The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume IX, No. 4 [‎224v] (119/172)

THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY IN RELATION TO HISTORY.
4:!6
Consider for a moment the great geographical discoveries of the two centuries
that followed 1400: the discovery of the route round the Cape of Good Hope
and of America, which led the way to further explorations, out of which has
grown our colonial empire. Take the great invention of the fifteenth century-
printing. Would it have exercised the same world-wide influence or thought,
at any rate with the same rapidity, if it had not occurred simultaneously with
the extension of geographical knowledge? Imagine for a moment the infinite
extension of thought that would result by the spread of geographical knowledge in
China, if it were only possible to substitute a training in history and geography for
the maxims of Confucius. It might be difficult to break through those 'traditions,
which have been the outcome of geographical conditions and centuries of isolation
—we know from experience how little the Chinaman abroad differs from the
Chinaman at home—but it would certainly, in time, produce an enormous change
in the destinies of the East.
In concluding this short paper, in which I have endeavoured rather to enun
ciate a principle than to set forth a method of teaching geography, 1 should like to
call attention to three of the main advantages of teaching geography in con
nection with history.
I. A study of the physical geography of the British Isles and of Europe would
give the student a firm standpoint for the comparison of the present and past in
English history, and for the appreciation of the main lines of the history of Europe
which affect the British Isles. ^
II. It would assist a student to visualize history, i.e. to call up in his mind
pictures of places and scenes, for he would be learning the history of a country
he knew as a whole, not, as at present, of a country of which he knows next to
nothing. It might be said without exaggeration that the majority of English boys
know as little of the geography of England as a whole as they know of France
and, if they were set to learn the history of France instead of England, could hardly
be more unfamiliar with the country they were studying.
. IIL ^ is the one factor of history that it is impossible to teach in a cut-and-
K ‘ ° take ] me 1 rely the inStanCe of the geographical position of towns, a
student who appreciated that such cities as Geneva and Basle were founded on
the cross-roads followed by ancient migrations; or like Toulouse, where a river
became navigable; or like London, on the limit of a tidal estuary; or Guildford
and Dorking, founded at the passes through the northern Downs ; or Turin as the
Turn "hat” a/ by the Al f 8 ’— ld ‘o «t
lultil what is, after all, the mam aim of education.
Provisional list of epochs and maps desirable for their study—
1 . I he home district. J
th 6 l r S? 8 a a „“ ry0fthePteSent ^ ^ mato ou *^ ces » especially of
.J™ 8 is t0 be b ^ nt u ? from students personal observation in the home
district, progressing from the known to the unknown.)
3. Epochs of English history and geography.
(To be built up from 2 .)
B.C. 55. Invasion.
A. Roman Period.
The British hies.
(1) Tribal divisions and languages.
(2) Degrees of civilization.