Introduction.

1. History of geography in the Ancient World.

2. Development physical geography In the Middle Age.

3. Scientific expeditions and theoretical discoveries of the 19th - 20th centuries.

List of used literature.

Introduction

Geography: (Greek γεωγραφία, land description, from γεια - Earth and γραφειν - write, describe) - single complex sciences that study the geographical envelope of the Earth and focus on identifying spatiotemporal patterns. The main objects of study of geographical sciences are the geosphere (biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and soil cover) and geosystems, a body of knowledge about the spatio-temporal features of any territory, object, phenomenon or process (geography of continents and oceans, geography of Russia, geography of the tundra, geography of the spread of bird flu, geography of karst processes in the N region)

The object of study of geography is the laws and patterns of placement and interaction of components of the geographical environment and their combinations at different levels. The complexity of the object of study and the breadth of the subject area determined the differentiation of unified geography into a number of specialized (industry) scientific disciplines that form the system of geographical sciences. Within its framework, natural (physical-geographical) and social (socio-economic) geographical sciences are distinguished. Sometimes geographic cartography is distinguished separately as a separate geographical discipline.

Geography is one of the most ancient sciences. Many of its foundations were laid in the Hellenic era. This experience was summarized by the outstanding geographer Claudius Ptolemy in the 1st century AD. e. Rise of the Western geographical tradition falls on the Renaissance, which is marked by a rethinking of the achievements of the late Hellenistic era and significant achievements in cartography, which are usually associated with the name of Gerhard Mercator. The foundations of modern academic geography in the 1st half of the 19th century were laid by Alexander Humboldt and Karl Ritter.

1. History of geography in the ancient world

The beginnings of geographical knowledge appeared in primitive people, whose very existence depended on the ability to navigate in space and find natural shelters, sources of water, places for hunting, stones for tools, etc. Primitive man was distinguished by keen observation and even the ability to make drawings of the area on skins, birch bark, and wood - prototypes of geographical maps. The primitive map as a way of transmitting geographic information apparently arose long before the emergence of writing. Already at the most early stages of his economic activity, primitive man entered into complex interactions with the natural environment. Archaeological research in last years showed that already at the end of the Paleolithic (ancient Stone Age) man destroyed the bulk of large mammals within temperate zone northern hemisphere, thereby causing a kind of “first ecological crisis” in the history of our planet, and was forced to move from gathering and hunting to agriculture.

The first written documents were left to us by the agricultural peoples of the Ancient East: Egypt, Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylon), Northern India and China (IV-II millennium BC). These peoples developed the rudiments of scientific knowledge in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and mechanics, which were then used to solve problems of a geographical nature. Thus, in Egypt, during the era of the Old Kingdom (before 2500 BC), land surveying was carried out, and land Registry(mainly to determine the amount of taxes). In order to determine the timing of various agricultural works, regular astronomical observations began to be carried out. The Egyptians quite accurately determined the length of the year and introduced a solar calendar. The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians knew sundial. Egyptian and Babylonian priests, as well as Chinese astronomers, established patterns of repetition solar eclipses and learned to predict them. From Mesopotamia the ecliptic is divided into 12 zodiac signs, the year into 12 months, the day into 24 hours, the circle into 360 degrees; The concept of “lunar week” was also introduced there. Modern numeric numbering originates from India.

The ideas of the peoples of the Ancient East about nature, although they were based on real practical experience, in theoretical terms retained a mythological character. Back in the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians created myths about the creation of the world, the flood and paradise, which turned out to be extremely tenacious and were reflected in many religions. Astronomical observations at that time did not lead to correct views on the structure of the Universe. But the belief in the direct influence of heavenly bodies on the destinies of people led to the emergence of astrology (it was especially popular in Babylonia).

Ideas about the Earth were based on direct perception of the surrounding world. Thus, the ancient Egyptians saw the Earth as a flat, elongated rectangle, surrounded on all sides by mountains. According to Babylonian myth, the god Marduk created the Earth among a primarily continuous ocean. In a similar, albeit more poetic form, the origin of the Earth is depicted in the sacred books of the Indian Brahmins - the Vedas: The Earth arose from water and is like a blooming lotus flower, one of the petals of which is India.

Among geographical ideas ancient world inherited by modern geography, the views of ancient scientists are of particular importance. Ancient (Greco-Roman) geography reached its peak in Ancient Greece and Rome in the period from the 12th century. BC. to 146 AD

In Ancient Greece around 500 BC. The idea of ​​the spherical shape of the Earth was first expressed (Parmenides). Aristotle (IV century BC) provided the first reliable evidence in favor of this idea: the round shape of the earth's shadow during lunar eclipses and the change in the appearance of the starry sky when moving from north to south. Around 165 BC The Greek scientist Crates from Malla made the first model of the globe - a globe. Aristarchus of Samos (III century BC) was the first to approximately determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun. He was the first to teach that the Earth moves around the Sun and around its axis (heliocentric model of the cosmos).

The idea of ​​geographical (climatic) zonality, based directly on the idea of ​​the spherical shape of the Earth, also originates in ancient geography (Eudoxus of Cnidus, 400-347 BC). Posidonius (on the border of the 2nd-1st centuries BC) identified 9 geographical zones (we currently distinguish 13 zones).

The idea of ​​changes in the earth's surface also belongs to the oldest achievements of ancient thought (Heraclitus, 530-470 BC), and yet the struggle for it ended only two and a half millennia later, at the beginning of the 19th century. AD

The main directions of geographical science originated in Ancient Greece. Already by the 6th century. BC. the needs of navigation and trade (the Greeks founded a number of colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas at that time) necessitated descriptions of the land and sea coasts. At the turn of the 6th century. BC. Hecataeus from Miletus compiled a description of the Oikumene - all the countries known to the ancient Greeks at that time. “Description of the Earth” by Hecataeus became the beginning of the regional studies trend in geography. During the era of “classical Greece” the most prominent representative Regional studies was carried out by the historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus (485-423 BC). His regional studies were closely connected with history and were of a reference and descriptive nature. Herodotus traveled through Egypt, Babylonia, Syria, Asia Minor, west coast Black Sea; gave a description of cities and countries in the work “History in Nine Books.” Such travels did not lead to the discovery of new lands, but contributed to the accumulation of more complete and reliable facts and the development of descriptive and regional studies in science.

The science of classical Greece found its completion in the works of Aristotle of Stagira (384-322 BC), who founded in 335 BC. philosophical school - Lyceum - in Athens. Almost everything that was known about geographical phenomena at that time was summarized in Aristotle’s Meteorology. This work represents the beginnings of general geoscience, which were isolated by Aristotle from the undivided geographical science.

The Hellenistic era (330-146 BC) dates back to the emergence of a new geographical direction, which later received the name of mathematical geography. One of the first representatives of this trend was Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC). He was the first to quite accurately determine the size of the circumference of the globe by measuring the meridian arc (the measurement error was no more than 10%). Eratosthenes owns a large work, which he called “Geographical Notes,” using the term “geography” for the first time. The book gives a description of the Oikumene, and also discusses issues of mathematical and physical geography (general geoscience). Thus, Eratosthenes united all three directions under the single name “geography”, and he is considered the true “father” of geographical science.

The results of ancient geography were summed up already in the era of the Roman Empire by two outstanding Greek scientists - Strabo (c. 64 BC) and Claudius Ptolemy (90-168 AD). The works of these scientists reflect two different views on the content, tasks and significance of geography. Strabo represented the regional studies direction. He limited the tasks of geography only to the description of the Ecumene, leaving the clarification of the figure of the Earth and its measurement to mathematicians, and the explanation of the causes of phenomena observed on Earth to philosophers. His famous “Geography” (in 17 books) is a descriptive work, a valuable source on the history and physical geography of the ancient world, which has come down to us in full. C. Ptolemy was the last and most outstanding representative of ancient mathematical geography. He saw the main task of geography in creating maps. The “Manual of Geography” compiled by Ptolemy is a list of several thousand points indicating their latitude and longitude, which is preceded by a statement of methods for constructing map projections. Ptolemy in the 2nd century. AD the most perfect map of the ancient world was compiled, which was published several times in the Middle Ages.

2. Development of physical geography in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages (V-XV centuries) in Europe are characterized by a general decline in the development of science. The feudal isolation and religious worldview of the Middle Ages did not contribute to the development of interest in the study of nature. The teachings of ancient scientists were eradicated by the Christian Church as “pagan”. However, the spatial geographical horizons of Europeans in the Middle Ages began to rapidly expand, which led to significant territorial discoveries in different parts of the globe.

The Normans (“northern people”) first sailed from southern Scandinavia to the Baltic and Black Sea(“the path from the Varangians to the Greeks”), then to the Mediterranean Sea. Around 867, they colonized Iceland, and in 982, led by Leiv Erikson, they discovered the eastern coast of North America, penetrating south to 45-40°N latitude.

The Arabs, moving to the west, in 711 penetrated the Iberian Peninsula, in the south - into the Indian Ocean, up to Madagascar (9th century), in the east - into China, and from the south they went around Asia.

Only from the middle of the 13th century. The spatial horizons of Europeans began to expand noticeably (the travel of Plano Carpini, Guillaume Rubruk, Marco Polo and others).

Marco Polo (1254-1324), Italian merchant and traveler. In 1271-1295. traveled through Central Asia to China, where he lived for about 17 years. While in the service of the Mongol Khan, he visited different parts of China and the regions bordering it. The first European to describe China, the countries of the Front and Central Asia in The Book of Marco Polo. It is characteristic that contemporaries treated its contents with distrust, only in the second half of the 14th and 15th centuries. they began to appreciate it, and until the 16th century. it served as one of the main sources for drawing up a map of Asia.

The journey of the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin should also be included in a series of similar journeys. For trading purposes, he set out in 1466 from Tver along the Volga to Derbent, crossed the Caspian Sea and reached India through Persia. On his way back, three years later, he returned through Persia and the Black Sea. The notes made by Afanasy Nikitin during the trip are known as “Walking across the Three Seas.” They contain information about the population, economy, religion, customs and nature of India.

The revival of geography begins in the 15th century, when Italian humanists began to translate works ancient geographers. Feudal relations were replaced by more progressive ones - capitalist ones. In Western Europe this change occurred earlier, in Russia - later. The changes reflected increased production, which required new sources of raw materials and markets. They imposed new conditions on science and contributed to the general rise of the intellectual life of human society. Geography also acquired new features. Travel enriched science with facts. They were followed by generalizations. This sequence, although not absolutely noted, is characteristic of both Western European and Russian science.

The era of great discoveries of Western navigators. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, outstanding geographical events took place over three decades: the voyages of the Genoese H. Columbus to the Bahamas, to Cuba, Haiti, to the mouth of the Orinoco River and on the coast Central America(1492-1504); Portuguese Vasco da Gama around South Africa to Hindustan - the city of Callicut (1497-1498), F. Magellan and his companions (Juan Sebastian Elcano, Antonio Pigafetta, etc.) around South America along the Pacific Ocean and around South Africa (1519-1521) - the first circumnavigation.

The three main search paths - Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magellan - ultimately had one goal: to reach by sea the richest space in the world - South Asia with India and Indonesia and other areas of this vast space. In three different ways: directly to the west, around South America and around South Africa - the sailors bypassed the state of the Ottoman Turks, which blocked the Europeans' land routes to South Asia. It is characteristic that variants of the indicated world routes for circumnavigation of the world were subsequently repeatedly used by Russian navigators.

The era of great Russian discoveries. The rise of the Russians geographical discoveries falls on the XVI-XVII centuries. However, the Russians collected geographical information themselves and through their Western neighbors much earlier. Geographical data (from 852) is contained in the first Russian chronicle - “The Tale of Bygone Years” by Nestor. Russian city-states, developing, were looking for new natural sources of wealth and markets for goods. Novgorod, in particular, grew richer. In the 12th century. Novgorodians reached the White Sea. Voyages began to the west to Scandinavia, to the north - to Grumant (Spitsbergen) and especially to the northeast - to Taz, where the Russians founded the trading city of Mangazeya (1601-1652). Somewhat earlier, movement to the east began overland, through Siberia (Ermak, 1581-1584).

The rapid movement deep into Siberia and towards the Pacific Ocean is a heroic feat of Russian explorers. It took them a little more than half a century to cross the space from the Ob to the Bering Strait. In 1632 the Yakut fort was founded. In 1639, Ivan Moskvitin reaches the Pacific Ocean near Okhotsk. Vasily Poyarkov in 1643-1646. walked from Lena to Yana and Indigirka, the first of the Russian Cossack explorers to sail along the Amur Estuary and the Sakhalin Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In 1647-48. Erofey Khabarov passes the Amur to the Sungari. And finally, in 1648, Semyon Dezhnev goes around the Chukotka Peninsula from the sea, discovers the cape that now bears his name, and proves that Asia is separated from North America by a strait.

Gradually, elements of generalization acquire great importance in Russian geography. In 1675, the Russian ambassador, the educated Greek Spafarius (1675-1678), was sent to China with instructions to “depict all the lands, cities and the route on a drawing.” Drawings, i.e. maps were documents of state importance in Russia.

Russian early cartography is known for the following four works.

1. Large drawing of the Russian state. Compiled in one copy in 1552. The sources for it were “scribal books”. The Great Drawing has not reached us, although it was renewed in 1627. The geographer of Peter’s time V.N. wrote about its reality. Tatishchev.

2. Book Big drawing- text for the drawing. One of the later copies of the book was published by N. Novikov in 1773.

3. Drawing Siberian land compiled in 1667. It has reached us in copies. The drawing accompanies the “Manuscript against the drawing”.

4. The drawing book of Siberia was compiled in 1701 by order of Peter I in Tobolsk by S.U. Remizov and his sons. This is the first Russian geographical atlas of 23 maps with drawings of individual areas and settlements.

Thus, in Russia, too, the method of generalizations first became cartographic.

In the first half of the 18th century. Extensive geographical descriptions continued, but with an increasing importance of geographical generalizations. It is enough to list the main geographical events to understand the role of this period in the development domestic geography. Firstly, an extensive long-term study of the Russian coast of the Arctic Ocean by detachments of the Great Northern Expedition of 1733-1743. and the expeditions of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov, who, during the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions, discovered the sea route from Kamchatka to North America (1741) and described part of the northwestern coast of this continent and some of the Aleutian Islands. Secondly, in 1724 the Russian Academy of Sciences was established with the Geographical Department as part of it (since 1739). This institution was headed by the successors of Peter I, the first Russian geographers V.N. Tatishchev (1686-1750) and M.V. Lomonosov (1711-1765). They became organizers of detailed geographical studies of the territory of Russia and themselves made a significant contribution to the development of theoretical geography and trained a galaxy of remarkable geographers and researchers. In 1742, M.V. Lomonosov wrote the first Russian work with theoretical geographical content - “On the Layers of the Earth.” In 1755 Two Russian classic regional studies monographs are published: “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” by S.P. Krashennikov and “Orenburg Topography” by P.I. Rychkov. The Lomonosov period began in Russian geography - a time of reflection and generalizations.

3. Scientific expeditions and theoretical discoveries of the 19th - 20th centuries

Significant territorial discoveries were combined with deep theoretical generalizations and the discovery of geographical laws (Humboldt, Ritter, Reclus, Thunen). Geography was no longer limited to describing facts, but also tried to explain them. Applied geographical research is carried out and scientific geographical societies are created.

In Russia, the following were formed: the Russian Geographical Society, powerful geographical schools, whose representatives (Litke, Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, Przhevalsky, Kropotkin, Miklouho-Maclay, Voeikov, Dokuchaev, Arsenyev) made a great contribution to the study of Eurasia and other regions of the world.

In 1884, the first department of geography was created at Moscow University by D. N. Anuchin.

Peculiarities modern period in the development of domestic geography. The modern - Soviet and post-Soviet - period of development of domestic geographical science is multifaceted. Here we will note only the most important features of this period (1917-1997).

1. After the victory of the October Socialist Revolution, under the conditions of the Soviet state system, the need for geographical knowledge increased sharply. The Soviet national economy was planned and comprehensive, and complexity was and remains the main property of Russian geographical science. This correspondence was very correctly noted back in 1951 by Moscow University professor A.A. Borzov: “The attitude towards the natural environment in the USSR is fundamentally different than in the capitalist world; the systematic use of natural forces, scientifically justified and conscious, requires integral and complete knowledge of them, comprehensive study and does not allow limiting oneself to the exploitation of individual resources without taking into account how this will affect the whole geographical environment”(Borzov A.A. Geographical works. M., 1951. P. 319).

2. Extremely intensified geographical education population of the country, training and creation of a number scientific institutions geographical profile. In 1918, the world's first Geographical Institute was created in Leningrad as an educational and research institution (in 1925 it became part of the Leningrad University). In 1919, the State Hydrological Institute and the Department of Climatology at the Main Geophysical Observatory, as well as the Higher Geodetic Administration, were organized; in 1925 - the Soil Institute named after V.V. Dokuchaev and the Institute for the Study of the North (now the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute), etc. By decision of the government, the USSR Academy of Sciences moved to Moscow in 1934, which has since become the scientific capital of the country. The reorganization of the Academy of Sciences returned geography to it after a hiatus of more than a century (Geographical Department Russian Academy Sciences was closed back in 1799). The Faculty of Geography of Moscow University, formed in 1938, also turned into one of the largest geographical centers in the country. In the mid-1970s, in the USSR higher education system, geography was represented in 36 of approximately 70 universities; they cooked in them scientific workers and teachers. Geography teachers also graduated from 74 out of 185 pedagogical institutes(many of them later became universities). In addition, economic geography is studied in a number of economic institutes.

3. New extensive tasks, expansion of the network of geographical institutions, numerous expeditions have enormously increased geographic information and posed complex theoretical problems for geography. During the Soviet period, a number of progressive theoretical directions were formed in domestic geography, developed by representatives of leading scientific schools, which received wide recognition in domestic and world science.

As the most striking examples of progressive scientific schools, historians of our science name the physical-geographical (landscape) school of L.S. Berg (1876-1950) - A.A. Borzov (1874-1939), the geographical-genetic school of N.I. Vavilov (1887-1943), geographical and geochemical school of V.I. Vernadsky (1863-1945) - B.B. Polynov (1877-1953), oceanological school of Yu.M. Shokalsky (1856-1940) - N.N. Zubova (1885-1960), biogeographical school of V.N. Sukhachev (1880-1967) - V.B. Sochava (1905-1978), geographical and hydrological school of V.G. Glushkov (1883-1939) - S.D. Muraveysky (1894-1950), landscape-geophysical school of A.A. Grigoriev (1883-1968), economic-geographical school of N.N. Baransky (1881-1963) - N.N. Kolosovsky (1891-1954).

Of particular note is the desire to bring physical geography closer to other basic sciences- astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, biology. Among the outstanding achievements devoted to the synthesis of physical-geographical phenomena, noteworthy are the studies of academicians L.G. Berga, V.I. Vernadsky, A.A. Grigorieva, K.K. Markova.

L.S. Berg developed the doctrine of geographical laws of V.V. Dokuchaev, extending it to the entire space of the former Soviet Union. V.I. Vernadsky formed the doctrine of the biosphere (1926) and indicated the ways of its transition to the noosphere (“sphere of the mind”) - a problem of exceptionally great importance for modern geographical science and all humanity. A.A. Grigoriev created the doctrine of geographical envelope as a subject of study of physical geography. The goals of uniting everything geographical knowledge is the concept of “end-to-end methods” proposed by K.K. Markov (1905-1980). Cross-cutting methods K.K. Markov (comparative-descriptive, geophysical, geochemical, paleogeographical (historical), mathematical, cartographic), applicable to all components of the geographical envelope and to the connections between them, consolidate the integrity of its study and are called upon to play a significant role in the further process of theorization of geography.

Based on the concept of K.K. Markov, the famous economic geographer A.M. Kolotievsky in 1973 proposed a similar system of cross-cutting directions, such as natural-economic, technical-economic and others, “which must be used in system analysis productive forces." In the future, in his opinion, it is necessary to move from the real application of cross-cutting methods in physical and economic geography to their application in the entire system of geographical sciences. A.M. Kolotievsky considers the following to be general geographic directions: a) purposeful in nature - constructive, prognostic; b) substantive nature - geo-economic, natural-technical, demo-economic; c) methodological in nature - mathematical, cartographic, cosmic (See: Kolotievsky A.M. State and trends in the development of basic theoretical concepts in Soviet geography // Theoretical geography. Materials of a symposium on theoretical geography. Riga, 1973. P. 12-13) .

4. After the Great Patriotic War, scientists in our country, including geographers, after almost a century-long break, again had the opportunity to cover the entire Earth with their research (oceanological expeditions, expeditions to Antarctica and others).

Participation in the grandiose international scientific event of the 50s - the International Geophysical Year (1957-1959) - was of enormous and paramount importance for the development of domestic geography. Since then, our country has been a direct participant in global international scientific programs and international geographical congresses. The horizons of domestic geographers have expanded enormously; within international cooperation the points of common ground and contradictions in the theoretical approaches to solving pressing problems of our time in our country and abroad.

Features of modern foreign geography

These include the following.

1. Before the First World War, leading positions in foreign geography were occupied by German geographers. But in the period between the two world wars, official German geography discredited itself in the eyes of objective researchers (the Nazis were in power in the country; the government directly interfered in the affairs of science).

The main current of geographical thought that prevailed in Germany in the period between the wars was associated with an attempt to apply geographical concepts to politics. It was called “geopolitik” (Geopolitik). According to Karl Haushofer (1924), geopolitics is the ability and art of using geographical knowledge to develop and justify state policy. Haushofer founded the magazine “Zeitschrift fur Geopolitik”, which became the main conductor and disseminator of writings supporting Nazi policies. After the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945, K. Haushofer was tried Nuremberg Tribunal, and in 1946 he committed suicide.

2. By the 1960s, German geography had largely regained its lost positions. In Germany, several prominent geographers independently worked in depth in both the field of physical and economic (social) geography. Among them, G. Bobek, G. Mortenson, G. Schmithenner, K. Troll and others especially stood out. At the same time, specialization within geography gradually increased. Thus, physical geography was divided into geomorphology, geophysics, meteorology, climatology, oceanology and other disciplines. Cultural (social) geography has also undergone fragmentation. At the same time, significant attention was paid to landscape synthesis by geographers both in Germany (Karl Troll, Joseph Schmithusen, Karl Paffen) and in the GDR (Ernst Neef, Günther Haase, Hans Richter and others).

3. The American stereotype of geography was formed under the strong influence of the German geographer A. Höttner, whose ideas were transferred to American soil in the 30s by R. Hartshorn (1939). Traditional American geography is a spatial (chorological, or regional) science. A geographer is interested in the individual characteristics of individual places (territories, regions), and not general patterns. In America, it is common to view geography as unified science, without division into individual industries(physical, economic, biogeography, etc.). The view that geography is a social science is almost universally accepted among US geographers.

The development of American geography has occurred over the past decades difficult path. The book by P. James and J. Martin (1988) notes several scientific trends typical of the first half of the 20th century. Among them is environmentalism - the doctrine of “geographical control” over the destinies of humanity. This trend, however, quickly went out of fashion. The work of R. Hartshorn, “The Nature of Geography,” published in 1939, is characterized as a landmark in the history of American geographical thought. The authors note the increasing departure of US geography from the study of nature towards cultural phenomena, towards regionalism and anthropocentrism.

IN last period Traditional geographers in the United States were unprepared to participate in project development territorial development, and especially to solve pressing social and environmental problems. Many American geographers, mainly from the younger generation (William Bunge, David Harvey, Edward Teif, Richard Morill and many others), saw an alternative to the traditional direction in quantification, i.e. V widespread use quantitative methods in geographical research. Representatives of this direction hoped to create theoretical geography using mathematical as well as physical (social physics) models and a systems approach. In practice, however, we were talking only about the phenomena of the social sphere in their purely locational aspect and, despite the appearance of novelty, the principles of the chorological view of geography were not touched upon. R. Johnston noted that in American geography, as a result of the “quantitative revolution,” there was no departure from Hartshorne’s definition of geography, and “ final goal geographical research, as Hartshorne formulated it, remained the same” (Johnston R. Geography and geographers. M.: Progress, 1987. P. 100, 133).

conclusions

Geography is a multidisciplinary science. This is due to the complexity and diversity of the main object of her research - the geographical shell of the Earth. Located on the border of interaction between intraterrestrial and external (including cosmic) processes, the geographic envelope includes the upper layers of the solid crust, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere and organic matter dispersed in them. Depending on the position of the Earth in the ecliptic orbit and due to the inclination of its axis of rotation, different parts of the earth's surface receive different quantities solar heat, the further redistribution of which, in turn, is due to the uneven latitudinal ratio of land and sea.

Only towards the end of the last century was geography able to rely on the basic laws of physics, chemistry and biology in order to begin to study complex patterns that act in close intertwining natural phenomena earth's surface. As for economic geography, it began to acquire a truly scientific character only by adopting the laws of classical political economy.

Thus, only during the last century has geography begun to transform from a descriptive (“collective”) discipline into a theoretical science; in essence, it began to be revived and acquire new content.

List of used literature

1. James P., Martin J. All possible worlds. History of geographical ideas. M.: Progress, 1988. 672 p.2. Isachenko A.G. Geography today: A manual for teachers. M.: Education, 1979. 192 p.3. Markov K.K., Suetova I.A., Dobrodeev O.P., Simonov Yu.G. Introduction to Physical Geography: A Textbook for University Geography Departments. M.: Higher School, 1973. 183 p.4. Mukitanov N.K. From Strabo to the present day. The evolution of geographical concepts and ideas. M.: Mysl, 1985. 237 p.5. Saushkin Yu.G. Geographical science in the past, present, future: A manual for teachers. M.: Education, 1980. 269 p.6. Saushkin Yu.G. History of geographical ideas // World of Geography. Geography and geographers. Natural environment. M.: Mysl, 1984. P. 60-77.7. Encyclopedia for children. T. 3. Geography. 2nd ed., revised. and additional / Head. ed. M.D. Aksenova. M.: Avanta+, 1997. 704 p.

THE ANCIENT STAGE OF GEOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT

Parameter name	Meaning
Article topic:	THE ANCIENT STAGE OF GEOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT
Rubric (thematic category)	Geography

1 Geographical ideas of primitive peoples.

2 Development of geographical ideas and concepts in the countries of the Ancient East (IV-I millennium BC).

3 Geographical ideas of the Minoans and Phoenicians.

Geographical representations of primitive peoples. Geography arose in ancient times in connection with the urgent life needs of people - hunting, gathering, beekeeping, cattle breeding and agriculture. For farming - even primitive - it was extremely important to have a fairly deep knowledge of local conditions - the pattern of wild animals and edible plants, fish movements in rivers and lakes, seasonality and productivity of pastures, soil fertility. Geography began with ancient people’s knowledge of the surrounding world and the features of the area. At the same time, the world around a person has always been incomparably larger than himself (110).

The first elementary geographical ideas appeared with difficulty, ᴛ.ᴇ. at the very initial stage of human development (126,279). Among the first and most important issues, which primitive man asked himself, were also those that related to the properties of the surrounding nature. “Like many other animals, primitive man identified certain areas of the earth’s surface as the territory necessary for his life. And like many other animals, he was constantly tormented by a vague premonition that the grass must be even greener in some other places (110, p. 15).

The nature of the geographical ideas of the era of the primitive communal system can be judged only indirectly, since there are no written monuments for this era. Indirect judgments are based mainly on the study of the culture of backward tribes and nationalities, which, until the collision with the Europeans, remained at the stage of the primitive communal system. A huge contribution to the study of the culture of primitive people was made by N. Miklouho-Maclay (1846-1888), L. Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939), D. Cook (1728-1779) and M.Mead (81,211,212,263,301,420,433).

It is known that primitive man drew his knowledge about nature from his direct experience, limited by the area of ​​his habitat. At the same time, according to scientists, this knowledge was distinguished by amazing thoroughness. European travelers were amazed by the ability of the “savages” of all continents to carefully observe and subtly sense nature (211,212). The range of factual knowledge of primitive man was always determined by the nature of his production activities and the immediate natural environment (126.279).

For example, in the language of the Eskimos of North America, whose life is closely connected with the sea, there are up to 20 different words denoting different types and states of ice. Agricultural tribes have the richest terminology relating to various agricultural crops, phases of their development, etc. Hunters and gatherers are particularly knowledgeable about wild plants and animals. Highly developed powers of observation are closely related to the skills of excellent spatial orientation. However, for some African peoples, the perception of color is limited only to red and blue; their language has only two words to designate these opposite parts of the visible light spectrum. As a result of this, they do not perceive such intermediate colors as orange, yellow or green (110, p. 19).

Many ancient peoples empirically approached the development of complex geographical concepts reminiscent of modern scientific ideas about landscapes and tracts, which was reflected in their language and local geographical names (126,322).

It is known from psychology that when perceiving surrounding objects, a person isolates them in space and only then establishes between them spatial connections and relationships (110,126,366,408,423). This leads to a special way of conveying these relationships - a geographical map.

The map in its elementary form, ᴛ.ᴇ. cartographic drawing appears among primitive man long before the invention of writing. True, not a single cartographic image of those times has reached us. Moreover, some petrographs may contain elements of topographic drawing. More A. Humboldt (1769-1859) saw the beginnings of a geographical map in the petroglyphs of South America. If this is true, then the beginning of cartography dates back to the Late Paleolithic. Paleolithic - ϶ᴛᴏ ancient stone Age(the first period of the Stone Age), the time of the existence of man who used primitive stone, wooden and bone tools, and was engaged in hunting and gathering. The Paleolithic lasted from the emergence of man (over 2 million years ago) until approximately X thousand BC. However, the map as a method of recording data chronologically precedes the written description of geographical reality.

The oldest surviving map was created in Sumer (Interfluve) approximately 2,500 BC. It is a drawing of a small area of ​​the area made on a clay tablet (110,126,279).

Elements of geographical knowledge occupied first place in the total sum of ideas of primitive man about the world around him. However, at this first stage of development Homo sapiens a person's thinking was concrete.
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Ancient man was able to give his own names (names) to everyone local subject, but in his language there were no words denoting general concepts, such as “river”, “mountain”, “plant”, “animal”, etc.
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Keen observation and relatively extensive knowledge of individual concrete facts were combined with underdevelopment of abstract thinking (110,126).

2 Development of geographical ideas and concepts in the countries of the Ancient East (IV-I millennium BC) The first large slave states appeared in the 4th millennium BC. among agricultural peoples Egypt͵ Mesopotamia, Northern India And China. Sedentary farming provided more opportunities for the use of slave labor and the development of metallurgy than cattle breeding. The formation of developed slave states in these countries was facilitated by their favorable geographical conditions: position along large rivers - sources of irrigation and waterways (ʼʼ river civilizations ʼʼ, I.I. Mechnikov (1845-1916)), relatively reliable natural boundaries - mountains, deserts, etc. These states arose independently of each other. Only over time did the mutual influence of their cultures to some extent begin to manifest themselves quite clearly.

The most ancient peoples The East left us the first written documents. It is curious that the earliest literary works that have reached us were devoted to descriptions of travel. Stories and tales about travel to distant countries- one of the oldest genres of world literature.

The theme of travel completely prevails in the ancient epic. For example, in the ancient Sumerian epic poem about Gilgamesh (IV millennium BC) tells about the wanderings of a hero who reached the ocean through deserts and mountains and crossed it (26,61,110,126).

Sources of this kind (fairy tales, songs, epics, etc.), along with archaeological data, allow us to make an assumption about the spatial and geographical horizons of the peoples of the Ancient East and their ideas about the Earth.

Ancient Egyptians , for example, already in the 3rd millennium BC. conducted brisk trade with Syria, Ethiopia, and the countries of the Mediterranean Sea. They may also have had trade relations with distant India.

People's horizons Mesopotamia in the III-II millenniums BC. spread in the north to Armenia and Transcaucasia, and in the south to modern Oman (85,110,126).

Spatial horizon ancient Chinese until the second half of the 2nd century. BC. was mainly limited eastern part present territory of China. The ancient Chinese received reliable information about the countries of Central and Central Asia only after traveling Zhang Qian (138-126 BC). This journey marked the beginning of China's trade relations with the countries of Central Asia, and through them with the Eastern Mediterranean, where a little later the “Great Silk Road” was laid, which lasted until 23 ᴦ. BC. In Ancient China, much attention was paid to geographical research, incl. searching for a way to Europe. Chinese travelers did no less in “discovering” Europe than the Europeans did in paving the way to the “Far East”. But the Chinese body of knowledge remained aloof from the flow of Western thought (110,126,158,279).

The slave era dates back to the emergence of the rudiments of scientific knowledge in the fields of mathematics, astronomy and mechanics. In Egypt during the era Old Kingdom (around the 2nd millennium BC) land surveying was carried out, a land cadastre was created (mainly to determine the amount of taxes). Similar work was carried out in Mesopotamia. The Egyptians quite accurately determined the length of the year and introduced it into everyday use. solar calendar . The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians knew sundial. Egyptian and Babylonian priests, as well as Chinese astronomers, established patterns of recurrence of eclipses and learned to predict them (126).

ʼʼEgypt – the cradle of scienceʼʼ. Egypt is called the cradle of science, because here in ancient times arose methods of observation, measurement and scientific generalization. Egyptian priests possessed solid practical knowledge in the fields of mathematics (algebra), astronomy and geometry necessary to govern society. They improved methods of measuring land plots and determining the boundaries of fields that were constantly destroyed during floods on the Nile. Οʜᴎ learned to determine the line of the local meridian (north-south direction) in order to accurately orient the erected monuments and public buildings. They also invented writing and found a way to obtain papyrus - writing material - from a plant that grew abundantly in the swampy Nile Delta (110).

Mesopotamia. The peoples of Mesopotamia also contributed to the accumulation of geographical knowledge. The world's first mathematicians, who lived in the Sumerian state, knew all the basic rules of algebra already 3,000 years ago, although the algebraic symbols that we use now were not known until XVI century. But even without them, the Sumerians understood and used many algebraic dependencies. Οʜᴎ could also take the square root of any number.

From Mesopotamia the ecliptic is divided into 12 zodiac signs, the year into 12 months, the day into 24 hours, and the circle into 360 degrees. It was accepted in this country lunar week .

In the first slave states of the ancient East, primitive maps were created that served a variety of purposes. One of the oldest maps dates back to approximately 2,500 ᴦ. BC. It is a very schematic representation on a clay tablet of the northern part of Mesopotamia with the Euphrates River and two mountain ranges. A later Babylonian map (circa 5th century BC) shows the entire Earth as a disk surrounded by an ocean, centered on Babylon (85,110,112,215).

It was in the countries of the ancient East that they appeared first ideas about divine providence . According to the religious beliefs of the ancient Sumerians, the world is ruled by gods similar to people, but endowed, unlike them, with superhuman capabilities and immortality. Each of the gods was subordinate to certain forces and phenomena of the natural world surrounding man - the flow of rivers, sea ebbs and flows, wind currents, crop yields, and abundance of game. The gods competed with each other, and their attitude towards people was characterized by despotism and often vindictiveness.

In ancient cultures all over the world, many natural phenomena were explained by reference to the existence of a single deity, whose actions were always beyond the jurisdiction. This deity had to be pleased more often with sacrifices so that it would treat human beings more favorably.

The ideas of ancient peoples about nature, although they were based on real practical experience, retained their mythological character.
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So, back in the 3rd millennium BC. the ancient Sumerians created creation myths , about the flood and paradise, which turned out to be very tenacious and are reflected in the main book of all Christians - the Bible.

The belief in the direct influence of the luminaries on the destinies of people led to the emergence astrology . This “science” was especially popular in Babylon. All ancient peoples' ideas about the Earth were based on direct perception of the surrounding world.

Observations over the visible horizon led to the view of the Earth as a stationary, flat disk located at the center of the world. In a similar, although more poetic form, the origin of the Earth is depicted in the sacred book of the Brahmins - ʼʼVedakhʼ: “The earth arose from water and is like a blossoming lotus flower, one of the petals of which is India” (126).

3 Geographical ideas of the Minoans and Phoenicians. Among the most developed peoples of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. included the Minoans and Phoenicians. By the 2nd millennium BC. intermediary trade between the Western and Eastern Mediterranean was in the hands of Minoans, who on the island of Crete founded a powerful sea ​​power. There is evidence that the Minoan trade links extended from the British Isles to the Canary Islands, Senegal and India. Moreover, from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. dominance on the sea routes of the Mediterranean Sea passes to the Phoenicians.

Phoenicians, whose homeland was located on the territory of modern Lebanon, they were among the first navigators and discoverers of new lands. In their voyages they penetrated far beyond the boundaries of known lands. At the same time, being engaged only in trade, they reported almost nothing about the countries and peoples they visited.

In those distant times, in one of the mountain valleys of modern Beirut, an ore body was discovered that successfully combined copper and tin. The Phoenicians developed it, made bronze and traded it. In general, in the ore deposits of the Mediterranean basin, with an abundance of copper, tin was clearly lacking. For this reason, the Phoenicians made regular sea voyages to the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Great Britain, where they mined tin. Οʜᴎ also traded cedar wood, which grew abundantly in mountain forests Lebanon. One of the oldest written documents, compiled 3,000 BC, is an inventory of cedar logs loaded in the Phoenician port of Byblos onto forty ships that were supposed to deliver this cargo to Egypt.

The Phoenicians founded many trading ports along the entire Mediterranean coast, incl. And Carthage . They also created the first phonetic alphabet. It consisted entirely of consonants, like the modern Semitic alphabet. Somewhat later, the Greeks supplemented this alphabet with short vowel sounds. The Phoenician language formed the basis of the absolute majority of all European alphabets known today. In the VI century. BC. Phenicia was conquered by the Persians, and in 322 ᴦ. BC. conquered Alexander the Great . In 146 BC. Carthage was destroyed (11,110,126).

TOPIC 3

THE ANCIENT STAGE OF GEOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "ANCIENT STAGE OF GEOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT" 2017, 2018.

For the primitive communal system and slave states, the tasks of geography were reduced to expanding spatial horizons and accumulating empirical material. A person’s worldview was formed in the space of his residence. Existential geography was based on the concept of “place” or topos (from Greek - place, piece of land).

Geography, like all other sciences of the ancient world, developed initially within philosophy. Philosophers viewed the world as a natural unity, and all human activities as one of the manifestations of things. Man united with nature and became involved in it. At the same time, the idea of ​​humanizing nature and giving it human traits was expressed in mythological form. Geographical ideas were associated with a unified geography, which studies undivided space using the descriptive method. The regional direction in the development of geography was descriptive. The explanation had a religious-mythological, and then a natural-philosophical basis, a speculative interpretive nature. It was based on a geocentric understanding of the universe. At the same time, some speculative ideas were expressed (about the sphericity of the Earth and its spheres, the dependence of man on nature), which “illuminated” the path of development of geography for many centuries. A unique method of empirical generalizations and transmission of geoinformation also emerged - cartographic.

The greatest successes were achieved by the ancient Greeks, who were able to operate with models using the method of abstraction, which allowed the emergence of scientific knowledge in Ancient Greece. At the same time, this did not happen in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Central and South America with high culture.

The main trips were made for the purpose of trade and conquering new lands. Already by 2000 BC. The Minoans founded on about. Crete was the oldest maritime power and sailed to the Canary Islands, Senegal and India. According to Herodotus, the Phoenicians, on behalf of Pharaoh Necho (610-594 BC), sailed around Africa, which lasted three years. The Carthaginian Hanno sailed along western shores Africa. Indian sailors by the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. sailed to the shores of Arabia, the mouth of the Euphrates and eastern Africa, taking advantage of the monsoon winds. In winter they sailed to the west, in summer - to the east. The Indian epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata give insight into geographical knowledge peoples of India. The first of them provides a description of the entire then known part of the Earth. The Mahabharata lists the main mountains, seas, rivers; provides information about ancient Indian states and tribes. In China already in the 1st millennium BC. there were special geographical works that contained brief descriptions of the territory of the state (for example, the book “Yugong”). The geographical understanding of the Chinese expanded with the opening of the Silk Road.

The oldest map, according to L. Bagrov, is known from 3800 BC. The clay tablet depicted the northern part of Mesopotamia with a river (Euphrates) and two mountain ranges. Back in the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians created myths about the creation of the world, the flood and paradise. Astrology was popular in Babylon, explaining the influence of heavenly bodies on people's destinies.

The development of navigation and trade led to the appearance of the first geographical descriptions. A famous logographer was Hecataeus of Miletus (546-480 BC), who summarized the periplus and periegesis and compiled a description of all known countries.

The science of classical Greece found its completion in the works of Aristotle (384-322 BC). In his opinion, the world around man has four primary elements: fire, air, water and earth. The source of movement is the ether, which makes up the sky. This was already a component geography approach. Combinations of these elements form the spheres: outer celestial, sphere of fire (upper atmosphere), lower (air), sphere of water and earth (in the center). Thus, he recognized the idea that the Earth is spherical. In his famous work “Meteorology”, he describes the main areas, using all the accumulated knowledge. His “Meteorology” is the first attempt at a general geological description.

During the heyday of the Roman Empire (I-II centuries AD), geographical descriptions of a regional plan, often related to history, prevailed. The largest works belong to Strabo, a Greek from Amasia (64 BC - 23 AD). He wrote “Geography” in 17 books. In the first he concerns the history of geography. In the second - general geographical representations. In his judgments, he relied on the ideas of his predecessors. Especially the works of Eratosthenes. All other books are devoted to regional descriptions of Iberia, Britain, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, etc. However, data on the nature of these regions is traditionally scarce and fragmentary. In such regional geographical descriptions, Strabo saw the applied significance of geography and its benefits for the ruling circles of the state, the military and traders. Therefore, he is considered the main ideologist of descriptive-regional (chorographic) geography.

Claudius Ptolemy (90-160) was the last of the great scientists of antiquity who paid attention to geographical problems. In his works “Great Construction” and “Guide to Geography”, he summarized the known facts about the Ecumene and the theoretical ideas of his predecessors. In his opinion, one should distinguish between “geography” and “chorography”. The first covers a linear image of a known part of the Earth with everything that is on it. Its scope includes issues of determining the shape and size of the Earth, developing projections and determining geographic coordinates for creating maps of the Oecumene. Chorography deals with the description of individual areas, “... citing in its descriptions even such little things as, for example, harbors, villages, districts, tributaries of the main rivers, etc.” (Ptolemy, 1953). His “Guide to Geography” up to the 17th century. went through more than 50 editions.

Thus, the most important achievements of the era of the Ancient World can be called:

• - the emergence of natural philosophy with holistic natural scientific ideas, which were opposed to religious and mythological explanations and were based on the worldview of cosmocentrism and the unity of the universe;
• - the formation of a unified geography on the basis of the holistic thinking of the time, which united many aspects of philosophy, history, mathematics, natural science, ethnography and other areas. Geographical ideas were formed in the unity of these views and did not constitute an independent direction. “I believe,” wrote Strabo, “that the science of geography, which I have now decided to study, just like any other science, is included in the scope of philosophy” (1964, p. 7).
• - the emergence of a descriptive-regional studies direction, which contributed to the accumulation of geographical facts about various regions of the Ecumene and the formation of a unified geography. The first regional descriptions were periplus (description of the coast), periegesis (description of the land) and periods (detours of the land). Hecataeus made a generalization of such works. These descriptions were closely related to history, so the main attention was paid to the external features of the earth's surface (topography), descriptions of peoples, political system, cities, etc.;
• - the emergence of a mathematical-geographical direction, which, according to some scientists (Eratosthenes, Ptolemy), claimed the role of “general geography”. Further development of this direction led to the emergence of geodesy and cartography;
• - the emergence of a physical-geographical or general earth science direction associated with an attempt to explain the described natural phenomena. Ideas about the figure of the Earth, thermal zones, and the relationship between land and sea developed.

It is necessary to distinguish between the history of travel and territorial discoveries on Earth, the history of the development of geographical ideas and ideas, thinking (according to N.N. Baransky), the history and evolution of methods and the development of the theory of geography. The result is the formation of a scientific geographical picture of the world, reflected in geographical laws, patterns, and the presence of large geographical schools.

The history of science is a branch of knowledge that collects and analyzes facts, discoveries, theories, teachings relating to different periods.

The history of geography, according to V. S. Zhekulin (1989), is a branch of geographical science that studies in mutual connection the history of the territorial discovery of the Earth (the history of travel), the history of the development of geographical ideas and the discovery of new geographical laws and patterns. Domestic geographer N. G. Fradkin in his book Geographical discoveries and scientific knowledge of the Earth (1972) gives modern definition this concept. If in the past a geographical discovery meant the first visit to a particular object (continents, islands, straits, volcanoes, lakes, etc.) by representatives of peoples who had writing, characterized this object or put it on a map, now a geographical discovery must be understood not only territorial, but also theoretical discovery in the field of geography, establishing new geographical patterns.

Let us give two examples of geographical discoveries of the mid-twentieth century. In 1948, Soviet high-latitude expeditions discovered the underwater Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean, which extends from the New Siberian Islands through the central part of the ocean to Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and rises above the bottom by an average of 3000 m.

Another example concerns the establishment of the most important pattern of migration of chemical elements in natural landscapes, established in 1961 by A. I. Perelman. The concept was formulated geochemical barrier- plot earth's crust, in which at a short distance there is a sharp decrease in the intensity of migration of elements and, as a consequence, their increased concentration is observed. The barriers are varied, as are the types of migration of matter. There are mechanical, physical-chemical, biogenic and man-made barriers. We give a striking example of a physicochemical barrier. In the forest zone, under conditions of oxygen deficiency in the soil, iron is usually divalent and easily migrates in solutions. When water reaches the surface, under conditions of sufficient oxygen, iron transforms into the trivalent form and precipitates, which is marked by brown spots.

Geography - ancient science. Reliable geographical information has reached us since the 4th-3rd millennium BC. e. And they relate to Babylonia, Egypt, Ancient China. The most ancient maps and plans, information about travel have been preserved. Like other sciences, geography went through several major stages in its development.

Ancient Mediterranean civilization (according to Yu. G. Saushkin), or geography during the period slave system. IV century BC e.- V century n. e. Natural science in ancient times was undifferentiated. Therefore, geographers were simultaneously philosophers, astronomers, and mathematicians. Main achievements: a) the speculative idea of ​​the Earth as a ball, and then its scientific proof (the Milesian or Ionian philosophical school of Thales); b) creation of maps and plans, determination of geographical coordinates, introduction of parallels and meridians, cartographic projections (C. Ptolemy); c) introduction of Eratosthenes in the 3rd century. BC e. the term geography and Eratosthenes' calculation of the size of the Earth; d) the beginnings of differentiation of geographical sciences: hydrology, meteorology, oceanology (Aristotle); Strabo (1st century BC) - the founder of geomorphology and paleogeography; e) formation of regional studies - 17 volumes of Strabo’s Geography; f) the first reclamation hydraulic works as harbingers of the transformative (reclamation) direction in geography.

Middle Ages (until the middle of the 15th century). A significant role in the development of geography was played by Arab scientists and travelers Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Biruni, Idrisi and especially Ibn Batuta, who traveled from 1325 to 1349. The great European Traveler was Marco Polo. Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin walked along the Caspian, Black and Arabian seas, reaching the shores of India, describing the nature, life and way of life of the population of this country.

Age of Great Geographical Discoveries (XV-XVIIcenturies).

It is characterized during the Renaissance by the discovery of America by H. Columbus, the voyage of Vasco da Gama to India and, of course, the first voyage around the world by F. Magellan. Thus, the idea of ​​the spherical shape of the Earth was confirmed experimentally, and the unity of the World Ocean was established. In 1515, Leonardo da Vinci's map showed a hypothetical Southern continent.

Geographical cartography is characterized by two outstanding events: the compilation of Mercator's map (1512-1594), which shows the actual outlines of the continents and their coastlines, and the creation of the Great Drawing of the Russian State.

The theoretical results of the development of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries are summed up in the General Geography of B. Varenius (1850), where the subject of geography is defined, its division into general and specific is given, and significant attention is paid to the ocean.

Geography in Russia XVII-XVIIIbb . The most striking events in the geography of this period: a) intensive movement of Russian explorers to the east (E. P. Khabarov, V. D. Poyarkov, S. I. Dezhnev, V. V. Atlasov, etc.); b) creation in 1739 M. V. Lomonosov Geographical Department; c) organization, on the initiative of Peter I, of an expedition to study Siberia and the Far East (D. G. Misserschmidt, V. Bering, A. I. Chirikov); d) the first description of Russia by Ivan Kirillov. The flourishing state of the Russian state since 1731; e) creation in 1745 of the Atlas by the Academy of Sciences Russian Empire; e) first scientific system geographical sciences V. N. Tatishchev; g) geographical works and activities of M. V. Lomonosov; H) general surveying of Russia under Catherine II - land use cadastre.

Geography in Western Europe in XVIII-XIX centuries The period is characterized by a combination of significant territorial discoveries (D. Cook, D. Livingston, etc.) and the development of theoretical geography by S.I. Kant, K. Ritter, E. Reclus, I. Thunen). An outstanding contribution to geography was made by A. Humboldt, the greatest theoretical geographer and no less famous traveler. Introduced the comparative method into geography. Explored the Central and South America, Ural, Altai, coast of the Caspian Sea, southwest Siberia. Compiled an isotherm map for the first time Northern Hemisphere, proposed isohypses for displaying the relief of the earth's surface on a map. Author of more than 600 works, including a five-volume summary work on the geography of the Cosmos.

Geography in Russia XIX- started XX bb . Russian trips around the world by I. F. Kruzenshtern and Yu. F. Lisyansky, the discovery of Antarctica by F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev. The origin of the first scientific geographical school of the Military Academy General Staff, established in 1832. In 1845, the establishment of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg and the formation of its school (F. P. Litke, P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, N. M. Przhevalsky, P. A. Kropotkin, N N. Miklukho-Maclay, A. I. Voeikov, V. A. Obruchev, P. K. Kozlov, etc.)

In 1884, at Moscow University, D. N. Anuchin created the first department of geography (department of geography, anthropology and ethnography), which served as the basis for the formation of the Anuchinsky geographical school of Moscow University. Creation of a geographical school in St. Petersburg University associated with the names of V.V. Dokuchaev and A.I. Voeikov.

Among the exceptional achievements of the early twentieth century. It should be noted the American polar traveler R. Peary, who reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909; Norwegian polar explorer R. Amundsen, December 14, 1911 reached South Pole of our planet.

Soviet period of development of geography. The period was extremely productive, having a huge impact on world geographical and even environmental science.

Numerous expeditions continued to study the nature, population and economy of the country, including the development of the Northern Sea Route, the SP-I expedition of I. D. Papanin, the organization of the Soviet Antarctic expedition (1955), the study of the World Ocean, etc.

In the 70s, on the initiative of K.K. Markov began to intensively develop the geography of the World Ocean, which resulted in the publication of a seven-volume series devoted to the physical and economic geography of the ocean.

Cartographic support for science and practice was improved, state topographic and thematic maps were created, the Great Soviet Atlas of the World (1937), the Physico-geographical Atlas of the World (1964), and a series of regional and specialized atlases were published.

Various geographical schools were formed, including complex general and regional physical geography (the school of A. A. Borzov - L. S. Berg - N. A. Solntsev, the academic school of process science of A. A. Grigoriev - I. P. Gerasimov) , geomorphological schools I.S. Shchukina - A.I. Spiridonov and I.P. Gerasimova - Yu. A. Meshcheryakova; landscape-geochemical B.B. Polynova - A.I. Perelman - M.A. Glazovskaya and the economic-geographical school of N.N. Baransky - N.N. Kolosovsky - Yu. G. Saushkin and many others.

The system of geographical sciences developed, its differentiation into branch geographical sciences (for example, permafrost science, botanical geography) and integration.

New and latest methods studies of the geographic shell and its components (geochemical, geophysical, cartographic, paleogeographic, mathematical, aerospace).

Academic geographical institutes and geographical departments were opened in universities and pedagogical colleges. In 1918, under the Commission for the Study of Natural Productive Forces of the Academy of Sciences, the Industrial Geographical Research Institute was organized from affairs, which later grew into the Geomorphological Institute (1930), then into the Institute of Physical Geography (1934), and from 1936 into the Institute of Geography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Institutes of Geography were created in Siberia (in Irkutsk) and in the Far East (in Vladivostok). Scientific and popular scientific geographical magazines appeared, stable textbooks for high school, a series of monographs devoted to the description of the nature of the USSR. Was clearly visible all the time scientific activity geographers with the practice of national economy.

Scientific schoolD. N. Anuchina at Moscow University . A scientific school is understood as a group of scientists led by its leader, founder, united by a single theoretical and methodological approach and common views on the essence of the phenomena being studied using similar research methods. The most important feature of a scientific school is continuity from teacher to student. Scientific school is a broad concept. Schools can vary significantly in number, form of unity (around a professor at a university, around a scientific journal, academic laboratory, problem seminar), in the time of existence, in the significance and scale of the problems being solved. Many are known to science outstanding schools, for example, academicians P. L. Kapitsa in physics or I. P. Pavlov in physiology.

The school of D. N. Anuchin is written in detail in the textbooks of Yu. G. Saushkin History and Methodology of Geographical Science and V. S. Zhekulin Introduction to Geography.

Scientific school of the Russian Geographical Society. The history of the Russian Geographical Society and its role in the development of geography is described in sufficient detail in the literature. Traditionally, the Society's anniversaries were marked by the publication of general publications. So, on his centenary, the president, academician. L. S. Berg published the book All-Union Geographical Society for a Hundred Years (1946). In 1970, under the editorship of another president of the Society, Acad. S. V. Kalesnik published a collective monograph Geographical Society for 125 years (1970). On the occasion of the hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrated in August 1995, a collective monograph, the Russian Geographical Society, was published. 150 years, edited by A. G. Isachenko (M., 1995). The scientific school of the Geographical Society is briefly discussed in the textbook by V. S. Zhekulin, Introduction to Geography.

History: 1. A scientific circle-seminar of statisticians and travelers, organized in 1843 by the ethnographer and statistician P. I. Keppen, is the predecessor of the Geographical Society. Organizational preparation and the special role of K. M. Baer, ​​F. P. Litke and F. P. Wrangel. On August 6 (18), 1845, Nicholas 1 approved the idea of ​​establishing the Russian Geographical Society (from 1850 it became known as the Imperial Society). Prince Konstantin was appointed its chairman. The first meeting of the founders of the Society took place on September 19 (October 1), 1845. Among them were the most famous scientists, travelers, cultural figures - I. F. Kruzenshtern, P. I. Keppen, K. I. Arsenyev, V. Ya. Struve, V. I. Dal, V. F. Odoevsky, etc. The first de facto leader of the Russian Geographical Society was F. P. Litke. For 41 years (from 1873 to 1914), the society was led by an outstanding geographer, a prominent statesman P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky.

2. P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky and his contribution to the development of geography. Field expeditionary research in Central Asia. Main works: Geographical and statistical dictionary of the Russian Empire (1863-1885), Picturesque Russia, Russia. Complete geographical description of our Fatherland (1899-1914), Sketches of the history of Dutch painting. Organization of expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society by P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky. Disciples and followers: N. M. Przhevalsky, P. A. Kropotkin, N. A. Severtsov, N. N. Miklukho-Maclay, I. M. Mushketov, M. V. Pevtsov,
V. I. Roborovsky and others.

3. The role of A.I. Voeikov in the development of geography, climatology, reclamation geography. Research and travel of A.I. Voeikov in Western Europe, America, Asia, and various regions of Russia. A. I. Voeikov is the author of more than 1,700 works on various directions and sections of geography. Climates of the globe, especially Russia (1884), Snow cover, its influence on soil, climate and weather, and methods of research (1889), Irrigation of the Trans-Caspian region from the point of view of geography and climatology (1908), Land improvements and their relationship with climate and other natural conditions (1910), etc.

4. Regional expeditionary research carried out under the auspices of the Russian Geographical Society.

5. Outstanding figures of the Geographical Society of the 20th century: N. I. Vavilov, L. S. Berg, E. N. Pavlovsky, S. V. Kalesnik, A. F. Treshnikov and others.

Foreign geography in the twentieth century. has passed a difficult path from the classical problem of describing the earth's surface to the search for those laws that could constitute new item research. On turn of XIX-XX centuries there was a threat of geography turning into a compilation of loosely related information about the Earth collected by representatives of special sciences studying the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, pedosphere, society, etc. However, the gradual awareness of geographers of different specialties since the 19th century. its unity was manifested in the formation of professional organizations: geographical societies different countries (the first - in 1821 in France), holding International Geographical Congresses since 1871, creating the International Geographical Union in 1922. The chorological concept of the German scientist L. Gettner, who saw the task of geography as identifying earthly spaces by their differences and spatial relationships, had a great unifying influence on the development of geography. The chorological concept was developed in the USA in the works of R. Hartshorne, who saw the goal of geography in the study of territorial differentiation of the earth's surface and the identification of individual regions. In this theoretical basis in the first half of the century in Great Britain, SSL, Australia, work on zoning the territory, including for the needs of Agriculture(L. Herbertson, D. Whittlesey, D. Stemp, K. Christian). Important role played by the idea of ​​the interaction of natural components and human interaction with the environment in small areas. The focus is on the spatial morphology of phenomena, the development of methods for mapping and zoning, as well as intercomponent relationships, and analysis of factors in the genesis of spatial differentiation. The largest contribution to the development of these problems was made in Germany by Z. Passarguet, E. Banse, A. Penk, O. Schlüter, K. Troll, J. Schmithusen, in the SSL - K. Sauer, I. Bowman. A powerful school has developed in France regional geography, which set as its goal the compilation complex descriptions regions (P. Vidal de la Blache, A. Demangeon, E. Martonne, J. Beauge-Garnier).

Two concepts that explain the dependence of social phenomena on natural features occupy a large place in the history of foreign geography. Geographical determinism, popular in English-language geography at the beginning of the century, directly derives historical and economic processes from natural conditions (E. Semple, E. Huntingon). Possibilism, which was formed in France, states that a person chooses the type of environmental management from several alternatives that best meets the opportunities provided by natural conditions.

Under the influence of the works of Charles Darwin, ideas of development and evolution penetrated into geography, primarily within the framework of geomorphology through the efforts of W. Davis, who created the doctrine of cycles of relief development. In biogeography, the idea of ​​change over time began to be taken into account after the work of F. Clements on changes in vegetation cover. Schools formed historical geography in the USA (K. Sauer) and Great Britain (H. Darby). K. Sauer laid the foundations of human ecology and saw the basis of the unity of geographical science in the study of the interaction of nature and man. the main task Geography, in his opinion, is the study of the process of transforming a natural landscape into a cultural one.

Turbulent political events of the twentieth century. stimulated the development of geopolitical theories, which were based on ideas about the state as an organism with the living space it needed (F. Ratzel, R. Kjellen, H. Mackinder).

In the second half of the twentieth century. A new stage of theoretical understanding of the experience of applied work began, when foreign geographers were no longer satisfied with the task of identifying and describing homogeneous territories. The search began for ways to formalize geographical knowledge, to build a theory that could generalize the laws of the spatial distribution of phenomena on the earth's surface. The main efforts were concentrated in creating a spatial analysis apparatus using mathematical methods, including geometry, and aerospace information. The leaders were Anglo-American geographers, mainly of the socio-economic direction,
F. Schaefer, B. Berry, W. Garrison, P. Huggett, W. Bunge, W. Izard. Many saw this as the unifying principle of private branches of physical and social geography with such basic concepts as direction (orientation), distance and relationship (relative location). The peak of the quantitative revolution occurred in the 50s. The theory of central places by W. Christaller and A. Lesch has emerged, which makes it possible to explain the hierarchy and spatial arrangement of settlements. In geomorphology, the work of R. Horton and L. Strahler laid the foundation for the quantitative morphology of river basins. The theory of island biogeography by R. MacArthur and E. Wilson explained the quantitative relationships between the sizes of isolated habitats and the species richness of living nature. At the same time, a systems approach was introduced, which focused on the concepts of feedback between the components of geosystems, hierarchy, self-regulation, and sustainability (R. Chorley, B. Kennedy, R. Huggett, R. Bennett).

If in the first half of the century the thesis about the need, within the framework of geography, to study the processes that shaped natural and economic regions (S. Woolridge) was often disputed, then in the post-war period the study of the dynamics of various phenomena on the earth's surface became a priority. The achievements of the quantitative revolution were applied in research into the processes of relief formation, matter cycles in the geographic environment, climate change, glacier movement, and landscape transformation under anthropogenic influence. The work of the Swedish geographer T. Hägerstrand on the diffusion of innovations marked the beginning of the unification of spatiotemporal studies. In the 70-80s, the study of the problem of the hierarchy of processes in time and spatial objects came to the fore. Within the framework of social geography, behavioral geography (behaviorism) is becoming widespread, explaining the connections between personal perception of the world around us and the spatial behavior of people (D. Wolpert, K. Cox, R. Golledge). Since the 90s, research on the perception and aesthetics of landscape has been popular, especially in France (J. Bertrand, A. Decams).

At the turn of the 60s and 70s, the greening of geographical research became sharply apparent; many geographers see human ecology as one of the main subjects of study (D. Stoddart, A. Gowdy, G. Haase, I. Simmone, F. Haer). Greening was especially evident in climatology, which developed models of global climate change and the transfer of pollutants in the atmosphere. The volume of research into natural disasters and their comparison with socio-economic reality has increased (G. White, R. Chorley, D. Parker).

The powerful apparatus of spatial analysis developed in geography attracted the attention of ecologists, who applied geographical methods to the study of populations. In the 70-80s, landscape ecology was formed, within which ecologists - people from biology and geographers - successfully collaborated. This branch of science, closest to Russian landscape science, is designed to answer the main question of what natural processes form certain spatial structures and how spatial structures affect the state of living nature. Geographical methods of spatial analysis have made it possible to take into account in environmental studies the factors of spatial properties (size, shape, distance, proximity of ecosystems) and factors of the large-scale level of manifestation of the interactions of living organisms with the abiotic environment. The development of landscape ecology was stimulated by a powerful flow of remotely sensed information about the spatial distribution and configuration of ecosystems, the spread of statistical methods that became familiar to geographers in Europe and North America during the quantitative revolution, and the development geographic information technologies. Awareness in the 70s of the onset of global and regional environmental problems required the development of a concept of environmental management and nature conservation, which was proposed by landscape ecology. Authoritative centers for landscape-ecological research have emerged in the Netherlands (I. Zonneveld, R. Jongman, P. Opdam), Slovakia (M. Ruzicka, L. Miklos), Great Britain (R. Haynes-Young, R. Buns), Sweden (M . Ise), Denmark
(E. Brandt), France (M. Gaudron, A. Decam), USA (R. O'Neil, R. Foreman, J. Wu,
M. Turner, R. Gardner, D. Wins), Poland (E. Solon, L. Ryzhkovsky, A. Richling), Germany
(H. Leser, Bastian Island), Israel (3. Naveh), Australia (R. Hobbs), Norway (Fry). Since 1982, the International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) has existed.

Significant progress has been made in the design of networks of protected natural areas, taking into account the interaction of all components of the landscape and the spatial structure of the territory. Since the 1980s, environmental policy in Europe has been based on a landscape-ecological approach. The creation of ecological networks and green corridors using landscape ecology methods allows for the spatial continuity of undisturbed habitats and plays a key role in the conservation of biodiversity. The key concepts used by landscape ecology in the design of green networks were identified: the sensitivity of organisms to habitat configuration, connectivity and fragmentation of habitats, edge effects, ecotones, landscape permeability for migration, the relationship of landscape and biological diversity with ecosystem stability.

The main applied importance of landscape ecology lies in land use planning and, more broadly, in landscape planning. Among current issues solved by landscape planning - how to fit types of land use into the spatial structure of the landscape, how to take into account the conflicting interests of land users, what factors and processes determine the development of the landscape, in what ways they can be regulated, what are the consequences anthropogenic impact in different types of landscape, how to preserve cultural landscapes.

Main theoretical problem landscape ecology at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. - the problem of identifying the hierarchy and determining the rational scale of studying landscape processes. Landscape research is inevitably multi-scale, since landscape processes manifest themselves at different spatial and temporal scales. The problem is generated by the contradiction between the regional scale of environmental management and the local scale of data collection, which greatly hinders the understanding and resolution of global problems.

Ancient Greece: the origins of the main directions of modern geography

Geographical knowledge is one of the first forms of human reflection

environment. Therefore, its origins go back to ancient times.

Returning to geographical knowledge, it is necessary to point out that elementary

All peoples have geographical ideas, regardless of their level

development. These ideas are expressed in local geographical terms.

For example, the terms “pine forest”, “swamp”, “forest”, “meadow” in any language reflect and express ideas about various locations and habitats, as well as the various economic values ​​of land, that is, in essence, quite deep knowledge about geographical differences localities. However, systematic geographical knowledge developed only in the natural philosophical systems of the ancient Greeks.

For the first time, systematic geographical knowledge developed in the natural philosophy of the ancient Greeks, that is, in the philosophical, speculative in its essence, interpretation of nature in its integrity, which was characteristic of the philosophical schools of Ancient Greece - Milesian, Pythagorean, etc. As for the Middle Ages, it did not add significantly new things to geographical representations, and therefore we consider the characteristics of the geography of the ancient world and the Middle Ages in one chapter. In the ancient world it was possible to accumulate so little true knowledge that one person could still cover its entire volume. Although there was a semblance of specialization in geography, history, mathematics, etc., all knowledge was quite fully controlled common sense, logic and natural philosophy. Fields of knowledge have not yet asked questions about the objects and subjects of research. IN best case scenario Attempts were made to determine goals and objectives, as well as addresses (Ptolemy, Strabo). Nevertheless, the origins of many modern areas of geography were already laid in the works of ancient Greek scientists.

The desire to know one's spatial environment from the very beginning.

Therefore, it is no coincidence that the first of these directions was formed by regional studies: a description of the remarkable features of nature, wealth, crafts, peoples and their customs, sizes and distances. In ancient Greek written literature, the first regional documents were periplus - descriptions of the coast, periegesis - descriptions of the land, periods - detours of the land. Hecataeus (c. 546 - 480 BC) summarized all such works known in Miletus1 in his work “Periods”. In addition to Europe and Asia previously identified by ancient authors, Hecataeus began to highlight Libya (Africa), i.e., already in such distant times, a natural division of the earth’s surface was carried out. The historian of geography J. O. Thomson wrote that Hecataeus's work shows "a certain scientific interest in climate, customs, flora and fauna, so that it is worth calling general geography, the first geography of which we know anything."

The most ancient work on regional studies, of those preserved almost in in full, is “History in Nine Books” by Herodotus (490-424 BC). Herodotus visited many places in the then known world and made descriptions of cities and countries. Despite the non-geographical title, his work is the most complete description of a geographical nature, which, along with the usual regional information, contains a lot of ethnographic material. In addition to 1/6 Ancient Greece: the origins of the main directions of modern geography, Herodotus showed interest in historical geography: for example, he reconstructed the shores of the Nile Delta, based on the geographical location of the ancient port cities, which in his time were located far from the sea.

The result of the geographical knowledge of antiquity is the work of Strabo (63/64 BC - 23/24 AD) "Geography in 17 books." Despite the fact that this work contains a presentation of all the directions of geography that existed at that time, or rather, the origins of the emerging directions, it is with with good reason can be classified as a type of regional studies work, if only because 83% of its volume is devoted to regional characteristics of countries and places based on natural, ethnic or political principles. At the same time, Strabo calls for a natural division of territories “by joints, and not by whole bone.” Thus, Strabo proposes the division of Asia into two parts along the Taurus mountain system, which divides boreal Asia and Mediterranean Asia. In the geographical differences between individual parts of the world known to him, the scientist saw a large role in the latitude of the place. He wrote that by dividing the inhabited world into circles parallel to the equator, scientists “could show changes in animals, plants and climates, because some of them belong to the cold, others to the hot.”

Strabo gives a complete regional description of the then-known inhabited part of the Earth, although he proceeds from the plurality of inhabited worlds on the planet. The system of such a description, as in our times, included nature, people and economy. So a trinity of this kind in regional geographical descriptions was laid down at the dawn of geographical knowledge.

One of the researchers of the life and work of Strabo wrote about him:

“An Asia Minor Greek who lived at the turn of our era wrote an essay in his declining years, which he hoped would be usefully read by interested parties.

Contemporaries did not notice this work. Fame came after more than a thousand years... In ancient times, the most famous figures often referred to by their “professions.” They said: Poet - and everyone understood that Homer was meant.

They said: Speaker - and it was clear that we're talking about about Cicero.

The Byzantines praised Strabo. So much so that they could not mention his name, the name of the scientist, for whom the authoritative nickname was assigned: GEOGRAPHER."

The second direction of geography, which originated in ancient times, was geoscience. Within its framework, ideas about the figure of the Earth, thermal zones, the relationship between land and sea were developed, and the causes of many natural phenomena were explained.

The founder of this trend was Thales of Miletus (c. 625 - c. 547 BC), who is the founder of all ancient philosophy and science. His ideas have come down to us in references to other ancient authors. It is known that he considered water in its various forms to be the basis of all earthly existence, all natural phenomena, and he imagined the Earth as an island floating in the vast World Ocean. If we assume that water in the form of precipitation, runoff and water areas is an important geographical factor, and most of the surface of the globe is occupied by the World Ocean, then one can be surprised at the foresight of the ancient scientist. The search for the beginning of being, the fundamental principle, subsequently led to the formation of ideas about the spheres of the Earth.

Representatives of another ancient Greek philosophical school - the Pythagorean, on the island of Samos (second half of the 6th - 5th centuries BC), introduced the doctrine of the central fire, which gives life to the entire cosmos and keeps it from destruction. One of 2/6 Ancient Greece: the origins of the main directions of modern geography of the Pythagoreans, Parmenides, put forward the idea of ​​​​the sphericity of the Earth, without providing any evidence, which was generally characteristic of ancient Greek thinkers before Aristotle.

Based on this assumption, Parmenides Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 408 - c. 355)

BC) substantiated the idea of ​​climatic zones. At the same time, he took into account the increasing slope of the fall sun rays on the earth's surface as latitude increases ("climate" in Greek means "slope"). It was Eudoxus who presented evidence of the sphericity of the Earth: the change in the height of stars above the horizon when moving north, the shape of the Earth's shadow during lunar eclipses. He also introduced the concept of "horizon" to measure the height of celestial bodies.

Eudoxus was the first to establish the Earth's thermal zones, determining their approximate ratio: hot - 8 parts, moderate - 5 parts and cold - 6 parts on each hemisphere. It is also believed that he attempted to measure the circumference of the Earth, obtaining a significantly overestimated result - from 63,000 to 70,400 km, depending on the adopted unit of length. There is also an assumption that Eudoxus was the first to use the gnomon to determine the latitudinal position of geographical objects.

Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) made a generalization of all ancient Greek geosciences. He had a fully formed idea about geospheres: “Of the four bodies, that is, fire, air, water and earth, fire occupies the upper position, and earth the lower, the other two bodies are related in a similar way, namely, air is closest to fire, and water to land." He also came up with the idea of ​​a single Ocean.

Aristotle systematized the views of his predecessors regarding thermal zones, the origin and dominant directions of winds. He talked a lot about the causes of earthquakes, wrote about changes in climate and the boundaries of land and sea over time. At the same time, unlike his predecessors, Aristotle preferred reasoning based on facts. It is noteworthy, for example, the following: “It is no less ridiculous if someone, arguing, like Empedocles, that the sea is the sweat of the earth, believes that he has uttered something wise "Such an expression may perhaps satisfy us in poetry..., but we cannot be content with it in the knowledge of nature."

Based on facts, he developed Eudoxus' idea about the sphericity of the earth. As for the inhabited worlds, the Ecumene and the Antipodes, Aristotle believed them to be belts stretching around the Earth, which are interrupted by water spaces.

He stood on the point of view of the uninhabitability of the hot zone.

In the works of Aristotle, especially in the work "Meteorology", one can find other issues related to the competence of general geoscience. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to consider him the founder of the geological direction of geography. Subsequent Greek and Roman scholars, as well as Renaissance scholars in the field of general geoscience, primarily commented on Aristotle, agreeing or arguing with him. The attitude towards Aristotle has long characterized the scientific direction of the scientist involved in the natural sciences.

In the history of geographical science, the map has always occupied a significant, extremely important place, because it represented a strictly fixed form of geographical knowledge. The creation of the first scale map is traditionally attributed to the student of Thales 3/6 Ancient Greece: the origins of the main directions of modern geography Anaximander (about 610 - after 547 BC), the author of the first philosophical work in Greek "On Nature" , creator of the geocentric model of space. Anaximander's map was drawn on the sides of the horizon, but it did not reach us. Historical rumor (undocumented information) says that the Milesians sent a bronze copy of this map to Sparta in support of a request for help in the fight against the Persians, but the Spartans found Persia too far away to worry about.

In general, map-like drawings are characteristic of all peoples at any level of civilization. Thus, the pictographic “maps” of the Sumerians have survived to this day from the third millennium BC.

But all these and other map-like creations did not have scientific basis. A map, in order to be a correct representation of reality, must be based on mathematical constructions. Therefore, the true founder of the mathematical-cartographic direction of geography should be considered Eratosthenes of Cyrene (about 276 - 194 BC), who laid the foundations of mathematical geography. In his work "Geographical Notes", known to us only from Strabo's account, he first introduced the term "geography" to replace the previous periplus, periegesis and periods. He was the first to indicate the possibility of reaching India by a western route from the Iberian Peninsula. However, the most important thing is that Eratosthenes made a very close to modern (according to the results obtained) measurement of the length of the meridian arc.

At the same time, he proceeded from the fact that on the day of the summer solstice there is no shadow in Siena - the Sun is reflected in a deep well. On this day, he measured the height of the Sun above the horizon and the shadow of a long column in the courtyard of the Alexandria Museum (in the Egyptian city of Alexandria). Having thus determined that the arc between these cities is 1/50 of the meridian (the circle was then divided into 60 parts), he multiplied the distance between the cities by 50 and received 252 thousand stadia or 39,690 km, which differs by only 319 km from modern measurements . Having found out the length of the meridian, Eratosthenes gave a quantitative estimate of the size of the Ecumene and the uninhabited parts of the Earth. He was the first to use the terms “latitude” and “longitude”, since these concepts are associated with the length and width of the Oecumene and other parts of the earth’s surface. When constructing the map, he used 7 parallels and meridians perpendicular to them.

A significant contribution to the formation of the mathematical and geographical direction was made by Hipparchus (190-126 BC), who replaced Eratosthenes as the chief curator of the Alexandria Museum. He applied the division of the circle into 360 degrees, borrowed from the Assyrians, which allowed him to propose the construction of maps using grids of parallels and meridians. Hipparchus also developed stereographic and orthographic cartographic projections, and invented an astrolabe (to measure the latitude of a place), with which it became possible to measure the height of the North Star. In addition, he showed the possibility of measuring longitude by recording local time at the beginning of a lunar eclipse. However, this method was not used either by himself or by other scientists for a millennium.

It is worth noting the new measurement of the Earth's circumference by Posidonius (135-51 BC), which gave 28,400 km. At the same time, the distance between the Iberian Peninsula and India turned out to be no more than 11 thousand km, which played a significant role positive role during the Great Geographical Discoveries. Posidonius was one of the first to come up with the idea 4/6 Ancient Greece: the origins of the main directions of modern geography of habitability of the equatorial strip, thereby challenging the opinion of Aristotle.

The pinnacle of cartographic thought of the ancient period is the work of Claudius Ptolemy (about 90-168) “A Guide to Geography in 8 Books.” Ptolemy approached geography from an astronomical perspective, making his most ambitious attempt to map the world he knew. He invented the conic and pseudoconic projections; in seven books he provided material for constructing maps, describing 6000 geographical places. Latitudes were determined for 400 of them. The coordinates of other points were measured in days of travel, which led to inevitable distortions. In one book, Ptolemy defines the tasks of geography and its divisions. By geography, he meant a linear depiction of lands for a better overview.

He called the qualitative characteristics of individual parts of the earth's surface chorography, and the art of creating maps topography.

27 maps were attached to Ptolemy's "Manual..." (in subsequent editions up to 64, but Ptolemy's authorship is disputed). This was the first series of cards that received then common noun"ptolemaic"

The idea of ​​changes in the earth's surface also belongs to the oldest achievements of human thought (Heraclitus, 530 - 470 BC). During the time of Pythagoras and Aristotle (VI - IV centuries BC), the first ideas about the dynamics of the nature of the earth's surface appeared, judgments were made about the inconstancy of position and configuration coastline seas, changes in relief, etc. Aristotle’s teaching became widespread and further developed in the works of Xenophanes (VI-V centuries BC), Thucydides (V century BC), Omar Aalem (X century .), Biruni (XI century), Ibn Sina (XI century), etc. In their works one can find attempts to interpret the events of the distant past both in mythology and in the field of studying the structure and development of the Earth by the method of comparative study, in which events modernity serve as analogues of the ancients.

The prototype of the modern ecological trend in geography is the geographical determinism of scientists of the ancient world. Thus, thoughts about the natural determination (conditionality) of the origin and existence of man probably stem from the materialism of Democritus (460-370 BC), who wrote about the influence of the environment, especially climate, on the entire organic world, including person.

This direction received the greatest development in the work “On Airs, Waters and Places” by Hippocrates (460-377 BC), which was called, not without reason, a treatise on medical ecology13, since it examines the influence of natural conditions on the human body.

Hippocrates, having adopted Herodotus's idea of ​​three zones of the Earth - cold, temperate and hot - adapted it to explain the temperaments, customs and social life of peoples. Thus, Hippocrates writes that in cold Scythia people are “oppressed” by the cold and therefore vegetate in savagery and have a hot temper. In hot Egypt, people have a more flourishing appearance, the arts are more developed here, but people, due to the pampering of the favorable climate, are weak-willed.

Optimal conditions with seasonal changes that awaken the mind and stimulate action are found in the middle zone, namely in the areas inhabited by the Greeks. In addition to such 5/6 Ancient Greece: the origins of the main directions of modern geography of “global” generalizations, Hippocrates has valuable medical and environmental observations and discussions about the influence of weather, the properties of water on human health and state of mind.

Plato (423 - 348 BC) originally discussed the interaction between human economic activity and nature. He noted that under the influence of cattle breeding, the fertile lands of Attica with forests turned into a bare skeleton of land, along which water flows without stopping over the bare ground.

Developing the thoughts of his teacher and his predecessors in this direction, Aristotle developed some semblance of a concept about the different suitability of lands for life depending on natural conditions. But he also did not avoid the “traditional” stereotypes of that era: he wrote about the love of freedom and courage of the peoples of the cold countries of the North and West, about the wisdom of the peoples of the hot East and about the combination of all these qualities in the Greeks.

Thus, partly speculatively, partly empirically and mathematically, ancient natural philosophers and geographers laid the foundations for the main modern directions of the natural science branch of geography: regional studies, general geosciences, cartography and environmental studies. However, their systems of views, closely related to history and ethnic studies, were of a humanitarian nature, and therefore in their works one can find thoughts related to the social science branch of geography. In general, the two most important concepts of geography are the unity of nature, people and economy; changes in the situation from place to place - were correctly captured by ancient scientists.