explain how the geography of acountry influence its history?
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Geography affects every aspect of history as it is responsible for determining the winners of wars, the prosperity of people and the formation of cultures.
Because the events of history take place on the stage of the world, they are inevitably influenced and even determined by geography.
Because the events of history take place on the stage of the world, they are inevitably influenced and even determined by geography.
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Geography of India is probably the biggest factor behind its history.
Let me start with the most conspicuous aspects of India's geography -
THE HIMALAYAS AND HIMALAYAN RIVERS - the 2,400 kilometres long Himalayan range was created as a result of collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian Plate that took place around 50 million years ago.
The Himalayas are home to 9 out of the 10 highest peaks in the world.
They have the third largest deposit of ice and snow in the world, after Antarctica and the Arctic covered in around 15,000 glaciers. And this is despite being close to the warmer part of earth where the permanent snow line is around 18,000 feet.
Two of the world's largest river basins originate from the Himalayas -
Indus basin - including Western rivers - the mighty Indus, and Sutlej, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Jhelum
Ganga-Brahmaputra basin - the mighty and holy Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, and several other tributaries.
OTHER RANGES AND RIVERS - Apart from Himalayas, there are the Vindhya and Satpura ranges in Central India and the Shahyadri or Western Ghats in Western India that are sources of other major rivers in India like Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, and the Aravali range that is the oldest and runs for around 800 kms.
MONSOONS - One of the most anticipated, tracked, and studied weather phenomena in the region. The monsoon can be categorized into two branches based on their spread over the subcontinent -
Arabian Sea branch
Bay of Bengal branch
Now coming over to History. Modern humans stepped out of Africa around 70,000 years ago and spread to other parts of the world. As part of that exodus, they arrived in India as well and there are many cave sites (Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh being a prominent one) that have preserved records of human activity. However, historians consider all that under Pre-History category. History, by definition is related to the period since humans started some form of writing. Based on this criteria, history of India is supposedly the period of last 5,000 years.
BIGGEST REVOLUTION IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND - It is not Industrial Revolution or Renaissance. It is the Agricultural Revolution. Sometime during 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, humans figured out somewhere near modern day Iraq and Turkey, how to grow crops. And thus they solved the biggest problem in our entire existence of millions of years. Prior to that, humans spent entire days, weeks, months, years searching for food. This invention spread in all directions and traveling eastwards, reached India as well. India had the best ingredients - plenty of rivers as well as monsoon rains that had created largest alluvial plains with fertile soil on the planet and a good climate that supported growing crops round the year. The result was explosive growth in human population and settlements. Mehrgarh (in Pakistan) is one of the oldest sites that has record of agriculture from 7,000 years ago.
This invention gave humans extra time to focus on other activities - pottery (storing the food), tool making, arts & crafts, home building, town building, guarding (the food grains), and so on. As a result Indus Valley Civilization came up around 3,500 BCE and flourished on the banks of Indus River and Saraswati River (now extinct) and the region between. Just like great civilizations and settlements came up on the banks of Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Danube. Interestingly, all such civilizations fall in a narrow range of latitude, as shown below.
Let me start with the most conspicuous aspects of India's geography -
THE HIMALAYAS AND HIMALAYAN RIVERS - the 2,400 kilometres long Himalayan range was created as a result of collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian Plate that took place around 50 million years ago.
The Himalayas are home to 9 out of the 10 highest peaks in the world.
They have the third largest deposit of ice and snow in the world, after Antarctica and the Arctic covered in around 15,000 glaciers. And this is despite being close to the warmer part of earth where the permanent snow line is around 18,000 feet.
Two of the world's largest river basins originate from the Himalayas -
Indus basin - including Western rivers - the mighty Indus, and Sutlej, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Jhelum
Ganga-Brahmaputra basin - the mighty and holy Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, and several other tributaries.
OTHER RANGES AND RIVERS - Apart from Himalayas, there are the Vindhya and Satpura ranges in Central India and the Shahyadri or Western Ghats in Western India that are sources of other major rivers in India like Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, and the Aravali range that is the oldest and runs for around 800 kms.
MONSOONS - One of the most anticipated, tracked, and studied weather phenomena in the region. The monsoon can be categorized into two branches based on their spread over the subcontinent -
Arabian Sea branch
Bay of Bengal branch
Now coming over to History. Modern humans stepped out of Africa around 70,000 years ago and spread to other parts of the world. As part of that exodus, they arrived in India as well and there are many cave sites (Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh being a prominent one) that have preserved records of human activity. However, historians consider all that under Pre-History category. History, by definition is related to the period since humans started some form of writing. Based on this criteria, history of India is supposedly the period of last 5,000 years.
BIGGEST REVOLUTION IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND - It is not Industrial Revolution or Renaissance. It is the Agricultural Revolution. Sometime during 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, humans figured out somewhere near modern day Iraq and Turkey, how to grow crops. And thus they solved the biggest problem in our entire existence of millions of years. Prior to that, humans spent entire days, weeks, months, years searching for food. This invention spread in all directions and traveling eastwards, reached India as well. India had the best ingredients - plenty of rivers as well as monsoon rains that had created largest alluvial plains with fertile soil on the planet and a good climate that supported growing crops round the year. The result was explosive growth in human population and settlements. Mehrgarh (in Pakistan) is one of the oldest sites that has record of agriculture from 7,000 years ago.
This invention gave humans extra time to focus on other activities - pottery (storing the food), tool making, arts & crafts, home building, town building, guarding (the food grains), and so on. As a result Indus Valley Civilization came up around 3,500 BCE and flourished on the banks of Indus River and Saraswati River (now extinct) and the region between. Just like great civilizations and settlements came up on the banks of Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Danube. Interestingly, all such civilizations fall in a narrow range of latitude, as shown below.
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