Initially, in China as abroad, historical geography tended to be dominated by historians intent on recovering ancient geography in order to appreciate the lie of the land in past historical periods, as a means of assisting with their historical research.
早期的「歷史地理學」無分中外，均以歷史學者研究居多，重於復原古地理，以瞭解過去歷史時代的空間，來襄助歷史研究。