Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and static boundaries and deprived of overseas domains,
Ratzel argued, it can atrophy. Territory is thus seen as the
state's essential, life-giving force.
Ratzel's theory was based on his observations of
states in the nineteenth century, including the United
States. It was so speculative that it might have been for-
gotten if some of Ratzel's German followers in the 1930s
had not translated his abstract writings into policy rec-
ommendations that ultimately led to Nazi expansionism.
Figure 8.21
The Heartland Theory.
The Pivot Area/Heartland, the
Inner Crescent/Rimland, and the World Island, following the
descriptions of Halford Mackinder.
THE WORLD ISLAND
PIVOT AREA/HEARTLAND
V
The British/American School
Not long after the publication of Ratzel's initial ideas, other
geographers began looking at the overall organization of
power in the world, studying the physical geographic map
with a view toward determining the locations of most stra-
tegic places on Earth. Prominent among them was the
Oxford University geographer Sir Halford J. Mackinder
(1861-1947). In 1904, he published an article titled “The
Geographical Pivot of History” in the Royal Geographical
Society's
Geographical Journal
. That article became one of the
most intensely debated geographic publications of all time.
Mackinder was concerned with power relation-
ships at a time when Britain had acquired a global empire
through its strong navy. To many of his contemporaries, the
oceans—the paths to colonies and trade—were the key to
world domination, but Mackinder disagreed. He concluded
that a land-based power, not a sea power, would ultimately
rule the world. His famous article contained a lengthy
appraisal of the largest and most populous landmass on
Earth—Eurasia (Europe and Asia together). At the heart of
Eurasia, he argued, lay an impregnable, resource-rich “pivot
area” extending from eastern Europe to eastern Siberia (Fig.
8.21). Mackinder issued a warning: if this pivot area became
infl uential in Europe, a great empire could be formed.
Mackinder later renamed his pivot area the heart-
land, and his warning became known as the heart-
land theory. In his book
Democratic Ideals and Reality
(1919), Mackinder (calling Eurasia “the World Island”)
issued a stronger warning to the winners of World
War I, stating:
R
In 1943, Mackinder wrote a fi nal paper expressing
concern that the Soviet Union, under Stalin, would seek to
exert control over the states of Eastern Europe. He offered
strategies for keeping the Soviets in check, including avoid-
ing the expansion of the Heartland into the Inner Cres-
cent (Fig. 8.21) and creating an alliance around the North
Atlantic to join the forces of land and sea powers against
the Heartland. His ideas were not embraced by many at the
time, but within ten years of publication, the United States
began its containment policy to stop the expansion of the
Soviet Union, and the United States, Canada, and Western
Europe formed an alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). Further proof of the importance of
Mackinder's legacy can be seen in the fact that, even after
the collapse of the Soviet Union, his theories enjoy wide-
spread currency in Russian foreign policy circles.
Infl uence of Geopoliticians on Politics
Ratzel and Mackinder are only two of many geopoliti-
cians who infl uenced international relations. Their writ-
ings, grounded in history, current events, and physical
geography, sounded logical and infl uenced many politi-
cians, and in some ways still do. NATO still exists and has
not invited Russia to join the military alliance, but it has
extended membership to 28 states since the end of the
Cold War, including eastern European states. NATO has
a working partnership with former republics of the Soviet
Union, though the war between Russia and Georgia in
2008 produced a chilling effect on NATO's eastward
expansion.
Despite the staying power of geopolitical theories,
geopolitics declined as a formal area of study after World
War II. Because of the infl uence Ratzel's theory had on
Hitler and because another geopolitician, Karl Haush-
ofer, also infl uenced Hitler, the term
geopolitics
acquired a
Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland
Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island
Who rules the World Island commands the World
When Mackinder proposed his
heartland theory
,
there was little to foretell the rise of a superpower in the
heartland. Russia was in disarray, having recently lost a war
against Japan (1905), and was facing revolution. Eastern
Europe was fractured. Germany, not Russia, was gaining
power. But when the Soviet Union emerged and Moscow
controlled over much of Eastern Europe at the end of World
War II, the heartland theory attracted renewed attention.
