zones; the United States Davis in the late 19th century, put forward the doctrine of erosion cycle; Germany, K?ppen from the beginning of the 20th century to the 30's, the proposed climatic classification and continental climate models The geopolitical theory of "land-centeredness" was introduced by British Mackinder in 1904 and 1919; British Herbertson completed the world's natural zones; German Kristaller put forward the doctrine of the center of the earth in the 1930s; and the Soviet Union Boudouko published the "heat balance of the earth's surface" in 1956, etc. From the 1960s to the present. From the 1960s to the present. Modern geography is a product of the modern scientific and technological revolution and develops with the progress of science and technology, which is marked by the birth of geographic quantitative methods, theoretical geography and the emergence of computerized map making and geographic information systems. Modern geography is characterized by:

①It started in the United States, which is the most economically and scientifically developed country nowadays, and firstly affected Britain and Northern Europe, and then spread to Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Japan, China and even the whole world. The representative figures and schools are: Washington University School headed by W.L. Garrison and E.L. Erdmann in the United States, Cambridge University School headed by R.J. Jolly and P. Haggett in the United Kingdom, and Lund University School headed by T. Hagstrom in Sweden.

② Emphasize the unity of geography. Modern geography period of departmental geography flourished, on the one hand, to promote the depth of the study of various branches of geography, on the other hand, but also ignored the unity of geography, weakening the characteristics of geography comprehensive, so that the departmental geography and then in-depth study of the encountered a great deal of difficulty. 60 years since the face of the global population explosion, resource crises, environmental pollution, urbanization, as well as a series of regional development, and so on a series of problems. These problems are not subjects that any sectoral geography can undertake alone. The development of geography itself and the needs of practice require it to strengthen integration and give full play to the inherent comprehensive features of geography.

③Theorizing and quantification. In order to strengthen the integrative features of geographic research and build a unified geography, it is necessary to explore the links and laws between various natural geographic phenomena and human geographic phenomena, as well as the general laws they follow, so theoretical geography came into being. From the 1950s onwards, the rise of comprehensive scientific methodology such as system theory, cybernetics and information theory, and the application of electronic computers and remote sensing technology led to the innovation of geography's research methodology, which combined fieldwork with the investigation and interpretation of aerial photographs and satellite photographs, and made the transition from simple type induction to theoretical deduction, from general experimentation and analysis to simulated experiments and analytical modelling, and from artificial mapping to automated mapping transition, so geography from qualitative to quantitative development, the emergence of geographic quantitative methods, geographic information systems and other research and application areas.

4 Behavioral and ecological. the emergence of behavioral science in the 1960s and its subsequent great development rippled through all aspects of society, economy, science, and culture, and also to geography. Different groups of people (e.g. decision makers, workers, consumers, etc.) have different senses of the phenomena on the earth's surface and adopt different behaviors, and it has become an important task of geography to study the laws of these senses and behaviors, so as to make geographic decision making and prediction more in line with the actual situation, thus making geographic research behavioral and giving rise to the study of sensory geography and behavioral geography. School of geography.

After British scholars put forward the concept of ecosystem and carried out research in the mid-30s, the research of physical geography gradually formed the trend of ecology. 60s after the introduction of system theory and other methodologies into geography, the study of natural ecosystems became a hotspot of physical geography research, which led to the formation of a new physical geography, as well as landscape ecology, disease ecology and other research areas. Later, ecological research entered the field of human geography, and research fields such as urban ecosystems, territorial economic systems, agricultural territorial structures, and cultural ecology (see cultural geography) emerged one after another. Unified geography also delves into the study of the links and transformations between natural and social ecosystems. (See history of geography.) Physical geography is the study of the characteristics and structure of the geographic environment and its territorial differentiation in terms of the laws of formation and evolution, and is one of the two basic disciplines of geography. Its object of study is the natural geography of the Earth's surface, including the troposphere of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the biosphere and the upper part of the lithosphere. The branches to which it belongs are divided into two groups according to the characteristics of the study:

One group is comprehensive, including comprehensive physical geography, paleogeography and so on.

One group is sectoral, including geomorphology, climatology, hydrography, soil geography, biogeography, but also includes the newly developed, and other natural disciplines combined with some of the fringe disciplines, such as chemical geography, medical geography, as well as special natural elements for the study of the object of study, such as glaciology, permafrost, etc..

Human geography is the study of the spatial structure and change of various social and economic activities of human beings on the surface of the earth, as well as the relationship with the geographic environment, is another of the two basic disciplines of geography. According to the object of study can be divided into social and cultural geography, economic geography, political geography, urban geography and other branches.

Social geography is human geography in the narrow sense, including ethnographic geography, population geography, settlement geography, social geography, cultural geography and so on.

Economic geography includes agricultural geography, industrial geography, commercial geography, transportation geography, and the newly formed tourism geography.

Political geography includes political geography in the narrow sense and military geography.

Urban geography part of urban settlement geography, under the social and cultural geography, after nearly 20 years of development, its research object and content has gone beyond the settlement and social and cultural scope, and become an independent branch of human geography.

Historical geography is the study of the natural geography and human geography environment and its changing law in the period of human history, which is a young sub-discipline of geography.

Regional geography is the study of the formation, structure, characteristics and evolution of the geographic environment of a certain region on the surface of the earth, as well as the discipline of the law of regional differentiation, which is an important part of geography. Modern regional geography emphasizes the unity of natural geography and human geography, focusing on the study of the regional synthesis and spatial connection of regional natural geographic elements and human geographic elements.

Cartography is the study of the theory, methods and techniques of preparing and applying maps, and it is a discipline that expresses the knowledge of the physical and human geography of a certain region in the form of maps in a comprehensive way. It is a technical discipline in geography, closely related to all branches of geography, and has always played an important role in promoting the development and practical application of geography.

Theoretical geography is the study of various types of geographic phenomena in the unity of the basis of the overall law of the discipline. Its research content mainly includes the theory of spatial structure, the theory of human-land relations and the theory of location.

Applied geography is the discipline of applying the theories, principles and methods of geography to solve practical social, economic and environmental problems. In fact, many sub-disciplines of geography have been developed for the purpose of application, such as medical geography and military geography. Since the solution and study of many major problems, such as desertification, environmental protection, land use, etc., cannot be performed by one discipline alone, geography, because it is a comprehensive transversal discipline, is particularly suitable for such applied research.

Others include quantitative geography, toponymy, and ethnography.

In short, geography in the 21st century will be an amphibious science of theory and application that is further integrated, ecological, and social on the basis of theorization and quantification. Overview of Geography, Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Dynamical Geomorphology, Tectonic Geomorphology, Climatic Geomorphology, Applied Geomorphology, Botanical Geography, Zoological Geography, Glaciology, Permafrost, Paleogeography, Hydrography, Soil Geography, Chemical Geography, Integrated Physical Geography, Human Geography, Economic Geography, Agricultural Geography, Industrial Geography, Commercial Geography, Transportation Geography, Tourism Geography, Population Geography, Ethnographic Geography, Settlement Geography, Rural Geography, Urban Geography, Social Geography, Cultural Geography, Historical Geography, Medical Geography, Political Geography, Military Geography, Cartography, Toponymy, Theoretical Geography, Regional Geography, Applied Geography, Disaster Geography

Basic sciences related to Physical Geography: Physics, Mathematics Geology and paleontology are particularly important.

Basic sciences related to human geography: economics, politics, history, and so on.