ABSTRACT

Geography is no exception to the rule, and its branch of political geography is able to draw upon a particularly rich "heritage" covering many centuries of ideas concerned with the spatial structure of political organization and process. In political geography there is a long-standing interest in the relationship between the environment, both in its natural state and as modified by man all aspects of political structure, process, and behavior. In respect to population characteristics, Aristotle was well aware that absolute size meant little, and he discussed the political implications of size variation. He implied that a political consideration might set the ideal size of a population in that, for the "good life" in the political community and hence "the largest number that can be taken in at a single view" is the optimum size. Montesquieu, however as Kriesel has indicated and he examined at length the processes involved in the relationship among climate, agriculture, and political systems.