Though the first traces of the study of different nations and cultures on Earth can be dated back to ancient geographers such as Ptolemy or Strabo, cultural geography as academic study firstly emerged as an alternative to the environmental determinist theories of the early Twentieth century, which had believed that people and societies are controlled by the environment in which they develop.
Iako se prvi tragovi proučavanja različitih naroda i kultura na Zemlji mogu pronaći kod antičkih geografa poput Ptolomeja ili Strabona, kulturna se geografija kao akademska disciplina prvi put pojavila kao alternativa okolinskim determinističkim teorijama ranog dvadesetog stoljeća koje su tvrdile kako su ljudi i društva kontrolirani okolinom u kojoj se razvijaju.