The view that human actions are stimulated and governed by some outside agency. Environmental determinism assumes that the physical environment is the primary determinant of cultural forms. During the late 19th and early 20th century, some geographers claimed a link between imperialism and environmental determinism (see Smith in J. N. Entrikin et al., eds 1989)—a view that has long been rejected; ‘if political ecology has taught us anything it is that we can do better than environmental determinism’ (P. Robbins 2004). Barnes (2001) PHG 25, 4 argues that proponents of economic geography tended towards technological, rather than environmental, determinism.