The Theory of Environment / An Outline of the History of the Idea of Milieu, and Its Present Status, part 1

by Armin Hajman Koller

[117]. Vorlesungen, etc., delivered at Berlin in 1891 and 1897/8.

[118]. “... Es ist mehr unsere Aufgabe gewesen, in dem großen Getriebe der Siedlung und des Verkehrs der allmählichen Entwicklung nachzugehen, das steigende Maß der Überwindung von Widerständen durch den Menschen zu zeigen, die Kräfte zu untersuchen, welche in der Entwicklung wirksam sind,—als bei der großen Fülle des Tatsächlichen der heutigen Zeit zu verweilen.” Vorlesungen, p. 351.

[119]. It will be noted that Herder is not mentioned here.

[120]. Ellen C. Semple, Influences of Geographic Environment (N. Y., 1911), p. V.

[121]. “In Germany the exponents of these theories [of environmental influence] were Cotta and Kohl, and later Peschel, Kirchhof, Bastian, and Gerland; but the greatest name of all is that of Fr. Ratzel, who has written the standard work on Anthropogeographie.”—Haddon and Quiggin, Hist. of Anthropology (London, 1910), p. 152.—The first vol. of Ratzel’s Anthropogeographie was published in 1882, 2nd ed. in 1899, the second vol. in 1897.

[122]. As further illustration, it might be instructive to compare here the chapter headings of Semple’s Influences of Geographic Environment, which book was written “On the Basis of Ratzel’s System of Anthropo-geography.” They are as follows: I—Operation of Geographic Factors in History (1–31); II—Classes of Geographic Influences (22–50); III—Society and State in Relation to the Land (51–73); IV—Movements of Peoples in Their Geographical Significance (74–128); V—Geographical Location (129–67); VI—Geographical Area (168–203); VII—Geographical Boundaries (204–41); VIII—Coast Peoples (242–91); IX—Oceans and Enclosed Seas (292–317); X—Man’s Relation to the Water (318–35); XI—The Anthropo-geography of Rivers (336–80); XII—Continents and Their Peninsulas (380–408); XIII—Island Peoples (409–72); XIV—Plains, Steppes and Deserts (473–523); XV—Mountain Barriers and Their Passes (524–56); XVI—Influences of a Mountain Environment (557–606); XVII—The Influences of Climate upon Man (607–37).

[123]. Richthofen’s Vorlesungen, p. 13.

[124]. 1897; 2. Aufl. 1903.

[125]. “Diese [die enge Erdgebundenheit] in ihrer ganzen tiefgreifenden Bedeutung für das staatliche Leben erkannt und dargelegt zu haben, bleibt freilich für immer ein großes Verdienst der ‘Politischen Geographie’ ...”—O. Schlüter, “Die leitenden Gesichtspunkte d. Anthropogeogr.,” Arch. f. Sozialwiss., Bd. IV, p. 620.

[126]. Vide Richthofen, l.c., p. 12.