Harm de Blij’s Why Geography Matters: More Than Ever explains the necessity of geographic knowledge in today’s society and the need to further expand interactions within the United States and other countries. This novel expands on the economic, cultural, physical, and political geography of our nation. De Blij outlines on the importance of geographic thought by focusing on climate change, terrorism, the rise of states, and development in Africa.. I believe that while geography has proven to make a noticeable difference in the knowledge of our vast world, it will require an extensive amount of effort in order to make geography known.
Chapter Review (pg. 6-29) A: Human migration across the globe was the complete spread of the human species over much of the earth’s surface. The species began in eastern Africa; most types of humans come from this region, in the present day countries of Tazmania, Kenya, and Uganda. Main discoveries, especially fire and the use of animal skins for clothing-both of which allowed people to live in colder climates-facilitated the spread of Paleolithic groups. The first people moved out of Africa about 750,000 years ago.
When they did this, adapted plant species were made. Indians caught fish in the flooded grasslands. When they modified the forest, they created fields to grow food, roads to travel on, houses to live in, and towns for needed goods. Earlier than Columbus, the Western Hemisphere was inhabited with amazing cities and towns. Numerous caves in the mountains were sprayed
In Chapter 1 from our text, it was mentioned that physical geography
Ancient civilizations all developed near a source of water, where producing crops was not a concern. Since people did not need to move place to place for food, they could settle down and form civilizations. Geography was a major reason the ancient civilizations and the people living there
The land is beautiful In all regions the temperatures, people, landforms, cultures are all different but they all feel the same. This world is a marvelous place it is different than all of the other planets in the world and it is the most unique. The geography and environment influenced the cultural development of the indigenous people in the three different regions California, Eastern Woodlands, and the Great Plains.
Growing up, I have always had an interest in geography and thinking about different countries and what makes them the way that they are. I have not been in a geography class since middle school and Human Geography was a class that made me think about things I have never thought of before. The readings of both Kropotkin and Mackinder brought up very interesting points, some that conflict and others that agree. Each author writes in a way that stimulates and makes you think about geography and certain topics in different ways which I find to be very rare in writings from this time period. Discussing Kropotkin’s and Mackinder’s general ideas, points they disagree or agree on, and my own views on the topic will all be discussed in this final paper.
In Ancient Greece, they had some dilemmas with the mountains, land, and seas. In Aksum, they profited from the sea, location, land, and resources. Geography proves itself over and over again that it is the mother of history throughout different time periods. Geography still and will continue impacting our lives because where a person lives can determine their future. Recently, people who live in California have been in danger because of all the wildfires.
In the essay, “A Literature of Place”, by Barry Lopez focuses on the topic of human relationships with nature. He believes human imagination is shaped by the architectures it encounters within life. Lopez first starts his essay with the statement that geography is a shaping force for humans. This shaping force is what creates our imagination; the shaping force is found within nature. Everything humans see within nature is remembered, thus creating new ideas and thoughts for our imagination.
Human geography has a wide variety of different factors, one of those many is political geography. Political geography is mainly focused and influenced by political affairs and human territoriality. With this there are different factors that were created within political geography such as, nation, nation-state, multinational state and united-nations. There are factors of our globe which are shaped by imperialism and colonialism. All these make up our world all in different places.
“Our ancestors travel with us all the time” shows the importance of the land as a physical being to preserve the culture and tradition with the ancestral beings. Separation from kinship groups
Geography can have many major effects on the historical development of empires, nations, and people. Two river valley civilizations that were greatly affected by geography were Egypt and Mesopotamia. Geography had a large part in shaping the civilizations in both Egyptian and Mesopotamian river valleys. Geography had a large part in shaping the civilization in the Egyptian river valley. For example, the Nile River provided fertile soil and a good living environment, which could not be found anywhere else in the desert.
During the Great Ice Age about 20,000 years ago, humans arrived on North America through the Bering Strait Land Bridge that connected Alaska to the eastern-most tip of Siberia. The humans spread out and populated the land from Canada to Cape Horn on the southern tip of South America. Thousands of diverse tribes and cultures developed from the ancestor migrants. All of the tribes started out as hunter-gatherer nomadic clans, but agriculture took the continents by storm at c. 5000BCE, and maize drastically increased the population and allowed the tribes to settle down and
Every civilization throughout history has their ups and downs. What if these ups and downs could all be connected back to one main factor, to one influence? Throughout history, it can be noticed that the location of a civilization affects the shape of its culture, economy, trade, and security of its borders. It defines which societies rise to power and which lose power. Geography influences history in many ways, as can be seen in the Indus Valley, Greece, and Aksum civilizations.
Many people think that geography solely deals with societal boundaries and human interactions. Some of these people might denounce geography to a social science, separating this field from the hard sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology. To fully understand the scientific credibility of geographers, it is important to note that while some geographical studies focus on human elements, many other geographical studies explore the natural world through the use of questions, observations, and experiments; otherwise known as the scientific method. In the 1930s Alexander McAide wrote, “Our school geographies fifty years ago began to describe customs and manners… and so brought in the human factor. We may define geography today as ‘all that pertains to human environment.’”
