World Geography Free Essay Example, 1000 words

Through all these ages, geographic knowledge helped man in his exploration and navigation endeavors. James and Trapasso (2006) claimed that it would have been difficult for Columbus to discover America and the West Indies without a world map. On the other hand, Arab traders would not travel to unchartered territories without knowing the distance between continents. This means that there would be no definite globalization, governance structures and spatial planning without the knowledge of geography. Importance of Geography Understanding different aspects of the earth is important in explaining apparent disparities in terms of resource endowment, political orientations and climatic discordance of regions. According to Chant (2002), knowledge developed from studying influence of latitudes is important in explaining difference between tropic and polar climates. Understanding climatic difference of regions marked the foundation of agriculture as part of economic geography. Therefore, geography unearthed the varied resource endowment of regions across the world. In addition, without knowledge of temperature and soil differences, people in Sri Lanka would not know that their country has high potential for tea farming. On the other hand, people would still be wondering why natural tragedies like earth quakes and hurricanes happen. We will write a custom essay sample on World Geography or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now According to Short (2003), study of longitudinal aspects was important in comprehending time difference observed between different regions across the world. Geography and European Imperialism At some point in historical studies, one may fail to understand how European countries like Britain, Germany and France conquered vast geographical regions in Africa and Asia. However, such phenomena can be explained by acknowledging the role played by geography in imperialism. European imperialism features as one of the territorial expansions which benefited immensely from geography. During the early 18th Century, European nations like Britain and France were undergoing substantial development and accumulation of wealth. According to Phillips and Jones (2005), the desire to amass great wealth led to exploration of other geographical regions having indefinite governance structures but with abundant natural resources. In this context, member states involved in European imperialism started planning for their territorial expansion using geographical knowledge of Africa and Asia. First, British army commanders were able to indentify viable spots in Asian territories like Singapore where they could establish ports for their navy ships.