how do you think knowing the geography of a region will help in understanding its history and social activities
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Answer:
Using the Geographic Perspective to Enrich History
By Sarah Bednarz
Geography and history are complementary subjects best taught together within the social studies curriculum. It is part of the collected wisdom of teachers that one cannot teach history without geography or geography without history. But what exactly is the nature of the relationship? What are the key concepts in geography that contribute to the teaching of history? And, what strategies can teachers use most effectively to link them together?
This article uses two standards from Geography for Life:
National Geography Standards 19941 to examine the relationship between geography and history. It presents a framework of four questions that focus on using geography to interpret the past. And it explores one strategy for developing history lessons that are well-grounded in geography in order to create memorable learning experiences.
Going Beyond Where "I teach geography when I teach history; I make sure my students know the locations of all the places we are studying." This statement represents one common understanding of the relationship between geography and history. It focuses on location, or where an event happens. The same understanding comes into play when teachers in my state discuss the sequencing of high school world geography and world history courses: "Of course, geography should be taught first so students know where places are when we study them in history."
The location of places is an essential component of the geographic perspective. Geographers, like historians, understand that all events have causes and consequences that depend partly upon where the action occurs. To a geographer, however, location is more than just where; it is also why and how and so what. The geographer looks not only at where things are located, but why and how they got there, and what difference location makes.
Geography is a rich and complex discipline with two key perspectives: (1) the spatial perspective, which centers on location and an understanding of what may be called whereness; and (2) the ecological perspective, which considers how humans interact with their physical environment. "The discipline of geography brings together the physical and human dimensions of the world in the study of people, places, and environments."2 It studies the patterns produced by human and physical phenomena on Earth's surface, and the processes that shape these patterns. This is in contrast to the historical perspective, which is temporal, and views human events primarily in terms of a chronological framework.
The geographic perspective is not strongly represented in the modern social studies curriculum. This is because most social studies teachers receive their training in history, and have little or no background in geography. Geography is typically defined as the physical environment (i.e., landforms and climates) and viewed as the backdrop before which history unfolds. Yet, more often than not, geography intrudes into the drama of historical change, rather than merely providing an arena for history.3
Linking Geography and History
What are the links between geography and history? The answer involves three assumptions:
It is impossible to understand the present without understanding geography.
It is impossible to understand the present without understanding the past.
It is impossible to understand the past without understanding geography.
In other words, the rationale for history (studying the past to understand the present) requires knowing geography: today's geography and the geography of different places at different times in the past.
Here are two examples of using the geographic perspective to understand history.