GEOG 110 Introduction Pt1

Course theme for the week: Introduction to geography.
Lecture focuses on the origins and development of geography as an academic discipline.
Discussion of the geography structure at UC and degree planning will occur at the end of tomorrow’s lecture.

Jessie Wicki, PhD in Geography (2019).
Research interests: historical geographies, border development, and health geography.
Interest in how borders and areas have developed over time.
Interested in the link between place and health outcomes.

Academic integrity course: Find the link on Learn dashboard or enroll via provided link.
Course reading material: Available on Learn under each week's section.
Quiz attempts: Only one attempt per quiz.

Geography is "earth writing," providing knowledge of places and the interaction between people and their environments.
Encompasses various forms of knowledge, including atlases, travel guides, maps, and oral representations.
Geography is a multidisciplinary subject, spanning both science and art.

Overall aim: Document and understand the nature of social and geographic life.
Focus on describing the form (nature of a place) and identifying the processes that have shaped it.
Fundamental questions:
- What on earth is going on?
- Where are we, and what is happening here?
- What has happened here previously?
- What's happening nearby?
- How is number two influenced by three and four?
These questions center on describing a place, comparing it to others, and documenting changes over time.

Key concepts in human geography: place, space, scale, networks, regions, territories, environment, culture, identity, and representation.

Divided into three phases:
- Premodern Era (600 BCE - 600 CE).
- Modern Era (Early, Modern, Late).
- Postmodern Era (1980s - Present).

Early civilizations approached geographic questions without a formal discipline.
Examples: Egypt (Nile River as the center), Middle East (oldest world maps), Indian Subcontinent (mythology intertwined), Asian Subcontinent (early geographic writings in China), Greeks (founders of geography), Romans (practical use of maps through military expeditions).
Key concepts: basic knowledge about the planet, qualitative accounts of regions, and development of rudimentary cartography.
Slow progression after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Religious rivalries and major trade routes (e.g., Silk Road) spurred geographic breakthroughs.
European migrants began exploring and spreading influence, leading to a dominant effect on documented history.

The West emerged as a dominant civilization and established geography as an academic subject through the European Enlightenment.

From the end of the Middle Ages to the mid-1800s.
Key aspects: the Age of Discovery and the Age of Reason (Enlightenment).
European discovery of unknown regions.
Accumulation of scientific knowledge.
Development of modern cartography.
First attempts to define geography as a distinctive science.
Geographers played a vital role in colonial planning, creating maps and qualitative accounts.
The Enlightenment: Emphasized reason over superstition and science over faith.
Focused on how the earth works and the creation of natural environments and cultures.
Sought scientific explanations for variations throughout the world.
The end of the Early Modern Period reached its height with the works of Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter, considered founding fathers of geography.

1870s to 1920s.
Geography became grounded as a university discipline.
Rise of environmental determinism.
Geography established itself as a university discipline, spreading from Europe to the rest of the world.
Centered on the idea that environmental influences shape human cultures.
Von Humboldt and Riese's call for an integrated discipline was widely accepted.
Environmental determinism: The environment was viewed as a determinant of uneven development in cultures or societies.
Developed by Friedrich Ratzel and Alan Churchill Semple.
The theory was that the environment posed limitations on what people could do in those areas.
Widely accepted until the 1920s when technologies developed and people moved around the world, challenging the idea.