The Tradition of Examining the Effect of the Natural Environment on Human Society, or Environmental Determinism in Pre-Modern History

The issue of the effect of the natural environment on human society has been (and still is being) an important topic in geographical literature since ancient times. Scholars have queried to what degree natural conditions influence the human population, its character and history, for many years and have presented various theses, theories and concepts, which they have used to try and describe this mutual relationship. The aim of this article is to present this long-standing conceptual tradition in basic outlines, from its oldest manifestation in ancient Greece to the birth of modern science at the beginning of the 19th century. Different approaches from Hippocrates, through Strabo, Ibn Khaldün to Montesquieu will be discussed. However, most geographers in pre-modern history have approached to the topic more or less deterministically.