Environmental determinism (also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism) is the study of how the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular development trajectories. The theory has long been discredited in academic circles. Nineteenth century approaches held that climate and terrain largely determined human activity and psychology, and it was associated with institutionalized racism and eugenics. Many scholars underscore that this approach supported colonialism and eurocentrism, and devalued human agency in non-Western societies. Jared Diamond, Jeffrey Herbst, and other social scientists sparked a controversial revival of the theory during the late twentieth century. This "neo-environmental determinism" school of thought examines how geograph