Classical period of modern geography: Contribution of Humboldt

There has been a changing thrust in the nature of Geography throughout its history. Since the term 'Geography' means, and has meant, different things to different people in different times and places, there is no agreed upon consensus on what constitutes the nature and scope of geography. 

Prior to the period of Varenius and Kant geography was largely descriptive in character. Vernier divided Geography into general and particular or special but both were descriptive in nature. This tradition shifted towards scientific enquiry in geography in the classical period of modern Geography by Humboldt and Ritter. The geography which Humboldt and Ritter demonstrated was defined as "classical" by Richard Hartshorn because it dominated the foundation period of the subject and because its methods are uniform and simple. Both of them believed that science must be founded on the objective descriptions of observed facts rather than on logical propositions as proposed by Kant and others. 

Humboldt and New scientific geography

Alexander Von Humboldt was a traveller and scholar of great versatility. His contribution in geography laid the foundation of modern geography. 

1. Collection of information through travelling and observation

• He travelled about 4000 miles and made multitudinous observations. He had an exceptional quality of sharp observation and travelled extensively in Europe, Asia and America. He travelled to Germany, Northern France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Central and Southern England. He was the first geographer who observed rocks, mountains, hills, rivers, climates, and developed empirical knowledge. 

• He travelled the Mediterranean region from  where he visited Caribbean islands, Mexico, South America. In South America he discovered the Orinoco river as a tributary of Amazon. He observed lake Valencia and attributed the shrinking of the lake to deforestation. 

• He studied society and people of Cuba and discovered the influence of altitude and temperature on vegetation and crops. He divided the Andes into several vertical zones. 

• During his journey in Alps, Astria, Switzerland and Italy he observed Rock characteristics, its magnetic declination and scientific description of landscape. 

• He climbed Chimborazo mountain and observed the influence of altitude on the human body like dizziness, which he attributed to lowering of atmospheric pressure. 

• During his visit to Siberia he observed frozen land and coined the term ‘Permafrost’. 

3. Developing new disciplines

• He developed climatology.
• He contributed appreciably to the fields of geology, botany, zoology, physics, chemistry, anatomy, psychology, history, climatology, geomorphology and to all other branches of geography. 

4. Approaches to study geography

• He observed man- nature interaction where he included man and his work but did not give a dominant role to man. He included human activities like towns, cities, villages, fields, crops as landscape. 
• He understood the importance of real world observation and precise measurements for making geography a scientific base. 

• His approach was inductive. He believed in the close observation of natural and human phenomena to understand the relationships and synthesise those informations to reach a conclusion. 

• He considered geography as a systematic discipline and also tried to develop universal laws and theories in the field of physical geography. On his return from the expedition of South America he established the science of physical geography.

• He saw nature as a whole and man is part of it. He believed that all the races of men had a common origin and that no races necessarily inferior to the others. 

• His geography was both systematic and regional.

• Systematic science (Discussion of different topics in different sub-disciplines in a systematic way.)

• Historical science (Description and an analysis of history and ethnography.)

• Earth  science (Description and analysis of the Earth related natural and human phenomena.)

5. Use of instruments for collecting precise measurements of natural environment

He carried with all of his journeys many instruments: a telescope, sextants, cyanometer and barometers and took precise measurements of temperature, air pressure, winds, latitudes longitudes, elevation, magnetic vibrations, nature of rocks, type of plans and their relations to climate, altitude and human attitude. 

6. Place of geography as earth science in the domain of knowledge

Like, Kant Hhumboldt, divided geographical knowledge in the following classes:

He discussed geography in a holistic manner. According to him, Earth is an organic whole where every part of it is related to the other part. His description of earth and space (cosmography) is divided in two branches:

a. Uranography (Discussion of the celestial bodies and solar system.)

b. Geography (Description of the earth surface.) 

7.Field study and data analysis

Humboldt focused on field study and collection of information directly from the field. He analysed all the collected information and.Mapped that information. He focused on aerial analysis. According to him, different geographic phenomena create a unity in a particular geographical area. Stepps, Savana, Prairie all are separate geographic regions with distinctive characteristics. 

6. Cosmos

In 1845 Humboldt published his monumental work ‘Cosmos’ which is a comprehensive account of the troubles and expeditions made by him and written with four volumes. 

• In the first volume there is a general presentation of the whole picture of the universe. 

• Second volume starts with a discussion of the portrayal of nature through the ages by landscape painters, and then continues with a history of man's effort to discover and describe the Earth since the time of ancient Egyptians.

• The third volume deals with the laws of celestial space, which we would call astronomy. 

• Fourth volume concerns Earth in which Humboldt considered man as a part of the Earth.