the 18th and the 19th centuries were the times when geography became recognized as a discrete academic discipline, and became part of a typical university curriculum in europe (especially paris and berlin). the development of many geographic societies also occurred during the 19th century, with the foundations of the société de géographie in 1821, the royal geographical society in 1830, russian geographical society in 1845, american geographical society in 1851, and the national geographic society in 1888. the influence of immanuel kant, alexander von humboldt, carl ritter, and paul vidal de la blache can be seen as a major turning point in geography from a philosophy to an academic subject.