Geography Form One | Notes

The term "geography" comes from the ancient Greeks, who needed a word to describe the writings and maps that were helping them make sense of the world in which they lived.

 It is a combination of two Greek words: "geo" and "graphia". In Greek, "geo" means “Earth” and "graphia" means “to write, draw or describe”.

These two words together form geography, which means to draw, write about or describe the Earth. These meanings led to the development of the early definition of geography which referred to description of the Earth by words, maps and statistics and included both the physical Earth and everything found on it such as plants, animals and people.

Therefore, geography is the study of the distribution and interrelationship of phenomena in relation to the Earth’s surface. Alternatively, geography can be described as the study of the Earth and its environment.

Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. They also examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment and the way locations and places can have an impact on people.

 Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time. There are two branches of geography, namely physical geography, and human and economic geography: Physical geography - mainly concerned with the study of Earth’s seasons, weather, climate, soil, streams, landforms, and oceans.

All of these features form the physical environment which includes all natural features found on the Earth’s surface such as water bodies, mountains, rivers, plains, natural forests, etc.

 Human and economic geography - involves the study of human activities on the Earth's surface. Human activities include farming, trade, mining, transportation, settlement, tourism, etc.

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