Lecture notes

Geographical Foundations: Making of a Modern World

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Kings College London (KCL)

An introduction to Human and Development geography, developing a critical awareness of the temporal, spatial and ecological dimensions of modes of production; An understanding of the reciprocal interrelationships between people and environments; An understanding of the geographies of difference wit...

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Uploaded on September 7, 2020
Number of pages 24
Written in 2019/2020
Type Lecture notes
Professor(s) Andrew brooks , alex loftus
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Making of a Modern World
(notes)
Week 1 Thursday (26/09/2019)

Human geography made up of:
 Globalisation
 Human-Nature Interactions
 Urban inequality and transformations

Why are these places poor? Sahara, rainforest in DRC, Nepalese Himalayas
 Not natural environment, because there are similar environments in Saudi Arabia,
Australia, Swiss Alps
 More to do with politics, colonialism, capitalism, connections with ppl

Early humans:
 Australopithecus - 4-1.8mil yrs ago
 Homo erectus - 1.8mil-400,000 yrs ago
 Homo sapiens - 200,000 yrs ago to now

Until 10,000 BC, everyone was in a hunter-gatherer society:
 Technology was spears, nets
 Culture included painted pictures, jewellery
 These societies depend on the environment
 Are still some hunter-gatherer societies today e.g Aborigines in Australia

Development of agriculture progressed humans from hunter-gatherers:
 Farming came from leisurely experimentation e.g trying to get more of a plant they
like
 Necessity due to either climatic change or population growth
 Farmer is more laborious, boring

Agriculture emerged independently in around 7 different locations around the world:
 Earliest emergence in Levant/Fertile Crescent, in present day Iraq/Syria/Turkey
 Farmers amplified the impact on the environment (e.g deforestation) often
irreversibly
 Production enabled division of labour - surplus enabled others to become artists,
kings, priests, warriors
 Society divided between religions, races, classes, increasing diversity

Blaut argument, critical of Jared Diamond:
 Eurocentric
 Too generalising
 Neglects choice
 Catalogue rather than explanation

, Doesn’t truly explain divergence of Europeans and Chinese

, Week 2 Thursday (3/10/2019)

From early civilisation to the rise of the nation state

Emergence of state societies (e.g Mesopotamia in 4000 BC) discounts the idea that the
environment causes development - its more to do with modes of production and merthods
of organising society

Blaut: Critique of diamond:
 Eurocentric - doesn’t look at rise of civilisations in sub-Saharan Africa
 Crude and generalising - description not an explanation
 Neglects choice - China decided not to ‘conquer’ ROTW as they had what they
needed around them. In addition, societies not adapting agriculture was a choice
 Biologist looking at history, so disregards social science
 Europe similar to other societies until 16th century (e.g Great Zimbabwe in AD 1000-
1400 had castles and fortresses comparable to European ones of the time

Zheng He (from China) reached east Africa, found archaeological remains and more, found
Incans in S.America, Angkor Wat in Cambodia BEFORE COLOMBUS

1492 - paradigm shift

Rise of capitalism led to uneven development of global economy

Early agriculture allowed surplus food, leading to increased population density and division
of labour, also known as social differentiation.
 How surplus was produced and unevenly distributed between classes shaped
society, culture and success or failure of societies

FEUDAL SOCIETY - pyramid shape, with kings at the top and farmers and slaves (who
produce food and commodities for the kings at the top) at the bottom

ECONOMY - interrelated processes of production, circulation, exchange, consumption

POLITICAL ECONOMY - production & accumulation of wealth and uneven distribution of
surplus

FACTORS OF PRODUCTION - land, labour, capital (investment) and knowledge

MODES OF PRODUCTION - socioeconomic systems determining how work is organised and
wealth distributed

CAPITALISM - to do with saved money used by entrepreneurial class to employ waged
labour and make commodities for sale in markets
 Emerged 500 yrs ago
 Some believe it developed independently in many locations
 Global capitalism is mainly tied to Europe

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