Geography Strikes Back?

Geography Strikes Back?

From Geography Matters by Chris Hamnett

June 1, 2026 · 41 min · Season 2 · Episode 15

About this episode

The episode discusses the varying importance of geography throughout history and its impact on societies.

In this podcast Klaus Dodds and I go back to a topic we discussed in the first series - how, when and where does geography matter. We start by arguing that everything that happens in the world happens in both time and space. In that sense geography is everywhere. But we argue that the role and importance of geography varies over time and across societies. In the Age of Discovery sailors from Western countries were exploring and opening up hitherto unknown parts of the world. Then in the mid- late C19th, geography was increasingly important for Western colonial powers as new parts of the world were incorporated into the growing international system. This period was associated with a set of some western views about the links between climate and economic and social development which tended to argue that western countries had developed rapidly because of their climatic and other advantages. From mid C20th onwards these views were questioned and economic and social development was increasingly seen to be linked to a wider set of economic and political factors. We discuss th difference between North and South Korea after the end of the Korean war in 1953, of East and West Germany and…

People in this episode

Host: Chris Hamnett

Guest: Klaus Dodds

Topics covered

  • geography
  • colonialism
  • economic development
  • historical analysis
  • globalization

Keywords

  • geography
  • colonial powers
  • economic growth
  • Korean war
  • Taiwan
  • Singapore
  • historical geography

Mentioned in this episode

Places: North Korea, South Korea, East Germany, West Germany, Taiwan, Singapore

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