Emmanuel de Martonne

Emmanuel de Martonne , born with Chabris (Indre) on April 1st 1873 and died in Sceaux the July 24th 1955 is a Géographe French.

Wire of archivist A. of Martonne, former student of the College of Laval (Mayenne), where it has like school-fellow Carle Bahon, and Francis Delaisi, it enters to the national university in 1892, the same year as Albert Demangeon; it follows there the courses of geography of Paul Vidal of Blache. Incorporated in 1895, it is " Master-surveillant" with ENS (1897-1899), then it supports a thesis of geography in letters (on the Valachie) in 1902 and another in sciences (on the Alps of Transylvania, in the south of the Carpates) in 1907.

Named at the university of Rennes in 1899, then with Lyon in 1905, it obtains a post office with the Sorbonne in 1909. The same year, it makes appear a Traité physical Géographie which is a great success (many republications, drafting of a Abrégé also republished) and devotes its authority in physical Géographie. Set on Geomorphology and Climatology, it is famous for its indices of evapotranspiration potential, used today by the botanists and the agronomists. He is finally the author of volume on the physical geography of France in the universal Géographie (1943).

It is always interested in the Romania and, more generally, in the Central Europe. He takes part in work of the conference of Peace, in 1919, to establish the Frontière S news of the Romania and the Poland: he obtains that its border extends from a few additional kilometers in the east so that it has an important railway line in the beginning intended for the Russia. He puts forward the idea that the borders should depend not only on the ethnic regroupings, but also, from a more material point of view, infrastructures of the territory: it is what it names the “principle of viability”. Being thus opposed to the American delegates, and in particular to Lord, it contributes of much to the drawing of the borders of the Entre-deux-guerres, of which some are still of topicality. He is the author of the volumes of the universal Géographie devoted to the Central Europe (1931).

Large organizer of the geography to the national scales and international, it founds the laboratory of geography of the university of Rennes (which perduré until our days, passing between the hands of André Meynier, baptized today COSTEL, Climat and Occupation of the Grounds by Teledetection), then those of Lyon and Paris (1923); he becomes director of this last (1927-1944). In the Thirties, it directs the publication of the Atlas of France . In 1943, it obtains the creation of a license and an aggregation of geography. General secretary then President of the international geographical Union (1931-1949), it is elected member of the Academy of Science in 1940; he chairs finally the Société of geography (1947-1952).

A college bears today its name to Laval. Visit their Web site

Publications

Research on the morphological evolution of the Alps of Transylvania (Karpates Southerners) , Paris, Delagrave, 1906.
Treated physical geography: Climate, Hydrography, Relief of the ground, Biogeography , Paris, Armand Colin, 1909 (republished).
Things seen in Bessarabia , Paris, 1919.
geographical areas of France , Paris, Flammarion, 1921.
Shortened physical geography , Paris, Armand Colin, 1922.
the the Alps, general geography , Paris, Armand Colin, 1931.
universal Geography (to dir. Vidal of Blache, Welshman), volume IV: Central Europe , Paris, Armand Colin, 1930,1931.
air Geography , Paris, Albin Michel, 1948.
the air discovery of the world (to dir.), Horizons of France, 1948.
universal Geography (to dir. Vidal of Blache, Welshman), volume VI: France , with Albert Demangeon: physical France , Paris, Armand Colin, 1943.

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