8 Evolution of Geographical Thinking and Disciplinary Trends in Britain

Dr. Janki Jiwan

   Component II – e-Text

I. Introduction

The modern geographical thought in Britain had been evolving since the establishment Royal Geographical Society in 1830.Before this period, geography was taught only at the school level in Britain. Some early geographers like Mary Somerville’s Physical Geography (1848) and Francis Galton’s Weather Map (1861) had initial impacts on geographical studies but it was Royal Geographical Society which led the beginning of geography as a distinct subject by making its efforts in academic activities like collection of books, journals, maps. The society worked on various geographical research methods and prepared research guidelines for young academicians and researchers. Further, this society also used to organize seminars which were usually attended by geographers from different countries like Germany and France. These geographers attending seminars and symposiums shared their views, assessments, and geographical knowledge with emerging British scholars. In this background, some young and enthusiastic British scholars developed their interest in geography and helped in introducing geography at the university level in the country. In Addition, with the help of Royal Geographical Society, many professor and reader posts created at several universities and a separate department of geography was established at Oxford University, where Halford John Mackinder was appointed as a reader later he became a professor at this place. Therefore, it was Mackinder who formally started British geographical thought at School of Geography in Oxford University in 1887. A number of geographers Halford JohnHerbertson, L.W.Lyde, C. B. Fawcett, George Goudie Chisholm, Percy M.Roxby, Sidney William Wooldridge, Herbert JohnFleure and L. Dudley Stamp were predominant who join this geographical movement led by Mackinder. These geographers worked on various facets of geography and enriched it as a distinctive and scientific branch of knowledge in Britain.

II.  British Geographers and their Significant Contributions A. Halford John Mackinder(1861 – 1947)

    He is known as the founder of the British School of Geography at Oxford University. He viewed that geography as a subject aimed at bridging the natural sciences and humanities and taking a variety of interaction between man and society in their environment as a core of study. He accepted the Ratzel’s view and pointed out anthropogeographers are real geographers and real geographer are adventurers. Therefore, Training is imperative for becoming a geography. Following his view, he adventured Eastern Africa and climbed Mount. Kanya. His writings on geopolitics got an international reputation because of his thinking was governed by visualization of the world map and its regional complexes, which have been formed by numerous changing combinations of varied physical and human elements on the Earth surface.In1902, he developed his interest in historical geography and wrote a book entitled British and the British Seas’ containing his geographical views and theories, analysis of the British history and regional interpretation of Britain and its seas. Later he became very popular by his research article entitled ‘Geographical Pivot of History’. In 1904, he formulated the concept of the Geographical Pivot of History which is also known as the ‘Heartland Theory of Mackinder’. This theory has certain propositions on balancing the powers.

1. The Heartland theory and its Geopolitical schemes

Mackinder pointed out that after the age of exploration, the oceanic power has weakened because most of the coastal areas are strategically accessible and vulnerable. In fact, the actual power lies in the pivot area (Russia). This landlocked pivot area (heartland) was potentially powerful because of its inaccessible to oceanic powers, its strategic position, development of transcontinental communication like railways and telecommunications etc. The pivot area is encircled by inner crescent (marginal continental states) and outer crescent (overseas powers like Britain, USA, and Japan). He considered Russia was the pivot area, which geo-strategically important in the world. Moreover, if Germany makes ties with it, the pivot areas can have developed its oceanic fleets as well. In this scenario, overseas powers like France, Italy, India, and Korea have to be united to contain growing power of the pivot allies. He further elaborated this Heartland theory in his next book entitled ‘Democratic Ideas and Reality’ published in 1919. In the first world war, as Germany tried to dominate on Russian heartland and Allies navies were stopped to enter in the Baltic and Black seas. Such event popularized Mackinder’s Heartland theory. Mackinder further reviewed and included the eastern Europe in the heartland and proposed the concept of the World Island (Asia and Europe and Africa).

Figure: 1 Mackinder’s World Island

Source: H. J. Mackinder (1904) Geographical Pivot of History

He warned of the danger of the heartland falling under the control of the Soviet Union hence Russia would have the ability to strike on peripheral lands of ‘World Island’ from its all directions.He summarized his view of global strategy in the famous lines:

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules Heartland commands the World Island; Who rules the World Island commands the World.

He repeated the same view in 1943 (a few years before his death during the Second World War). The theory of heartland was criticized because of the rising importance of air power, satellite technologies, missiles, and importance of Arctic region because of it is encircled by all superpowers like USA, Russia, Northern Europe, Northern China, Japan etc. Nevertheless, Mackinder laid the foundation of Geo-strategic theories which inspired various geographers across the world to study geo-strategic and political geography.

B.  Huge Robert Mill (1861 –1950)

He was influenced by Darwinian environmentalism and Otto Schluter’s morphological approach. His concept of physiography also included the geography of man. His view was similar to the Richthofen system of spatially distributed phenomena overlaid as a pyramid, where is base contains the physical structure and on the top, human’s socio-economic features. Further, his interest was to study water as an element which sustains all forms of life and provide an inexhaustible source of energy.He wrote a book ‘Realm of Nature’ aiming at studying water published in 1891. Later he prepared rainfall maps on the basis of fifty years of average rainfall data and also prepared land use maps for Britain.

C. Sir Patrick Geddes (1854 –1932)

He was a Scottish geographer who was inspired by Vidal de La Blache and Le Play’s research on family lifestyles and family budgets. As per his view, family life depends upon on family lifestyle and family budgets. He transformed Le Play’s formula place, work, family into place, work, folk as the basic concepts in the study of cities and regions.

D. Andrew J. Herbertson (1865-1915)

After Mackinder, he became the professor at Oxford University. Geddes had immense impacts on his study of regionalization. While working with Geddes at Oxford, he presented a scheme for a division of the world into 15 natural regions on the basis of homogeneity in surface features, climate, and vegetation.As per his view, there is an interaction between inorganic and organic components in natural regions. He further pointed out that all natural regions are, in facts, physical regions. Each region represents a unique imprint of man-environment relationship.

E.  H. J. Fleure (1877-1968)

He was a professor at Manchester. He viewed that human problems must be understood not only through space but also time and types, which has been well explained in his book entitled ‘Corridor of Time’.He wanted to elucidate regional personality through city structures, its social institutions, and functions. He authored another book named ‘Human Geography in WesternEurope’analyzing mainly the human regions. As per his view, the only environment does not influence the region, hence human’s influences are equally important.

 F.   P. M.Roxby(1880-1947)

He elaborated contents and methods of regional studies. According to his view, first of all, regional study required a demarcation of the natural regions basis of geology, drainage, coastline, climate, vegetation with reference to man-environment relationships.He proposed a concept of human region and pointed out that differential spatial relations account for the difference between two human regions within a natural region. He viewed that man must adjust with changing natural region and its environment.

G. S. W. Woolridge (1900-1963)

He was a professor at Kings College. He in association with Morgan wrote a book on geomorphology. According to him, physical geography is the platform for human life and human activities. In order to express his views on geographical contents and methods, he authored a book entitled ‘Geographers as scientists’ in 1956. His book named ‘Spirit and Purpose of Geography’ became popular amongst students and academicians.

H. L. D. Stamps (1898-1967)

He worked as an academician and professor at universities like Rangoon, London, and was awarded honorary doctorates from various universities viz., Clark, Edinburg, Stockholm, and Warsaw etc. he authored thirty books namely the ‘Geography of life and Death’, ‘Handbook of Commercial Geography’, ‘The land of Britain: Use and misuse,’‘Our Developing world, Asia: A Regional and Economic Geography’, ‘Land for Tomorrow: The Underdeveloped World’ etc. Stamps’ most significant work was county level survey on land use in Britain. His emphasis was on the use of geographical knowledge for human development and their prosperity. Being a president of International Geographical Union (IGU), he had always been active in enriching contents and scientific methods in geographical studies.

I. Richard J. Chorley(1927 –2002)

He and his companion Peter Haggett worked on the application of statistical techniques and mathematical methods in geographical analysis. Besides Chorley contributed to physical geography, especially Geomorphology and climatology. Chorley along with Peter Haggett had written a number of books like ‘Frontiers in Geographical Teaching’(1975), ‘Models in Geography’ (1967), ‘Socio-economic Models in Geography’ (1968), ‘Physical and Information Models in Geography’, (1969), ‘Integrated Models in Geography’ (1969). These books highlighted various new methods and techniques used in the geographical analysis, which inspired many young geographers to do more research on these applications.

J. Peter Haggett (1933)

He along with Richard J. Chorley wrote several books on the application of statistical and mathematical techniques in geography. Besides individually authored books namely ‘LocationalAnalysis in Human Geography’ (1965), ‘Geography: A Modern Synthesis’ (1975) which mainly encompassed the scope of geography and its analytical methods and techniques along with numerous maps, diagrams, photographs.

III. Disciplinary Trends (Branches)

Above-cited geographers have contributed to the evolution of various disciplines (Branches) like Economic Geography, Agricultural Geography, Human, and Settlement Geography in Britain, which are being detailed as follows:

A. Economic Geography

Economic geography as a discipline has been very popular in Britain during the inter-war period. British geographers emphasized the studies of economic activities and factors (especially natural factors) determining their location. Oneofpredominantgeographers was Buchanan who examined the physical factors affecting the location of industries and areal pattern of crops. Besides, William Smith was another geographer who authored a book entitled the‘Economic Geography of Britain’ aiming at a systematic study of the regional variants in economic productivity in the country. This book in its entirety focused economic data analysis with the ecological approach. In addition, George Goudie Chisholm authored a book namely ‘Handbook of Commercial Geography in 1889’. After Chisholm, Robert Mill wrote ‘General Geography’ containing detail accounts of polar explorers. Later he proposed a plan for land use in Britain, which inspired L. D. Stamp to prepare a well accepted the land use map of Britain. In addition, Herbertson’s framework dividing the world into15 natural regions was of great importance for the study of world regional and economic geography.

B.  Regional Studies

   Evolution of regional studies and trends in Britain was significantly influenced by the concept of ‘landscape’ from Germany and ‘Pays’ from France. For example, British scholar Patrick Geddes focussed on field study and regional survey for demarcating regions and regional planning. Another British geography was Andrew J. Herbertson (1865-1915) who combined Geddesian tradition of regionalization and Darwinian heritage of deterministic approach in his study of natural regions. As discussed earlier he pointed out that natural regions in the world must be demarcated on the basis of an association of surface features, climate, and vegetation. Besides, Marian I. Newbigin wrote a book on regional studies. She was also influenced by French traditions, which is reflected in his book entitled ‘Man and her Conquest of Nature’. In addition, H. Fleure offered a regional classification of the world based on problems and difficulties faced by man in achieving its basic needs on the earth surface like nutrition, reproductions, well-being. On this basis, he divided the world into seven regions. One more regional geographer was John F. Unstead who gave the equal weight of human and environment in dividing the world into various regions.

C. Agricultural Geography

The British geographers had given a special focus on Agricultural Geography, especially land use survey and its planning and during early decades of the 20th century.The first world war necessitated land use planning and crop expansion in Britain. In this background, L. D. Stamp prepared very valuable maps of land use for the country which later became the basis for the reconstruction of Britain after second world war.

D. Historical Geography

In Britain, Mackinder laid the foundation of Historical Geography. He viewed that Historical Geography as a significant discipline which rebuilds past geographies and shows how an orderly change in the past has led the process of development of present geographical features. He opposed geography to be merely a description of contemporary features. In his view, historical geography help scholars to study changing man and environment relationship and learn from these changes in the past and predict the future and plan accordingly. Besides, geographers, H.C. Darby used positivist approach in Historical Geography while W. Kirk and Brookfield’s Historical Geography had humanist orientation. According to their view perceived world is more important than real world (as recorded in the documents). Therefore, real history is a history of changing the perception of people about geographical phenomen over the period of time. Besides, E.G.R. Taylor and E.W. Gilbert contributed significantly in Historical Geography in Britain.

E. Settlement Geography

Few British scholars studied and authored books on this branch of geography, especially during the inter-war period. However, scholars Fleure and his followers authored his studies on the rural settlement but the spatial structure of city received little attention.

IV. Current Trends in British Geography

In the last forty years, the British scholars have contributed immensely in changing philosophy, approaches, and scope of geographical studies. The key change is noticed in quantitative revolution and their geographical applications.In fact, during this period, geography was recognized as a spatial science. Scholars like Peter Haggett and Richard Chorley’s contributions were significant. Both applied various statistical and mathematical techniques, and articulated models and theories in this subject, especially inhuman and social geography. Therefore, geographers in Britain emphasized on quantification of the subject matters by using multivariate analysis and various statistical tools to describe patterns and formulate geographical hypotheses and testing them. Scholars, especially Haggett and Chorley’s books elucidate geographical models and its use in spatial and locational analysis. Some of the important works of these authors are ‘Human Geography’, ‘Locational Analysis in Human Geography’ and ‘Frontiers in Geographical Teaching’.

With these quantitative approaches, British Geographer has been making enormous efforts to solve current social and economic problems in Britain and the world. As of now, countries across the world including Britain face a number of problems like inter-regional and intra-regional inequalities, environmental degradation, ecological crisis and inefficient public welfare system dealing with social amenities and medical facilities. British geographers analyze problems in detail and finding solutions for them. Moreover, the British Geographers also use new concepts positivism, pragmatism, existentialism, idealism, realism, environmental causation, radicalism and dialectical materialism in analyzing geographical phenomena on the earth surface. Geographers also used various thoughts to analyze and solve these above-cited problems.Some believed on positivism. As per positivism, as natural sciences discovered the laws of nature, hence scientific inquiries of communities would discover the laws of society. Positivism avoids normative questions and believes. Some geographers focused on pragmatism to solve social problems. Although the concept was borrowed from the United States, British geographers accepted this concept to understand and solve practical problems. One more concept was realism that found a wide space in the British geographical literature. Now realism is explained in opposition to idealism. British geographers have, recently, concentrated on behaviourism and humanism as philosophical themes for studying human geography. These philosophies and thoughts helped the British geographers to enrich the contents and methods of various disciplines (branches of this subject) like physical, regional, historical, economic, transport, agricultural and political geography.

References

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• H. C. Darby (1983), ‘Academic Geography in Britain: 1918-1946’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 8 (N.S.), 14-26.
• H. J. Mackinder (1904) Geographical Pivot of History, The Geographical Journal, Vol- 23, No-4, 421-437 available at http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/eBooks/Articles/1904%20HEARTLAND%20THEORY %20HALFORD%20MACKINDER.pdf.
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