Page "Colonialism" Paragraph 152

Painter and Jeffrey argue that geography as a discipline was not and is not an objective science, rather it is based on assumptions about the physical world.

Whereas it may have given “ The West ” an advantage when it came to exploration, it also created zones of racial inferiority.

Geographical beliefs such as environmental determinism, the view that some parts of the world are underdeveloped, legitimised colonialism and created notions of skewed evolution.

These are now seen as elementary concepts.

Political geographers maintain that colonial behavior was reinforced by the physical mapping of the world, visually separating “ them ” and “ us ”.

Geographers are primarily focused on the spaces of colonialism and imperialism, more specifically, the material and symbolic appropriation of space enabling colonialism.