Geographic Determinism in World History

AP Psychology	Current Events	Resource Room (SETSS)
Period 1	Periods 3 & 5	Period 8
Mr. Ott	Mr. Ott	Mr. Ott

Aim: How does Geography determine the success or failure of a civilization?

Do Now: In your notebooks, explain the difference between cultural diffusion, cultural divergence, and cultural convergence with examples, 1 for each.

Lesson Overview:

Item	Approx Time
Do Now	3-5 Min
Activity	30 Min
Discussion	10 Min

Geographic Determinism

Jared Diamond wrote a book called Guns, Germs, and Steel, in which he describes the effects of Geography on civilizations. These Geographic factors and features determine how successful or unsuccessful a country or region is based upon its geography.

Geographic Determinism is when a physical feature of the Earth decides the success or failure of a civilization, country, empire, or region. This can be; climate, river valleys, rivers, deserts, mountains, ,rain forests, oceans, monsoons, natural resources (coal, oil, fresh water, diamonds, gold, silver, tin, etc.), peninsulas,archipelagos, and islands.

Examples of Geographic Determinism

Geographic Feature	Outcome/Result
Tigris & Euphrates River Valley	Provided Mesopotamian city-states to have fertile soil used for farming.
Himalaya Mountains	Protected China from invasion and from early Cultural Diffusion.
Natural Deep Harbors	Allowed Great Britain to have a trading empire and navy.
The Island of Great Britain	Protected it from European conquerors such as Napoleon and Hitler.
The Archipelago of Japan	Protected it from the Chinese invasion of Kublai Khan by way of the Kamikaze or Divine Wind.
The Archipelago of Japan	Did not have many natural resources, so they had to use imperialism to find resources such as oil.
The Italian Peninsula	Allowed the Roman Empire to control the trade routes throughout the Mediterranean Sea.
The location of Constantinople/Istanbul	Allowed the Byzantine Empire and later the Ottoman Empire to control the trade routes from East to West and West to East. The location of the Ottoman Empire blocked Europeans from using land trading routes causing them to trade by sea around Africa, which causes the Age of Exploration.
Cold Climate	Prevents both Napoleon and Hitler from invading Russia/Soviet Union.
Iberian Peninsula	Located in the farthest western side of Europe allows them to be close to the soon to be discovered Americas by Columbus in 1492.
Coal Deposits	The location of coal at the surface on the Island of Britain allows them to use it for fuel and allows for the Industrial Revolution to begin in England in 1740.
Monsoons	The Monsoon on the Indian subcontinent causes both drought and rain allowing for predicting flooding for farming.
Sahara Desert	Prevented the cultural diffusion from Northern Africa to Central and Southern Africa.
Rain Forest	Prevented deep exploration of the center of Africa by Europeans until technology was available in the middle to late 1800s.

Classwork & Homework

Lesson Video: Geography and China

Lesson Activity: Complete the following Geographic Determinism chart based upon the theory above.

Homework: Assignments

Special Education Modifications

• Teaching Model: Co-Teaching
• Special Education Teacher will work with All students General Ed and Special Ed.
  • Special Ed Students:
    • Teacher will read-aloud to students when necessary.
    • Teachers will break down assignments into smaller tasks.
    • Teachers will work with students on vocabulary acquisition by breaking down words into prefixes/suffixes and etymology.
    • Teachers will group students according to learning style inventory as a homogeneous group.
    • Teachers will keep students on-task by managing distractions and on-task behavior.
    • Teachers will modify note-taking by modeling notes from PowerPoint to chalkboard/whiteboard.
    • Teachers will differentiate lessons by using; verbal cues for auditory learners, graphic organizers for visual learners, and hands-on cues for tactile learners.