The word geography

The word ‘geography’ has been in use since the time of Eratosthenes. At fist it included all aspects dealing with description of earth and its parts. As mentioned earliar, the word ‘geography’ consists of two Greek words,’geo’(earth) and’graphein’ (to write). The former is more important and refers to “the zone of contact of the solid, lipuid and gaseous masses that make up the planet”, while the latter refers to the description of these phenomenta in relation to “place , localization and distribution “. A descrption of these earth-bound phenomena is geography.

There are varieties of phenomena occuring on the surface of the earth- some are mutually inclusive, some are mutually exclusive, othere are interrelated and interacting , while some are purely physical phenomena and some are purely human phenomena .But all these phenomena , whether physical or human, are relative , in as much as they have distinct ‘place’ of their ‘localization’ and ‘distribution’.A combination of both physical and human phenomena, occuring on the earth’s surface as mutually interrelated and interacting , appears to be the ‘core’ of geography

EVIDENCE ON HISTORY DEPENDENCE AND INDUSTRY

Economists Stephen Redding, Daniel Sturm, and Nikolaus Wolf have also explored these issues in two papers. They examined the effects of Germany’s division and reunification  on its economic geography.

 In their 2011 paper, Redding, Sturm, and Wolf found that the division of Germany led to a shift in the location of air hub traffic from Berlin, where it had been concentrated, to Frankfurt. Following reunification, they found no evidence of a shift back to Berlin.

They interpreted this evidence in the following way: The division of Germany after World War II made continued hub operations in Berlin less profitable because that city became more isolated relative to other cities in the new West Germany.

Frankfurt became relatively more attractive and subsequently became the preeminent air hub. Finally, reunification made Berlin less isolated and therefore a more attractive location for hub activities relative to its Cold War value. However, the authors found no evidence of a return of air traffic to Berlin; in fact, hub traffic continued to rise in Frankfurt and decline in Berlin following reunification. Thus, a historical shock had a permanent effect on the distribution of economic activity.