Savitribai Phule Pune University

M.A./M.Sc.II Geography - Sem. IV

(Credit System- 2014)
Gg: 401 Theoretical and Applied Geography
Mr. Sandip Nanasaheb Deshmukh
Assistant Professor,
P.G., Dept. of Geography
S.N.Arts, D.J.M.Comm. & B.N.S. Sci. College, Sangamner.
Unit I : Historical Development of Geographical
Thought
Subtopic : Modern Period
Learning Point : Contribution of Carl Ritter
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 Carl Ritter (1779-1859)

 Carl Ritter was a contemporary of Humboldt .

 He was one of the founders of the modern geographical thought.
 He was dedicated fieldworker and believed in empirical research.
 Ritter had a vision of an ordered and harmonious universe.
 Thus, his approach was teleological .
 Ritter emphasized more on human.
 Ritter was in favour of regional or synthetic approach.
 He was basically an armchair geographer.
 Ritter also authored a great work entitled Die- Erdkunde.
 Die Erdkunde is Ritter’s best-known work and is based on the
regional descriptions of the earth covering largely Asia, Africa and 2

Europe.
 He is famous as a regional geographer and anthropogeographer.
 In 1814, Ritter joined the University of Gottingen and studied
geography, history, pedagogy, physics, chemistry, mineralogy and
botany.
 He founded the Berlin Geographical Society.
 Ritter identified geography as an empirical and descriptive science.
 According to him geography is a subject of great importance which
deals with man-nature relationships.
 He developed the concept of “unity of diversity”.
 Ritter was chiefly concerned with studies of human geography.

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  According to him, geography deals with the local conditions and
embraces three attributes of a place.
1. Topographical : dealing with the natural divisions of the earth;
2. Formal : concerned with systematic or general features as,
e.g. atmosphere, movement of water, etc; and
3. Material : which describe the geographical aspects of natural history
and cover distribution of human beings, minerals, plants, animal etc

Principle of Unity in Diversity:

 The fundamental principle evolved by Ritter was “Unity in Diversity”

 According to him , there is a fundamental unity in biotic and abiotic
components of habit in which man sculptures his cultural environment.
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 In such an approach, all the physical and cultural components of
environment are taken consideration and their relationships is
established in understanding the geography of an areal unit.
 This is a regional approach .
 Unity in diversity means that every naturally bounded area is a unity in
respect of climate, production, culture, population and History.
 Ritter makes few deterministic observations.
 Ritter’s method is said to be deductive because it deduces new
conclusions from fundamental assumptions or from truths established by
other methods.
 Ritter introduced many stimulating ideas.
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 He stressed the ideas of land and water hemispheres , the distinction
between the rates of heating and cooling of land and water, the
difference between the northern and southern hemisphere in their
proportion of land and water.
 He averred that there were differences between the continents,
e,g. Africa and Asia coastline.
 He identified each continent with a different race, having a different
colour. E.g. Africa- Black and Europe -White.

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Die- Erdkunde :
 Ritter declared geography to be Die- Erdkunde or an earth science.
 Die- Erdkunde deals with local conditions and embraces the attributes
of the place with respect to topical, formal and material characteristics.
 This work runs in 13 volumes published between 1817-1859 and
contains about 20,000 pages.
 Ritter claimed that the central principle of geography is “the relation of
all phenomena and forms of nature to the human race, examined and
organized within the framework of the unique geographical associations
of land and man on the earth’s surface”.
 Through his ‘Erdkunde’, Ritter has made a rhetorical claim for
geography as ‘the science of the earth’, ‘the description of the earth as7
home of the man’.
 Ritter sought to develop the concept of terrestrial or spatial unity.
 He divided the earth into major continental units (Erdteile).
 In the second half of the 19th century, there developed some conceptual
problems regarding Ritter’s ‘ Erdkunde’.
1. Ritter’s view geography is concerned with earth’s surface in terms of
areal differences of spatially associated phenomena upon it.
2. The subtitle of ‘Erdkunde’ emphasizes the anthropocentric viewpoint.
If the earth is studied as the home of man, then land, water, atmosphere
and the world of plants and animals should be studied as the human
habitat, i.e. strictly with reference to human occupance. But this is not
true. Because, some of the geographical aspects are independent of
man and can be studied without human influence. 8
3. Even as a world survey, ‘Erdkunde’ is not complete, since it deals
with the study of only three continents , viz. Asia, Europe, and Africa.
 Ritter is also popular among geographers for his Regional Concept.

 His division of the Earth consist of four levels in hierarchical order as

given below:
 1st order ---- Earth (Erdkunde)
 2nd order ----Continental Units (Erdteile)
 3rd order ---- Each Continent to be sub-divided into various relief or
orographic regions; and
 4th order ---- Smaller Areal Units, the terrestrial units that may be
arrived at inductively.
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 One of the classification is related to classification of landforms based
on land configuration and arrangements of landforms based on land
configuration and arrangements in Africa, Europe and Asia, the
continents Ritter studied in depth.
 He arrived at a four –fold classification:
1. Mountains ( greater than 5000) , with five sub-types:
i. Parallel Mountain Chains, e.g. Himalayas;
ii. Diverging or Converging Mountain Chains, e,g. Eastern Alps,
Northern Rockies and Andes;
iii. Ranges Radiating from the central Nucleus, e.g. Southwest Alps;
iv. Ring-Shaped System, e.g. Transylvanian and Bohemian Mountains
(Rumania), and
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v. Cross-Mountains, e.g. Hindukush and Pamirs.
2. Highlands and Plateaus : with two sub-types:
 With an elevation less than 4000,
 With an elevation 4000-5000.
3. Lowlands: (with an elevation below 400): e.g. Great European Plains
and Indo-Gangetic Plains,
4. The Region of Transition between Highlands and Lowlands called
Lands of Gradation or Terrace Lands.

 Ritter was also the founder of comparative method in regional

geography.
 The major geographical concepts of Ritter may be summed up as
1. Ritter conceived geography as an empirical science rather than one
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based deduction from rational principles or apriori theory
2. There is a coherence in the spatial arrangements of terrestrial
phenomena. Areal phenomena are so interrelated as to give rise to
the uniqueness of the areas as individual units.
3. Boundary lines, whether wet or dry (such as rivers or mountains),
were instruments for understanding the real purpose of geography
which is understanding the content areas.
4. According to Ritter , geography was concerned with objects on the
earth as they exist together in an area. He studies areas synthetically,
i.e. in their totality.

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5. Ritter holds a holistic view with respect to the content and purpose of
geographic study, and the whole study was focused on and culminated
in man .
6. He beloved that the earth was an organism made, even its smallest
details, with divine intent, to fit the needs of man to perfection. He
was a teleologist in his approach .

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References :

1. Geographical Thought : A Systematic Record of Evolution

Author : Lalita Rana
2. Evolution of Geographical Thought
Author : Majid Husain

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 Mr. Sandip Nanasaheb Deshmukh
P.G., Dept. of Geography
S.N.Arts, D.J.M.Comm. & B.N.S. Sci.
College, Sangamner.
geodeshmukh@gmail.com
9270012710
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