why might geographers be interested in learning about the history of an area?

Answer 1

Geography encompasses a lot of different topics -- economic geography, for instance, looks at how supply and demand have affected who lives in one region or another, and how they made their living in those areas. If a region has historically been a farming region, you'd see the land modified to support that lifestyle -- more flatlands levelled out for fields, or mountains getting terraced, rivers getting diverted for irrigation, that sort of thing. If, on the other hand, the region was historically a more industrial area, perhaps whole mountains might eventually disappear due to mining or quarry-work. Add to that the natural forces at work -- if an big earthquake occurred, it might change the landscape a great deal, and knowing that can allow you to assess the present-day geography based on what you know of the changes that have happened over time.

Answer 2

to better predict the weather