Humboldt's contemporary, Carl Ritter (1779-1859), extended and disseminated the same views, and in his interpretation of " Comparative Geography " he laid stress on the importance of Iditter.
Ritter was led deeper and deeper into the study of history and archaeology.
During the rapid development of physical geography many branches of the study of nature, which had been included in the cosmography of the early writers, the physiography of Linnaeus and even the Erdkunde of Ritter, had been as so much advanced by the labours of specialists that their connexion was apt to be forgotten.
This argument was tacitly accepted or explicitly avowed by almost every writer on the theory of geography, and Carl Ritter distinctly recognized and adopted it as the unifying principle of his system.
This was the central theme of Ritter's philosophy; his religion and his geography were one, and the consequent fervour with which he pursued his mission goes far to account for the immense influence he acquired in Germany.