"Geographical determinism" is not created by modern people. As early as ancient Greece, the philosopher Hippocrates put forward the bud of this theory. Xunzi in the Warring States period believed that the fierce character of Qin people was closely related to the relatively harsh geographical environment. Sima Qian analyzed the customs and habits of various countries with geographical factors in Historical Records and Biography of Huo Zhi. /kloc-the French thinker J. bodan in the 6th century and Montesquieu in the 8th century further elaborated this theory. In the19th century, the theory even became a social school, mainly represented by F. Ratzer of Germany. 19 At the end of the 20th century, "geographical determinism" also became a theoretical tool for fascists to advocate "superior nations" and expand and invade abroad. "Geography" has developed from the initial connection with individual intelligence, physical strength and personality to the connection with social system, national laws and national spirit. Geographical factors are considered to determine the social organization, economic development and historical destiny of each country.
What is "geographical determinism"
Geographical determinism is an angle and method to analyze various problems with geographical factors.
Geographical factors include but are not limited to:
Spatial location (tropical or cold zone, eastern hemisphere or western hemisphere),
Surface landform (inland or coastal, plain or mountain),
Geological structure (thickness and fertility of soil layer, whether there are many volcanic earthquakes),
Ecological environment (whether the species of animals and plants are rich and whether the ecological structure is stable),
Climatic weather (dry or rainy, cold or warm),
Geographical relationship (close to where, close to what resources),
Geographical changes (landform and climate change, population migration) and so on.
People often use "geographical determinism" to analyze the process and results of history, culture and economy, such as national character, diet structure, customs and habits, architectural style, art form, war cause and effect, scientific and technological achievements and so on.
It should be noted that "geographical determinism" is not a universal "truth". It is more like a tool, a set of methodology, analyzing problems from a geographical perspective, judging right and wrong, and predicting results. This theory can be combined with other analytical methods, and it is not the only standard.
How to use "geographical determinism"
But "geographical determinism" is by no means omnipotent. When geographical determinism analyzes things, the longer the time scale is, the more accurate it is and the wider the analysis area is. On the contrary, the shorter the time scale, the narrower the analysis surface, and the more inaccurate it is.
Take Indonesia as an example. Why are there more than 100 ethnic groups in this country? Obviously, it is determined by the scattered and numerous islands in Indonesia (there are about 17508 islands in Indonesia). Due to the underdeveloped navigation technology in ancient times, people scattered on various islands have hardly communicated for thousands of years, and rarely influenced and merged with each other, naturally forming many nationalities with completely different customs and habits. The time scale of this analysis is thousand years and ten thousand years.
Another example: Why are so many islands in Indonesia unified into one country? It is not easy to answer this question with "geographical determinism" in a narrow sense, because it is impossible to "spontaneously" merge such scattered and numerous islands into one country only from the analysis of Indonesia's geographical factors. To analyze this problem, we need to enlarge the perspective-the factor that prompted Indonesia to become a "country of ten thousand islands" must be the influence of external forces, that is, the colonial rule of Britain and the Netherlands. Britain and the Netherlands used to be the largest countries in the sea, with the strongest navies in the world and colonial footprints all over the world. Indonesia, a place full of islands, naturally became the best place for naval colonial rule. After the end of the colonial era, this big island, which was originally colonized, has the conditions to be unified into a country. Why Britain and the Netherlands developed such a powerful navy is closely related to their geographical location, which can be analyzed by "geographical determinism"
Does the development of science and technology invalidate geographical determinism?
Some people think that with the development of science and technology and infrastructure, geographical factors have less and less influence on people's lives. For example, through the developed transportation system, northerners can also eat fresh fruits and vegetables from the south in winter. There is no need to hoard Chinese cabbage for the winter, which changes the geographical restrictions of people's diet.
But technology can't smooth out all the differences caused by geographical factors. After all, it is always more expensive to buy tropical fruits and vegetables in the north than in the south! Eating habits can't be exactly the same as those in the south. Even in the south, there are seven major cuisines, which are divided into four styles: spicy, not spicy, spicy and sweet.
Another example: Han people can eat rice and vegetables, while Mongolians eat meat at once, which is of course difficult to eliminate; Japanese people like the habit of sashimi (raw food), and they will definitely be unaccustomed in China.
The great differences in people's lives caused by geographical environment cannot be eliminated in a short time. On the one hand, there is great inertia in living habits, and on the other hand, the cost of change is high-these two points are precisely determined by geographical factors.
Misunderstanding of "Geographical Determinism"
Many people have many misunderstandings about "geographical determinism", and the cold historical summary is mainly in three aspects:
● First of all, the definition of "geography" is too narrow, which refers to geographical location and natural environment. Only use those basic geography knowledge learned in middle school to analyze the problem. But as mentioned above, "geographical determinism" also includes geography, climate, change and other factors, and its concept is very rich.
The second is to look at geography from a static perspective, thinking that geography and geography seem to remain unchanged for thousands of years. In fact, the geographical environment is always changing. For example, there are various great ice ages and small ice ages in history, which have profoundly affected people's lives; Liangshan area, which is relatively dry and short of water today, used to be "eight hundred miles of water" in the Song Dynasty; Earlier, the climate in northern China was humid and warm, and elephants once lived there. This is how the word "Xiang" in Henan's abbreviation "Yu" came from.
Once again, I am too obsessed with single-line thinking to analyze a problem with multi-line thinking. For example, many people will ask, the geographical position of the American continent is so good, why didn't the Indians develop a powerful country, but the white Europeans came to this continent and developed it? Isn't this determined by race? In fact, the backwardness and closure of Indian civilization are determined by geographical factors, because the American continent has not had long-term exchanges with other continents since ancient times, and it is impossible to learn advanced scientific and technological civilization from other places; Although Europe and East Asian civilizations are separated from Wan Li, there are always land exchanges such as the Silk Road. Through this intermittent communication, the west has learned advanced technologies such as stirrup, gunpowder, papermaking, printing, compass, etc., so it is possible to "hang" the backward indigenous civilization in Discover America. The earliest discovery of America by Europeans was also determined by geography and geographical factors. First, because Europe was blocked by the Ottoman Empire on its trade routes with the East in the 15 and 16 centuries, Europeans urgently needed to open up routes with the East in other ways, and accidentally discovered the American continent when sailing west. And why do Europeans need foreign trade so much that China doesn't? It is also determined by geographical factors. -interlocking, multi-line parallel use of "geographical determinism" can explain many problems well.
Learning and applying "geographical determinism" can not only explain historical problems, but also find a law and method by analyzing the reasons. Combined with other methodologies and theoretical tools, multi-thread parallel thinking can even predict the future to a certain extent (for example, Leng Shi thinks that Vietnam has a very good geographical position and may become an economically developed country in the future).
Cold history likes to use "geographical determinism" to analyze problems, and the related articles are as follows:
The world as a whole is rich in the north and poor in the south. Why is China just the opposite? 》
The curse of resources! Why are people in tropical areas "lazy" and southern countries generally backward? 》
"Being an island country, why is there such a big gap between Japan and the Philippines? 》
Historical reasons why Japanese people's teeth are generally ugly.
Geography determines history: Why China is easy to reunify but Europe is difficult to reunify.
"Why did the United War win more from north to south in history?"
……
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