HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY

1) Considered the father of modern geography 2) Greek scholar and the head librarian in Alexandria 3) First to accurately calculate the circumference of the earth 4) Created the name: Geo = “earth” + Graphy = “write”

1) Greek philosopher who studied natural processes 2) First to determine the earth is spherical

1) Roman geographer- astronomer 2) Compiled the first book of maps with a global grid system

First to produce a world map of six of the seven continents that was generally accurate

Created the environmental determinism theory (physical environment determines human social development)

Created the continental drift theory that is the basis for understanding plate tectonics

His book, Man and Nature (1864), was first scientific study concerning the negative human impact on the environment using the Fertile Crescent as a model

1) Geographer from UC-Berkeley who created the formal study of human-environment relations (cultural ecology) in the 1920s 2) Defined the concept of cultural landscape (“the forms superimposed on the physical landscape by the activities of man”), which results from the interaction between humans and the physical environment 3) Sauer argued that virtually no landscape has escaped alteration by human activities

Divided geography into four specific disciplines in 1964

 Intellectual legacy: Aristotle  Modern geographer: Immanuel Kant “Descriptions according to time comprise history; descriptions according to place comprise geography”

 Intellectual legacy: Hippocrates “Places affect the health and character of man”  Modern geographers: von Humboldt and Ritter

 Intellectual legacy: Ptolemy (also father of geometry)  Modern geographer: Alfred Wegener

 Intellectual legacy: Strabo (Roman investigator who wrote a report called Geography describing the characteristics of the regions of the Roman Empire)  Modern geographer: Carl Sauer