What geographic features affect settlement patterns in South Asia?
Major geographical features that affect settlement patterns in South Asia include the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Himalaya Mountain Range, the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra rivers, and large bodies of oceans such as the Indian Ocean, which is home to the Maldives Islands, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea.
How does geography affect culture?
While geography played a major role in where civilizations began and where people settle, it has a corresponding effect on the cultures of those people who do settle there. For example, let's look again at the early United States. Many of the folk songs and games that are still played today are highly influenced by geography.
What is the importance of Geography in geography?
Geography is often a major factor in deciding where a group of people settle. People need access to natural resources to build their homes and other infrastructure, to land that can provide food and water, and to places that are easily accessible to those who live in them.
How does geography affect human conflict?
While geography helped dictate where civilization occurred and impacts human culture, it is of the utmost importance in any human conflict. Geography can make or break a military campaign. Before the widespread use of airplanes, rivers and mountains could divide armies, and geography and topography can prove a deciding factor in any conflict.
How does geography affect the culture of the people who settle there?
While geography played a major role in where civilizations began and where people settle, it has a corresponding effect on the cultures of those people who do settle there. For example, let's look again at the early United States. Many of the folk songs and games that are still played today are highly influenced by geography. Songs like 'Home on the Range' and 'Get Along Little Doggies' were created in the 1800s when immigrants and homesteaders flocked to the wide-open plains of the American west. Lyrics like 'where the sky is not cloudy all day' are reflections of what it was like living in that environment.
Why is geography important?
Geography - or the study of the land features, human settlement, and civilization itself - is, it's easy to imagine, incredibly important to the way in which human societies are scattered, and even where human civilization began.
Why did civilizations grow up in rivers?
All of these civilizations grew up where they did not because the humans who lived near the rivers were that much smarter than in other regions, but because of the area's geography. These large, freshwater rivers were a ready source of water and also provided a ready source of food, as seasonal flooding provided fertile soil for growing crops. With the ability to grow crops and a surplus of food, and with water nearby, there was no longer a need to move from place to place in search of resources. Furthermore, without every minute of the day being devoted to finding food, ancient humans could now devote themselves to more leisurely pursuits, like contemplating life (i.e., religion) and developing plans and methods to organize their relationships with other humans (i.e., civilization and government). These rivers and the geography of the ancient world did not necessarily cause the birth of civilization, but it certainly dictated where it took place.
How does geography affect culture?
While geography impacts culture, it can also isolate it. For example, the Polynesians who lived on Easter Island developed a culture and language entirely unique to the island. Protected from outside influences by the remoteness of their islands, the Easter Islanders built massive stone faces and engaged in rituals that no one had seen before when Europeans first discovered the island in the 18th century. In fact, anthropologists and historians are still piecing together exactly how Easter Islanders managed to build such massive stone sculptures and transport them around the island without the use of modern machinery.
Why did the US fail in Vietnam?
Though the United States failed in Vietnam due an enormous range of factors, a key component of this was their inability to cope with, and prepare for, the geography of Southeast Asia. The farther back we go into history, the more important geography was to the outcome of a conflict.
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What battle was made possible by geography?
For example, in 480 BCE the famed Battle of Thermopylae was made entirely possible by geography. In this battle, only a few thousand Greeks, led by a small band of Spartan warriors, held at bay for three days a Persian army that numbered in the hundreds of thousands.