Relate the expansion of the discipline of geography before 1900 to social, technological, and ideological change

The first 200 words of this essay...

Relate the expansion of the discipline of geography before 1900 to social, technological, and ideological change

"GEOGRAPHY The discipline has many interpretations, which might best be understood if they are taken chronologically...It would take considerable temerity to find a unifying definition throughout the twists and turns that the discipline has taken" (Mayhew 1997,191)

The above quote is taken from a dictionary of geography and shows how 'geography' is almost indefinable as a word, concept or subject. More interestingly it shows that the difficulty in defining it lies in its varied history.

Since 1900 geography has made relatively little change compared to its formation and transformation in previous centuries. Having said this the period 1880-1950 did see some important adjustments, with the influences of Darwinism, Environmental Determinism, Possibilism and Social Anarchism. Today it is a popular taught and valued subject and a key component of the UK's (and much of European countries') National Curriculum. Geography has come to be the theoretical study of the world and it's populations and how they work and interact, and the application of data to test and process these theories, in order to manage and sustain the world.

Geographic history