Both are quite important, but nonetheless it's a creative and healthy question to ponder. When creating or regarding a certain culture for/of a [fictional] world, which do you focus on more: the history of the culture, or the circumjacent geography? Which plays a larger role, if you will, of developing that culture? Which interests you more personally? Discuss.

I thought you were going to talk about Earth.

Anyways for a story I think the geography is probably more important, but history should be discluded. In the overall scheme of things though I think history is more important.

Geography will define the history 100% of the time.

Getting so academic and obscure

There is a saying, maybe by the Greek geographer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabo, "Geography is destiny". It's an important topic in history, obviously.

Myself, I'm mostly interested in history of ideas.

Geography is a powerful shaper of history. If you want to create a coherent world, you shouldn't ignore it. I love maps, so I'm always happy when the author takes time to include one and describe the geographical setting. In complex stories though, I think the social side is more important to me.

The Wheel of Time map annoyed me a bit because the rivers run strangely. Most of them go to capes for some odd reason. And they run really straight where they should meander.

One world that has some interesting interplay between geography and history is Glorantha. It has a really detailed history, maybe the most for a fantasy game. I mean Forgotten Realms has lots of novels and stuff, but Glorantha has a whole 300 page book just about its history (King of Sartar), and loads of magazine articles too.

It wasn't as bad as Eragon. That map made no sense. But you are right that it was a little weird.

They both hang together. I'm very enthusiastic about history but I enjoy geography as well, and I can see how the latter helps shape the former. If you're writing a fantasy novel and you don't pay attention to the geography and geopolitics then writing a coherent and believable history becomes difficult.

To answer your question, though. History is more important when it comes to developing a culture, but not paying attention to geography will diminish your history writing capabilities by a lot. Again, I'm thinking fantasy novels here, with a well-established world.