MacKinder Essays - Geopolitics, The Geographical Pivot Of History

Classical geopolitics has its origins in the emerging geographical conditions of world order at the end of the 19th century. The struggle to map the world was really a struggle for relative efficiency, strategic position, and military power among competing imperial systems. From 1870 onward the Great Powers of Europe embarked upon an unprecedented program of imperial expansion and territorial acquisition, which the United States would join by the end of the century. To illustrate, the scramble for Africa gave Europe thirty new colonies and protectorates, 10 million square miles of new territory, and 110 million new subjects. Harold Mackinder helped codify and establish a distinctive geographical gaze upon international politics. Since Mackinder's January 25, 1904, address to the Royal Geographic Society, "The Geographical Pivot of History," is generally considered to be a defining moment in the history of geopolitics. The distinctiveness of Mackinder's paper is the claim that the space of the world is now, for all intents and purposes, known, occupied and closed. The world had become a single unified globe of occupied territorial space where events in one part inevitably have their consequences in all other parts. The background to Mackinder's address to the Royal Geographic Society was one given in the context of the transformed conditions of the British Empire and the need to reform its structure. Mackinder felt strongly about the role geographical knowledge could play in addressing the relative decline of the British empire early in the 20th century, a decline dramatically illustrated by the difficulties the British army had in winning the Boer War (1899-1902). The establishment and maintenance of the vast British Empire depended on British control of the seas. The location of Great Britain as an island off the mainland of Europe had long attuned the British to maritime activities, and the British Navy was far stronger than its European counterparts. British maritime power was seen to balance the larger populations and continental resources of Central Europe, especially Germany and Russia. The British were particularly fearful of the growing military and economic power of Germany whose powe r had expanded considerably following political unification in the mid 19th century. British concern with Continental domination of the world order was summarized by the oft cited words of Mackinder. Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World Island; who commands the World Island commands the World. Mackinder's reference to the Heartland meant the core of the Eurasian continent including Germany, Eastern Europe and European Russia. The geopolitical relationships among the Heartland, the World Island and the rest of the world are illustrated in Sloan's article on Mackinder (pp33, 22). These projections illustrate the extent to which the landmasses of the world are centered on Eastern Europe and Western Asia, an area described by Mackinder as "the pivot of History". How could the British balance the potential threat of Continental dominance in the World Island? Mackinder regarded world history in terms of the recurring conflict between land-based and sea-based power. During the Age of Exploration, technological advances in shipping and naval activities along with European emphasis on colonialism and overseas expansion had tipped the balance in favour of the sea based powers. By the 19th century, however, the Age of Exploration was coming to an end. The development of the railroad, the internal combustion engine and other technologies facilitating land-based transportation and communication were seen by Mackinder to shift the balance of power toward land-based powers. The Heartland, secure from maritime attack but blessed with access to heavily populated and resource-rich areas of China, India and the Middle East as well as Western Europe, was the natural center of land power. Historically, the Russian Empire had been best situated to control the Heartland. However, by the end of the 19th century, Mackinder recognized that the growing might of Germany placed Germany, rather than the weaker Czarist state of Russia, at the center of the Heartland. Therefore, it was incumbent on the British to dominate the world's oceans as a check on possible German expansion. Hence Mackinder argued that Britain should control the Rimland, or those areas of the world on and near the world's oceans. Allied victory in WWI, in