why was 1859 a critical year in geography
Answers
Explanation:
Carl Ritter
GERMAN GEOGRAPHER
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
LAST UPDATED: Aug 3, 2019 See Article History
Carl Ritter, (born Aug. 7, 1779, Quedlinburg, Prussia—died Sept. 28, 1859, Berlin), German geographer who was cofounder, with Alexander von Humboldt, of modern geographical science.
Carl Ritter
QUICK FACTS
Carl Ritter, lithograph by F. Jentzen from a portrait by F. Krüger
BORN
August 7, 1779
Quedlinburg, Prussia
DIED
September 28, 1859 (aged 80)
Berlin, Germany
(Anniversary in 5 days)
SUBJECTS OF STUDY
geography
Ritter received an excellent education in the natural sciences and was well versed in history and theology. Guided by the educational principles of the famed Swiss teacher Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and by the ideas of the German philosopher-theologian Johann Gottfried von Herder on the relation between man and his environment, Ritter became a teacher and philosopher in the field of geography, serving as professor at the University of Berlin from 1820 until the end of his life.
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Viewing geography as an empirical science, he maintained that its methodology required proceeding from one observation to the next, not from opinion or hypothesis to observation. Though he was convinced that there were laws of geography, he appeared to attach no particular importance to establishing them clearly. He stressed, instead, the importance of utilizing all the sciences to delineate the nature of geography, which was, in his view, unique.
Ritter always regarded Humboldt, who was ten years his senior, as his master and partly based his geographical writings on Humboldt’s ideas. He was frequently more a historian than a geographer and wrote what has come to be known as a geographical interpretation of history. The opposition to his ideas that developed after his death arose in part from the contention that he had made geography ancillary to history. Even so, during his later life and for nearly 20 years following his death, his ideas deeply influenced geographical research in Germany.
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His first geographical writings, on Europe, were published in 1804 and 1807. His great work, Die Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen (“Earth Science in Relation to Nature and the History of Man”), was intended as a world survey but was never completed. The first volume, on Africa, was published in 1817 and brought him his appointment at the University of Berlin; a revised edition appeared in 1822. Between 1832 and his death he regularly published new volumes, chiefly on Asia. The work, though incomplete, ran to 20,000 pages in 19 volumes.
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Humanities
SCHOLARSHIP
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Humanities, those branches of knowledge that concern themselves with human beings and their culture or with analytic and critical methods of inquiry derived from an appreciation of human values and of the unique ability of the human spirit to express itself. As a group of educational disciplines, the humanities are distinguished in content and method from the physical and biological sciences and, somewhat less decisively, from the social sciences. The humanities include the study of all languages and literatures, the arts, history, and philosophy. The humanities are sometimes organized as a school or administrative division in many colleges and universities in the United States.
The Humanities: A Bridge to Ourselves
The Humanities: A Bridge to Ourselves
The Humanities: A Bridge to Ourselves takes a brief look at cultural history and the role of the humanities in self-discovery. This video was produced in 1974 by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
Answer:
Carl Ritter and Alexander von Humboldt, who both died in 1859, were instrumental in firmly establishing geography 1859 year as a critical year.