How Geography Continues to Shape Human History
The role of climates and land formations in deciding the course of history cannot be overstated
When you go outside, what do you see? Some will see land that slopes, while others live in the flat lands. Maybe you’re in a desert, or there’s lush greenery and bodies of water all around. How big are those bodies, and are they salt water or fresh water? Are they thin and long with a current, or are they wide, deep, and still? Does it snow there? Are there mountains in the distance?
These particulars about the environment around us can seem insignificant as if they’re there just to offer us some aesthetic benefit or a means for entertaining ourselves on a long weekend. However, these differences in the terrain and climate have decided the course of human events since time immemorial.
When the land has practical importance, its role is pronounced. For example, we can see in World War II how Great Britain, an island, was one of the only European powers able to withstand an attempted Nazi invasion. The water separating that country from the rest of the continent made it impossible to use the strategy for tank-based, ‘blitzkrieg’ that routed so many others.
On another front in World War II, the Soviets would blow up a dam on the…
