Explain the evolution of human geography …

The process of adaptation, adjustment with and modification of the environment started with the appearance of human beings over the Earth surface. The beginning of human geography, with the interaction of human beings with the environment and it has its roots deep in history. Thus, the concerns of human geography have a long temporal continuum though the approaches to articulate them have changed over time. Earlier there was little interaction between different societies and the knowledge about each other was limited. The late fifteenth century witnessed attempts of explorations in Europe and slowly the myths and mysteries about countries and people started to open up. The colonial period provided impetus to further explorations in order to access the resources of the regions and to obtain inventorised information. The two books; ‘the origin of species’ ( Charles Darwin) & ‘the history of civilization’ (Buckle) inspired the thoughts of human geography. The contributions of Aristotle, Buckle, Humboldt, & Karl Ritter gave new shape to geography. Ratzel & Semple linked geography with the study of interrelations between Humans & Nature. The Blache & Brunche identified & analysed the form & nature of Ecological system. Huntington emphasized the influence of climate on socio – organisation, culture & history of man. Thus Geography became a very popular subject in the schools by the end of 18th century, due to the reason that it helped in showing distant lands & people to prospective migrants, administrators & traders. And finally Geography emerged as the study of dynamics of man-environment relationships & its imprints on earth surface in the later half of 19th century.