ABSTRACT

Many writers on geography and on history, from Herodotus to the present day, have made some references to relations between these subjects, including those related to the political aspects of both. But, so far as I know, the first modern attempt at a systematic treatment of Political Geography was in the works of Friedrich Rated, particularly in his Politische Geographie (1897). This work had a considerable influence on later thought, especially in its concepts of the influence of space relations on the growth of states and its foreshadowing of the concept of lebensraum and the need for an expanding state to acquire sufficient lebensraum for its growth. An application of these ideas may be seen in Friedrich Naumann’s Mitteleuropa (1915, English translation 1916). More objective studies came from French geographers, including Camille Vallaux’s introductory work on Political Geography and Albert Demangeon’s L’Empire Britannique.