Introduction to historical geography

Teacher(s)

Dubois Sébastien;

Language

French

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

This course aims at initiating the students to the geographical dimension of historical phenomena and to the connections between history and geography. The course invites the student to reflect on the validity of geographical frames of historical studies.

Content

The connections between history and geography will be studied in a particularly broad conception of historical geography, encompassing both restitution, using historical sources and analysis of geography (physical, political, administrative, demographic, economic, social, religious, etc.) of a given period, and the representations of space, not only in their material form (cartographic) but also in their intellectual form. The course thus does not propose a “complete” encyclopaedic historical geography of the world or Belgium, but more an introduction to a reflection and methods.

We will study successively epistemology of historical geography (reflective approach on historical geography, its object, its evolution, its internal division as well as its links with the other aspects of knowledge and thought), the reflection made by historians and geographers on the relations between history and geography, the history of geography and cartography, the concepts of human geography and geopolitics, the source typology of historical geography (with particular attention to old maps), the methods of historical geography, historical cartography (the cartographic representation methods of different historical phenomena) and, finally, the initiation to a cartographic analysis method in history (in other words, to the use of maps to conduct an analysis).

Besides the systematic presentation of sources and methods, several issues will be studied more in depth. These case studies will generally be borrowed from Belgian history, but the whole world will be considered through many examples. The course doesn't follow a strict chronological timeline but however covers the period from the “origins” until today, evoking "primitive" or "traditional" civilisations, geographical works of Greek and Roman Antiquity (Eratosthenes, Strabo, Ptolemy, etc.), the treaties of Arab geographers of the Middle Ages or the tales of Chinese travellers, as well as geopolitics of modern era and of the beginning of the 21st century particularly through the theme of globalisation.

Teaching methods

Lecture based on the commentary of documents shown in class.

Evaluation methods

Oral examination.
The student must demonstrate that they are able to apply to documents, the methods learnt in class; that they have reflected on the links between history and geography, based on the knowledge acquired in class.

Other information

A syllabus including texts and maps will be made available for the students.

Bibliography

BAKER (A. R. H.), éd., Progress in Historical Geography, David and Charles, 1972.
BAKER (A. R. H.), Geography and History : Bridging the Divide, Cambridge, 2003.
BONNAUD (P.), Terres et langages, peuples et régions, Clermont-Ferrand, 1981, 2 vol.
BOULANGER (Ph.) & TROCHET (J.-R.), éd., Où en est la géographie historique ? Entre économie et culture, Paris, 2005.
BRAUDEL (F.), Civilisation matérielle, économie et capitalisme, XVe-XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1979, 3 vol.
BRAUDEL (F.), L’Identité de la France, Paris, 1986, 3 vol.
BRAUDEL (F.), La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen au temps de Philippe II, Paris, 1949.
BROOKS GREEN (D.), Historical Geography : a Methodological Portrayal, Savage, 1991.
BUTLIN (R.-A.), Historical Geography : through the Gates of Space and Time, Londres, 1993.
CLAVAL (P.) & SANGUIN (A.-L.), éd., La géographie française à l’époque classique (1918-1968), Paris, 1996.
CLAVAL (P.), Espace et pouvoir, Paris, 1978.
CLAVAL (P.)¸ Essai sur l’évolution de la géographie humaine, 2e éd., Paris, 1976.
CLAVAL (P.), Géographie culturelle, Paris, 1995.
CLAVAL (P.), La géographie et la perception de l’espace, dans L’espace géographique, 1974, n° 3, p. 179-187.
CLAVAL (P.), La pensée géographique. Introduction à son histoire, Paris, 1972.
CLOUT (H.), Themes in the Historical Geography of France, Londres-New York-San Francisco, 1977.
COURVILLE (S.), Introduction à la géographie historique, Laval, 1995.
DARBY (H. C.), The Relations of History and Geography, Exeter, 2002.
DION (R.), Histoire de la vigne et du vin en France des origines au XIXe siècle, Paris, 1959 (rééd., 1977).
DION (R.), Le paysan et la vigne. Essai de géographie historique, Paris, 1990.
DROULERS (M.), Brésil : une géohistoire, Paris, 2001.
DUBOIS (S.), La rectification du tracé des frontières sur les cartes des Pays-Bas autrichiens de Ferraris (1777-1779), Bruxelles, 2001.
DUBOIS (S.), La révolution géographique en Belgique. Départementalisation, administration et représentations du territoire de la fin du XVIIIe au début du XIXe siècle, Bruxelles, 2008.
FEBVRE (L.), La terre et l’évolution humaine. Introduction géographique à l’histoire, Paris, 1922.
GEORGE (P.), La géographie à la poursuite de l’histoire, Paris, 1992.
GEORGE (P.), Le métier de géographe, Paris, 1990.
GRAHAM (B.), The past in place : historical geographies of identity, dans B. GRAHAM & C. NASH, éd., Modern Historical Geographies, Longman, 2001, p. 70-99.
GRATALOUP (C.), Lieux d’Histoire. Essai de géohistoire systématique, Montpellier-Paris, 1996.
LEPETIT (B.), Carnet de croquis. Sur la connaissance historique, Paris, 1999.
LE ROY LADURIE E. Histoire humaine et comparée du climat, 1 : Canicules et glaciers xiiie – xviiie siècles, Paris, Fayard, 2004  Histoire humaine et comparée du climat, 2 : Disettes et révolutions, Paris, Fayard, 2006. Le Siècle des Platter, 3 : L'Europe de Thomas Platter, Paris, Fayard, 2006. Histoire humaine et comparée du climat, 3 : Le réchauffement de 1860 à nos jours (Paris, Fayard, 2009. Les fluctuations du climat de l'an mil à aujourd'hui, Paris, Fayard, 2011
MONMONNIER (M.), Comment faire mentir les cartes. Du mauvais usage de la géographie, Paris, 1993.
NORTON (W.), Historical Analysis in Geography, Londres, 1984.
PLANHOL (X. DE), Les fondements géographiques de l’histoire de l’Islam, Paris, 1968.
REVEL (J.), éd., Jeux d’échelle, Paris, 2000.
REYNAUD (A.), Une géohistoire. La Chine des Printemps et des Automnes, Montpellier, 1992.
RONCAYOLO (M.), Histoire et géographie : les fondements d’une complémentarité, dans Annales, t. 44, 1989, p. 1427-1434.
SANGUIN (A.-L.), Vidal de La Blache. Un génie de la géographie, Paris, 1993.
SCHEIBLING (J.), Qu’est-ce que la géographie ?, Paris, 1994. 
TROUET, V. 2020. Tree Story – The History of the World Written in Rings, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.
VICTOR (J.-C.), Le dessous des cartes. Atlas géopolitique, Paris, 2005.
VIDAL DE LA BLACHE (P.), Tableau de la géographie de la France, Paris, 1903.
WAQUET (J.-Cl.), GOERG (O.) & ROGERS (R.), éd., Les espaces de l’historien. Études d’historiographie, Strasbourg, 2000.

Teaching materials

• Syllabus - Introduction à la géographie historique

Faculty or entity

PHLB