Subanalytic and semialgebraic sets were introduced for topological and systematic investigations of real analytic and algebraic sets. This text aims to show that almost all known and unknown properties of subanalytic and semialgebraic sets follow abstractly from some fundamental axioms, and it aims to develop methods of proof that use finite processes instead of integration of vector fields. Although the proofs are elementary, the results are new and of interest to, for example, singularity theorists and topologists, and the new methods and tools developed provide a basis for further research by model theorists who apply model theory to geometry.