Martonne was born on 1 April 1873 in Chabris, Indre, France,[1] and was the son-in-law of Paul Vidal de la Blache.

[5] In October 1905 he moved to the University of Lyon, replaced at Rennes by Antoine Vacher.

[9] De Martonne was also secretary of the Comité D'études, which worked on fixing boundary issues following the war, especially in Romania and the Balkans.

[8][10] He was familiar with Central Europe and Romania, as he had conducted studies in the Southern Carpathians earlier in his life.

[12] In 1909, he published the first edition of his book Traité de géographie physique: Climat, Hydrographie, Relief du sol, Biogéographie.