Historical Geography: Administrative Division and Research in Physical Geography of Mongolia

Abstract

The history of Mongolia’s territorial transformation is linked to a nomadic lifestyle that correlates with geographical and climatic conditions. The history of the study of physical geography begins with the ancient explorers Marco Polo; in addition, a great contribution was made by Russian expeditions and geographers (N.M. Przhevalsky, G.N. Potanin, P.K. Kozlov, M.V. Pevtsov, V.A. Obruchev, and others). This chapter presents a brief history of the division of territorial transformations and management in Mongolia and the main geographical studies aimed at studying the physical features of natural structures and conditions associated with the geomorphology, the hydrography, the nature of the climate and soil, the glacier, as well as regional variations. Geographical exploration and research will be presented in three sections: early studies dating back to the thirteenth century; nineteenth–twentieth century studies; and contemporary approaches to the study of physical geography in Mongolia. A more detailed analysis of the physical geographical research in each field of Mongolia’s physical geography will be presented in the first section of the following chapters. Despite the large amount of published material on Mongolia abroad (in English and other languages), this chapter does not aim to analyze the history of Mongolian studies, but will focus only on the geographical perspective, focusing more on the main travelers, exploration and expedition results, which has been recognized as a major contribution to the development of physical geography research in Mongolia. As mentioned in the preface, Mongolia’s geographical names, written in different styles, will be used here as Mongolian phonetic transcriptions. The period or date given in this chapter is based on Mongolian historical documents.