1. Human Geography
A Brief History

2. Classical Period Two traditions Literary Mathematical
To describe and catalogue the Earth
Mathematical
To determine the exact shape and size of the Earth
To accurately map the Earth

3. Herodotus 484-425 BC Known as “Father or History”
And “Father or Lies”
Traveled much of ancient work
Wrote accounts of places and cultures
The Histories

5. Eratosthenes 273-192 BC Father of Geography
First to use term
Geographica
Calculated circumference of the Earth
Produced map of “Known World”

7. Other Important Greeks
Hipparchus
Designed system of latitude and longitude
Ptolemy
Created first index of locations using grid
Strabo
Created first Encyclopedia

8. al Idrisi 1099-1166 AD Court geographer to King of Sicily Geographia
In Middle Ages, most scientific knowledge kept and advanced by Islamic scholars
Geographia
Maps used by many later explorers

9. Mercator 1512-1594 AD Born Gheert Cremer in Flanders Cartographer
Cointed the usage of “atlas” for map collection
Map projection is still predominant

11. Bernhardus Varenius 1622-1650 AD
German
First to really write about Geography as an academic field
Universal geography
Whole Earth
Special or Particular Geography
Regions

12. Alexander von Humboldt 1769-1859 AD
Naturalist
Traveled extensively
Scientific descriptions
Cosmos
Focused on humanity’s interaction with nature
First to include humans as part of natural world

13. Carl Ritter 1779-1859 AD Organic view of geography Universal laws
“The earth is a cosmic individual with a particular organisation…the exploration of this individuality of the earth is the task of geography”
Universal laws
Anatomy of the Earth

14. Ellen Churchill Semple 1863-1932 AD
University of Chicago
Studied in Germany
Friedrich Ratzel
Environmental Determinism
Culture determined by environment

15. Carl Sauer 1889-1975 AD Rejected “environmental determinism”
Landscape school
Interaction of humans with the physical world
possibilism