Assignment

Impacts of Explorations and discoveries in Development of Geography

Man, throughout the history, has always been a wanderer, searcher and explorer. As early as 700
B.C., Phoenician and Carthaginian traders were seeking new lands in the Mediterranean and
beyond for their merchandise. About 470 B.C., Hanno, the Carthaginian, sailed with large fleet
as far as Sierra Leone, bringing back tales of gorillas and of a ‘land of fire’. (This was probably
an account of the grass fires lighted before the rains in many parts of Africa.)

In 330 B.C., the Greek, Pytheas, sailed around Britain and into the North Sea. The most

important exploration of this point was made by Alexander the Great in the years 330-323 B.C.,

when accompanied with experts to record details of countries through Persia to India, and like a
true explorer, returned by a different route.

In the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C., the Romans in order to expand their empire, penetrated up the

Nile, as far north as Baltic, and westward across Europe. Norsemen discovered Iceland in A.D.

867, then Greenland in A.D. 982, and finally by their reaching the mainland of North America
about four years later.

At about the same time, the Arabs were trading far afield in the Indian Ocean, ranging from

Spain to India, Malaysia, Indonesia and China and as far as Madagascar. Their greatest traveller

was Ibn- Battuta, who visited every Muslim country in a remarkable series of journeys that lasted

almost 30 years. Buddhist missionaries, passing to and fro from India to China across the desert

of Takla-Makan, had come across what came to be known as the Jade Route, along which for
centuries traders carried jade from the Himalayas to China in exchange of silk.

The explorations, discoveries, scientific inventions and scholarly works of the Arabs provided a

new and more realistic picture of the Arab world as also of other nations. Marco Polo’s

adventures in Central Asia and China opened up new vistas in geographical literature. The
Renaissance in Europe provided fresh impetus for widening the existing horizons.
A copy of Ptolemy’s Geography, which had been preserved in a library in Byzantium (Istanbul)

was discovered and brought to Italy where it was translated into Latin in 1406. After the

invention of printing in the 1450s, copies of this book, including reconstructed maps, were

printed in Bologna, Rome and Ulm, and made a great impact on contemporary scholars.

Moreover, there were definite improvements in the art of navigation including wide adoption of
magnetic compass.

Consequently, there was a concomitant renewal of interest in world exploration, mapping and

geographical description. In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemuler (1470-1521 A.D.)

produced map of the world that clearly indicated both North and South America. With these

devices, the navigators became more confident. Thus, the stage was set for the next step in the

search for the discovery of the unknown parts of the world. Incidentally, this was the period of
Muslim decadence.

The Arab Empire started disintegrating. Prince Henry, also known as ‘Henry the Navigator’,

defeated the Arabs at Ceuta and captured the Strait of Gibraltar. He established the first Institute

of Geography at Sargres near Cape St. Vincent. At this institute, he invited geographers,
cartographers, mathematicians, and astronomers belonging to all faiths.

As a result of the impetus given by Henry, many of the navigators offered themselves to explore

the western coast of Africa, and Cape Bojador and the Gulf of Guinea. In 1492, Christopher

Columbus reached the New World (America), and Vasco da Gama, through the Cape of Good

Hope, entered into the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic, and sailed with the Arabs to reach India
in 1498.

In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan was the first to reach Asia by sailing west. He was the first to

circumnavigate the world in 1520. From 1768 to 1778, Captain Cook sailed extensively in the
Indian and Pacific Oceans to locate the Terra-Incognita (unknown land) of Ptolemy. In his
venture, he discovered many new islands and the continent of Australia (Fig.5.1).

Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Cook and almost all the expeditionary leaders relied on

Ptolemy’s calculations about the latitudes and circumference of the earth, but some of their more

famous discoveries disproved Ptolemy’s calculations and changed the picture of the world he

had established. There were new developments in cartography—new projections, especially that

of Mercator (1569), were invented; the first globe of the world was made and new and accurate
maps of the world and countries were prepared.

Most of the cartographers of the 15th century lived either in Venice or Genoa because it was

from these two places that Europeans departed on voyages to the Eastern Mediterranean to pick

up cargoes of valuable items from the east. It was during this period that many of the erroneous

geographical concepts were eliminated. The coasts of the Pacific Ocean were determined and the

shape of the earth was finalized. Again, it was during this time that the fantastic stories of strange
creatures gradually gave way to sober and reliable accounts.

Up to the 15th century, most of the scholars took earth as the centre of the universe and tried to

study the universe with a geocentric approach. But, after the Great Age of Discovery, the

heliocentric idea got strengthened. The Polish scholar, Nicholus Copernicus, who, between 1497

and 1529, carried out numerous observations of the planets, moon and stars, established that all
the planets rotate round the sun. This is known as the heliocentric concept of the universe.

In 1618, Kepler proved that planetary motions were elliptical rather than circular. In 1623,

Galileo presented proof that Copernicus was right about the heliocentric universe. In 1686, Issac

Newton presented his laws of gravitation. These developments led to a scientific revolution and a

period of specialization started which gave birth to taxonomy of the branching of physical,
biological and social sciences. The printing machine was invented; consequently many books
describing explorations, voyages, discoveries and geography of the newly discovered lands were
published in Europe.

But in all the writings of this period, the earth was taken as the home of man in which the mode
of life of the people is closely influenced by the physical environment.

The works of Sebastian, Munster, Cluverius and Carpenter were highly appreciated as their
geographical writings gave a new dimension to the discipline.

The impact of explorations and discoveries was maximum on the art of map-making. For

example, in 1500 A.D., Juan de la Cosa drew a map using observations from the first three

voyages of Columbus and also from John Cobot’s voyage to North America. But the first world

map that shows America as a separate continent and not as the eastern part of Asia was drawn by

Martin Waldseemuller in 1507. He also made use of the name, America, for the first time, either

because he thought that Amerigo Vespucci had reached the new continent before Columbus or

because Amerigo was the first explorer definitely to identify the newly-discovered lands as a
separate continent.

As a result of this decision by Waldseemuller, the new continent was not named after the

European who first reported seeing it. Although this new map of the world prepared by
Waldseemuller was called ‘Carta-Marina’, it was in no way more useful for navigation than the

other maps of this period that were made on the Portolano principle of design. Explorers had

already found that when they followed straightlines on these maps for long voyages, they did not
arrive at expected destination.

In order to overcome the shortcomings of the earlier maps and to construct more useful maps for

navigators and explorers, Peter Aspian produced in 1530 a heart-shaped map. On this map also,
distance and directions were distorted. This problem was finally overcome by Gerardus Mercator

who designed the Mercator Projection. The improved form of Mercator Projection which was
designed in 1569 became a perfect solution of the problems of navigators and enabled them to
reach the desired destination by sailing the great circle (shortest) route.

In Mercator projection, the shape of the continents was, however, distorted and in the higher

latitudes it was highly exaggerated. For example, on this projection, Greenland is shown larger

than the size of the subcontinent of India. Moreover, Mercator did not explain the method used in

making this projection. It was in 1599 when Edward Wright produced trigonometric tables that
made it possible for other people to reproduce Mercator’s projection.

In the later parts of the 16th century, Amsterdam became a major centre for the publication of

atlases and wall maps, both of which became very popular, especially in the 17th century. Later

on, the printing of atlases and wall maps at different scales became quite popular in France and

England. In France, the first producer of atlases was Nicholas Sanson d’ Abbeville, who, in the

17th century, founded a ‘dynasty of cartographers’ which produced maps and atlases for over a
century.

The Great Age of Discovery, thus, brought about many changes in the world outline and

removed many erroneous concepts about the shape and size of the earth, about the dimensions of

the continents and countries and thus the subject of geography started growing on scientific lines.

Consequently, many new theories about the origin of the earth and continents and man-nature
relationship were advocated.

The discovery of classical cartography played a significant role in the European expansion of
political and economic power in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Few European explorers or scholars regarded themselves as geographers. They preferred the

term Cosmography (the descriptive science of the globe and its relation to the universe) which
was used in a number of treatises, often modelled on the works of Strabo and Ptolemy.
The Renaissance saw the revival of another branch of ancient geography, that of topographic

description. Account of voyages provided raw material for encyclopaedic works on the world, or

on parts of it, often called Chorographies. Thus, geography was defined either as cosmography,

the science of the globe, or it could be Chorography, the descriptive science of single regions.

Cosmography involved the description of the universe (cosmos) and included the modern

sciences of environment, biology, cartography, geography, geophysics, and anthropology.

Chorography (choros = place) described places in general and larger areas whereas topography
was concerned with particular places at a smaller scale.

Before an attempt is made to discuss the development of modern geographical concepts, it would

be of immense utility to describe briefly the explorations and discoveries made by Marco Polo,
Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Captain Cook.
Philosophies: Marxism

Marxism is the philosophy, social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx

(1818-1883), a 19th century German socialist philosopher. Marxism is centrally concerned with

the ways in which the production of space, place and landscape is implicated in the reproduction
of specific ‘social formations’. It developed against capitalism.16

The main concern of Marxism is uneven development, social justice and regional inequalities

because of division and exploitation of labor resources and environment, through surplus value.

Marxist geography insists on value-free inquiry. In other words, it gives less importance to social

values (a set of beliefs and ideas, e.g. religion, which inform our assessments of worthiness).

Marxist geography discloses “social processes which originate spatial appearance” and which in

turn “forms an input into the continuing social process”. It presumes that ‘space’ and ‘society’
interact.

The system of thought developed by Marx propounds that the state, through history, has been a

device for the exploitation of the masses by a dominant class and that class struggle has been the

main agent of historic change. In Marxist philosophy, economic classes and private property are

the main cause of historical change. These two factors determine the man and environment

relationship also. The Marxist geographers conceive that the territorial structures essentially

reflect the prevailing socio-spatial dialectics. Marxist geography analyzes the dialectical
relationships between social processes, natural environment and spatial relations.

The essence of Marxist philosophy is positivist approach, which puts emphasis on materialism.

Marx writes; It is not consciousness (ideas) that determines life, but life that determines ideas. It

is not the ideas that change the world, but the development of actual reality (space and place)

which changes the ideas. Marx believed that society develops in stages in accordance with the
development in the factors of production (materials and instruments of labor). In other words,
consciousness develops with productivity; increase in needs, and with increase in the number of

people. It emerges as a dynamic process because in transforming the bonds of our experience we

transform ourselves. It develops specially with the division of labor, particularly the division

between the ‘material’ and ‘mental’ labor. Hence, the key to the understanding of the structure of

social life and consciousness is the mode of production of the material basis of that life and

consciousness. A given society or a cultural landscape is organized based on several modes of

production.

According to Marx, the man and environment relationship or the man and space relationship

changes with the change in the mode, I production. For example, from the stage of nomads,

humanity turned to the stage of settled living, hunting, fruit gathering and sheep rearing gave

way to domestication of plants and animals. Then came the urban culture and a rich diversity of

vocations. For the first-time economic classes within human societies were recognizable distinct,

and the relationship between them formed the basis of their belief systems, social hierarchy,

codes of behavior, rules of punishment for crime and misconduct and institutionalized

arrangements for the same, worship, recreation, family obligations and ties, the apparatus of

ruling authority, etc. These constituted what is called the cultural landscape and the cultural
pattern of society.

The division of people into economic classes had the effect of initiating class struggle. Polarised

class interests could only set class against class. Thus, there was a class of employees, another of
employed. In familiar communist’ terminology, this would be called exploiters versus exploited.

Thus, according to the Marxism, the key interaction between man and nature is labor. Man is

confronted with a natural world that cannot be transcended (surpassed), and must be appropriated

(possessed) in order to survive. His mode of appropriation is labor. Marxism refuses to accept

that the scientific laws of society are eternal (which always existed and will always exist). This
view, here, contrasts sharply with the claim of positivists who assert that scientific laws are
universal and eternal in space and time. The essential difference between Positivism and

Marxism is that Positivism simply seeks to understand the world whereas Marxism seeks to
change it.