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A philosophical foundation to the subject of geography was given by Kant, while Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter developed the subject as an independent branch of knowledge. From the middle of the nineteenth century up to the contemporary period there occurred many philosophical changes in the definition, concepts and approaches of the discipline. The major concepts and methodologies were, however, developed by the Germans, followed by the French, Britons, Americans and the Soviet scientists.

The German School of Geography. Germans' contribution in the development of geography is enormous. In the 18th and 19th century the Germans made great strides and put the subject on a sound philosophical and scientific base. In Germany the first university was established in 1809, but there were very few universities until the end of the nineteenth century, in which geography was taught. In the initial stage, the growth of geography was very slow, and the teachers of geography were without a geography background. It was during this period when a number of geographical societies were established and the work of these societies was to publish geographical literature and information about the planet of the earth. In the second part of the last century, geographers all the world over tried to give definition of the subject. The German scholars also gave several definitions of geography, and tried to delineate the scope of geography. Oscar Peschel was the first professor of geography in Germany. Peschel was the editor of Das Ausland - a periodical in which articles about the geography of foreign countries used to be published.

Peschel started comparing different parts of the world and developed comparative geography. With the help of maps he studied fjord of Norway and put forward the hypothesis that the fjords were fissures in the earth's crust that had been occupied and gouged out by glaciers. Moreover, Peschel laid the foundation of the modem physical geography. In his studies of landforms and physical geography, he however, ignored man as an important component of the discipline of geography. He died at the age of forty-nine and his book on physical geography was published posthumously.

Ferdinand von Richthofen. In 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, Germany was unified and the German Empire came into existence. The end of the Franco-Prussian War led to heavy demand for the teaching of geography. Under these circumstances new geography textbooks were written, and geography was introduced in ten universities of the country. At this stage, Ferdinand von Richthofen who was essentially a geologist pleaded for the cause of geography.

In the opinion of Richthofen, the purpose of geography is to focus attention on the diverse phenomena that occur in interrelation on the face of the earth. The methodology he suggested for the study of geography was that first the physical setting (relief, climate, soil, vegetation, fauna, flora) of a region be studied and then the adjustment of man in that setting be examined. According to him the main objective of geography is the exploration of the relationship of man to the physical earth and to the biotic features. Richthofen was the first German scholar who differentiated between the 'general' and the 'regional' geography. He emphasized that regional geography must be descriptive to highlight the salient features of a region. Moreover, it should try to seek regularities of occurrence and patterns of such unique features to formulate hypothesis and to explain the observed characteristics. General geography, according to him deals with the spatial distribution of individual phenomena in the world. For the systematic regional study, he emphasized the need of field work. For the regional study he used the term 'chorology.' Richthofen distinguished the different methods of study in areas of different size, which he named (in order of increasing size):