Historical Geography

Brief Outline:

• why?
• culture hearths
• colonialism
• effects of colonialism

Why

The world 's cultural landscape is shaped by history. Therefore it is important for us to study historical geography to understand the WHY THERE? question. For example, why do they speak French in Cameroon [afcolony]? Or why is Islam the primary religion in Indonesia [muslmwor]?

We will narrow our introduction to historical geography to two issues: ancient culture hearths and colonialism.

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Culture Hearths

DEFINITION

a culture hearth is a "heartland", a source area, innovation center, a place of origin of a major culture

Where? [wwhearth]

• Mesopotamia
• Nile Valley Indus Valley
• Wei-Huang Valley
• Ganges Valley
• Mesoamerica
• West Africa
• Andean America

When? [hearthgr]

Know the locations of the world's ancient culture hearths. As we continue our study of the world's realms we'll study these further and try to answer the "WHY DO WE CARE?" question.

OBJECTIVE: Develop a general idea of the major imperial powers in the last two centuries and the locations of their colonies.

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Colonialism

DEFINITION

the attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its economic and cultural principles in another territory

WHY? / MOTIVES

1. promote religious beliefs
2. obtain a source of resources
3. obtain power and status
4. geopolitical / geostrategic reasons

WHEN?

many early empires

• Greeks: [eugrkemp] ,
• Romans: [euroman],
• Chinese: [chempire]
• Arab-Islamic Empire: [muslmwor] (beginning in the 7th century)
• Ottoman Empire: [nwottom] (16th century to WW1)

European Colonization
(15th century to 1970s to present)

Europeans controlled ? % world's land surface:

• 1500: 9%
• 1800: 35%
• 1878: 67%
• 1914: 85%

Two Waves of European colonialism:

1) Wave #1: 1415-1825

• Western Hemisphere
• independence 1776-1824
• mainly settlement colonies/immigrants
• 5 major colonial powers
• Spain and Portugal: major powers
• Max. # colonies: 147 in 1774
• conquest, plunder, slavery, annihilation of indigenous peoples

2) Wave #2: Since the mid 1800s

• Asia, Africa, and the Pacific
• colonies of occupation rather than settlement
• 10 colonial powers
• Great Britain and France: major powers
• Max. # colonies: 168 in 1925
• less destructive than first wave
• colonies seen as sources of cheap resources

EUROPEAN COLONIZATION - WHO?

• United Kingdom (controlled 24% of land surface)
• France
• Portuguese
• Spain
• Germany
• Italy
• Denmark
• the Netherlands
• Belgium
• Others
  • United States
  • Russia
  • China
  • Japan

The effects of European colonialism can still be seen around the world. Therefore, we need to be aware of why countries colonize, when they colonized, and what are the effects of that colonization. We will try to answer these questions for each of the world's realms that we will be studying.

There are a few colonies that still remain today. Also, the countries of Russia and China are the result of past colonization of surrounding areas and some still consider these countries to be empires today.

OBJECTIVE: Develop a general idea of the major imperial powers in the last two centuries and the locations of their colonies.

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Effects of Colonization

There are far too many effects of colonization to list here now. Review this list [Effects] made up by my students in previous classes and think of other effects that can still be seen today.

OBJECTIVE: Be able to discuss some of the effects of colonization.

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