{"id":41642,"date":"2021-07-05T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=41642"},"modified":"2021-07-12T11:11:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T15:11:33","slug":"geography-and-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Geography and History: How the Earth Shapes Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the relationship between geography and history? How is civilization impacted by the physical structure of the earth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/race-in-society\/\">Lessons of History<\/a><\/em>, eminent historians Will and Ariel Durant offer their perspectives on these interesting questions. They discuss geography and history, revealing a few lessons that historical patterns can teach us about the development of civilizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more to learn about the relationship between geography and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History and the Earth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What is the connection between geography and history? Geography is the physical structure that holds history.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Water has always been a powerful force in human history. Civilization habitually develops along waterways &#8211; rivers, lakes, oceans. Water provides life and offers inexpensive routes of transport and trade. Here are a couple of examples from history:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Egypt and Nile, India and Ganges, Italy and the Tiber\/Arno\/Po, France and the Rhone<\/li><li>For 2000 years the Mediterranean hosted the battles of the \u201cwhite man\u2019s ascendancy.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent history, the airplane neutralizes some of the advantages that waterways provide. This has allowed inland countries such as Russia, China, and Brazil to develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside forces such as climate no longer control humans. However, they do limit us. And we are still at the mercy of these larger geographical and geological forces. For example, in a moment, an earthquake can destroy a city that took two centuries to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While there is a meaningful relationship between geography and history, at the end of the day, man is the one that makes civilization by transforming the possibilities into fact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the relationship between geography and history? How is civilization impacted by the physical structure of the earth? In The Lessons of History, eminent historians Will and Ariel Durant offer their perspectives on these interesting questions. They discuss geography and history, revealing a few lessons that historical patterns can teach us about the development of civilizations. Read more to learn about the relationship between geography and history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":41799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,160],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-41642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-science","tag-the-lessons-of-history","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Geography and History: How the Earth Shapes Us - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Historians Will and Ariel Durant discuss geography and history, revealing what patterns can teach us about the development of civilizations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Geography and History: How the Earth Shapes Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Historians Will and Ariel Durant discuss geography and history, revealing what patterns can teach us about the development of civilizations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-05T22:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-12T15:11:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/world-globe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"974\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"570\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"Geography and History: How the Earth Shapes Us\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-05T22:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-12T15:11:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/\"},\"wordCount\":264,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/world-globe.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Lessons of History\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/geography-and-history\/\",\"name\":\"Geography and History: How the Earth Shapes Us - 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