ABSTRACT
The past hundred years have seen a vast growth of geographical knowledge. This has come through the opening-up of the world by conquest, trade, missionary enterprise and exploration, and above all through the provision of quick transport by steamship, railway and aeroplane. New opportunities were offered for geographical work, at varying times in different countries, as part of a general broadening of university education. Mackinder has claimed that one of the main foundations of Darwin's work was the appreciation of the geographical distribution of animals under varied climatic conditions. Over the past hundred years, it would scarcely be possible to trace a series of consecutive phases without twisting the evidence into tortured generalizations of a chronological type; there have rather been six main trends of development which will now be considered. At present the trend towards increasing specialization may make much geographical reading far less attractive, if more intellectually satisfying, than the broad generalizations of an earlier time.
