Carl Ritter one of the founders of modern geographical thought

• a dedicated field worker, supported observational methods of study, believed in empirical research
• gave the concept of ‘Ganzheit’ or Whole, developed the concept of the idea of the unity of nature, it became the basic theme of his geographical scholarship
• gave the concept of Terrestrial or Spatial Unity (‘Raumbegriff’)
• treated the various geographical features of the world like organs in the human body, each one interacted with the others to create a cohesive whole
• considered geography to be ‘Erdkunde’ (Earth Science), in his view, the objective of geography is to learn about relationships between different forms of matter on the surface of the earth and to study individual geographic areas
• expanded the domain of geography and used determinism to explain cultural variation
• mainly concerned with human geography and focused more on the man-nature interrelationship
• also contributed to the subject of geography and its relationship with history and geology
• believed that the geographic features of a place affected the history of its inhabitants
• emphasised on the concept of regional individuality, also gave the concept of comparative geography thus, considered as the founder of regional geography
• Ritter attempted to classify and explain different natural phenomena using the comparative method and came very close to the concept of landscape, had great influence in the development of the methodology of geography