Carpathian Basin and the development of the Hungarian landscape theory until 1948

Abstract

The emphasis between theoretical, global and regional geography, proportion from research to publication has changed several times during the history of Hungarian geography. Certain scholars of Hungarian geography (geo-philosophers, and some theorists) were explicitly attached to theoretical issues of geographic science, yet the majority of geographers advantaged the concrete territorial descriptions and analysis. The regional approach appeared in the Hungarian geography much earlier than the demand on clarification of the theoretic issues of landscape. The first attempt to divide the country into macro landscapes was carried out in the first half of the 1500's. From this time on the geographic science formulated a demand to analyse the internal structure of the country within the frameworks of public administration or in the framework of some other way delimited geographic macro-regions. The administrative space enjoyed for centuries a favoured role, yet the demand for analyses based on the macro regional delimitation was always represented too. On general level the issues of landscape have already been present in Hungarian geographic science (the formulation of concepts, categories, border marking theories etc.), but Hungarian geographic science concerning the territorial research of Hungary has achieved the greatest results mostly in the fields of analytical landscape research, and evaluation ...