French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blache is known as the founder of Human Geography. While delivering his first lecture at the Sorbonne University on 2nd February 1899, he stressed on the relationship between man and his immediate surroundings (milieu) by studying small homogeneous areas. In France such homogeneous areas are known as pays.
Vidal was a strong opponent and critique of the environmental deterministic approach. He was influenced by the writings of Ratzel, and from his second volume of Anthropogeographic, Vidal formulated the concept of Possibilism. His basic approach towards the study of man and environment - the two major components of geographical study - was that nature (milieu) sets limits and offered possibilities for human settlement, but the way man reacts or adjusts to these given conditions depends on his own traditional way of living.
Vidal de La Blache published his book 'Tableau de la Geographie de La France.' It was a good addition in the literature of geography. In his work Vidal attempted a harmonious blending of physical and human features in the Tableau (France Plateau). He also tried a synthesis of pays. Vidal's book deals with the recognizable regional units of France one by one and shows that each pays has its own distinctive agriculture due to its soil and water supply, and also to the economic specialization made possible by the demands of the people of the towns. Far from reducing the individuality of each pays, modem trade had accentuated it by making their agriculture distinctive. Settlement showed a clear relationship to soil and water, for in some areas it was scattered and in others in the form of compact villages. Many of the pays had for generations been recognized as separate form, but complementary to their neighbors. These pays were, however, not homogeneous as in some there were local deposits such as lime over chalk which gave sharply contrasting soils reflected in difference in land use. The Tableau is a deeply human work with a firm physical base. From this time, French geographers published a series of regional monographs.
In the opinion of Vidal de La Blache, the relatively small regions (pays) are the ideal units to study and to train geographers in the geographical studies. The tradition of micro region study still persists in France. He was, however, of the opinion that regional studies at the meso and macro levels can be of practical utility, which can help in the planning of areas.
Vidal's monumental work 'Human Geography' was posthumously published in 1921 as he died suddenly in 1918. The partially completed work 'Human Geography' was given the final shape by Emmanuel de Martonno - the son-in-law of Vidal de La Blache. In this book Vidal de La Blache started with aims and objectives of Human Geography; the Principle of Terrestrial Unity and the Concept of Man and Environment (milieu); Man as a Geographical Factor, the Patterns of Civilizations; Circulation (means of transport); Cultural Regions and Cities. The chapter scheme of Vidal's book reveals the pattern on which he tried to examine the man-environment interrelationship.
Vidal's model fitted well in the agricultural societies of France and other western countries of Europe. During the medieval period, these societies were agrarian. After the Industrial Revolution the situation has changed in the developed countries and now in such societies 'cultural-determinism' seems to be more conspicuously dominant. Up to the industrial revolution Vidal's approach was well suited in explaining the development of European agricultural landscape. In these parts of the world where industrialization is yet to take place, his hypothesis and approach of possibilism has great utility.
After the Industrial Revolution in France, the traditional physical setting was disturbed. The railway tracks, canals, roads and industrial complexes initiated the decline of the traditional local self-sufficient economy. Industry was developed on the basis of new cheap and rapid means of transport and large scale production for a wider market. These developments reduced the value of the regional method as a growing number of areas.
In the later parts of his age, Vidal arrived at the result that with the industrial development the best in French life was vanishing. For future he suggested, we should study the economic interplay between a region and the city centre, which dominates it, rather than the interplay of natural and cultural elements.
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