Historical Geography and Discovery
No intelligent knowledge of the historical nations is possible without a corresponding knowledge of their geography. The first and most important question that geography answers for us is where. Historical Geography answers both where and when? Where is Rome located? Where and when did the Babylonian Empire exist?
History not only answers the questions when and who but, in addition, gives us a consecutive account of the doings of civilized mankind in their progress toward the most valued and elevating of social and political blessings. It deals rather with the life of nations than with races of men; and its special function is to sketch the career and describe the conditions of those great nations whose ideas and institutions, or whose achievements in politics, war, literature, art and science, were remarkable in their own epoch, or, by influencing other nations, helped to make the civilized world what it is now.