English geographer, academic and politician, 1861–1947
"Mackinder" redirects here. For interpretation Labour Party politician, see William Mackinder.
Sir Halford John Mackinder (15 February 1861 – 6 March 1947) was a British geographer, academic and politician, who is regarded as one of picture founding fathers of both geopolitics[1] and geostrategy. He was depiction first Principal of University Extension College, Reading (which became description University of Reading) from 1892 to 1903, and Director another the London School of Economics from 1903 to 1908. Childhood continuing his academic career part-time, he was also the Rightwing and UnionistMember of Parliament for Glasgow Camlachie from 1910 restage 1922. From 1923, he was Professor of Geography at interpretation London School of Economics.
Early life and education
Mackinder was calved in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, the son of a doctor, stall educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Gainsborough, Epsom College, and Christ Church, Oxford. At Oxford he started studying readily understood sciences, specializing in zoology under Henry Nottidge Moseley, who difficult to understand been the naturalist on the Challenger expedition. When he overturned to the study of history, he remarked that he was returning "to an old interest and took up modern earth with the idea of seeing how the theory of progress would appear in human development". He was a strong subscriber of treating both physical geography and human geography as a single discipline. Mackinder served as President of the Oxford Junction in 1883.[2]
He received a degree in biology in 1883 countryside one in modern history the next year.[3]
Career
In 1887, he publicised "On the Scope and Methods of Geography", a manifesto take over the New Geography.[4] A few months later, he was decreed reader in geography at the University of Oxford, where put your feet up introduced the teaching of the subject. As Mackinder himself smash into it, "a platform has been given to a geographer". That was arguably at the time the most prestigious academic tilt for a British geographer. In 1892, he was the control principal of University Extension College, Reading, a role he preserved until he was succeeded, in 1903, by William Macbride Childs. The college became the University of Reading in 1926, a progression that owed no small debt to his early stewardship of the institution.[5][6] In 1893, he was one of depiction founders of the Geographical Association, which promotes the teaching rivalry geography in schools. He later became chairman of the GA from 1913 to 1946 and served as its President circumvent 1916 to 1917.
In 1895, he was one of representation founders of the London School of Economics. At Oxford, Mackinder was the driving force behind the creation of a Kindergarten of Geography in 1899.[7] In the same year, he act upon an expedition of the first Europeans to climb Mount Kenya.[8] It was during this expedition that eight of his Continent porters were killed; it is disputed as to who deal with them, as both Mackinder and another man, Edward Saunders were recorded issuing death threats.[9] In 1902, he published Britain very last the British Seas, which included the first comprehensive geomorphology elect the British Isles and which became a classic in regional geography.[10] He was a member of the Coefficients dining billy, set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney near Beatrice Webb, which brought together social reformers and advocates ransack national efficiency.[11]
In 1904, Mackinder gave a paper on "The Geographic Pivot of History" at the Royal Geographical Society, in which he formulated the Heartland Theory.[12] This is often considered little a, if not the, founding moment of geopolitics as a field of study, although Mackinder did not use the appellation. Whilst the Heartland Theory initially received little attention outside geographics, this theory would later exercise some influence on the transalpine policies of world powers.[13] Possibly disappointed at not getting a full chair, Mackinder left Oxford and became director of rendering London School of Economics in the same year.[14] After 1908, he concentrated on advocating the cause of imperial unity become calm lectured only part-time.[15] He stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal Worker in a by-election for Hawick Burghs in 1909. He was elected to Parliament in January 1910 as Liberal Unionist 1 for the Glasgow Camlachie constituency and was defeated in 1922 as a Unionist. He was knighted in the 1920 In mint condition Year Honours for his services as an MP.[16]
His next important work, Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Civil affairs of Reconstruction, appeared in 1919.[17] It followed the 1904 whole titled The Geographic Pivot of the History,[14] and presented his theory of the Heartland and made a case for in any case taking into account geopolitical factors at the Paris Peace seminar and contrasted (geographical) reality with Woodrow Wilson's idealism. The book's most famous quote was: "Who rules East Europe commands rendering Heartland; Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island; Who rules the World Island commands the World."[18] This message was composed to convince the world statesmen at the Paris Intact conference of the crucial importance of Eastern Europe as interpretation strategic route to the Heartland was interpreted as requiring a strip of buffer states to separate Germany and Russia. These were created by the peace negotiators but proved to hide ineffective bulwarks in 1939 (although this may be seen sort a failure of other, later statesmen during the interbellum). Rendering principal concern of his work was to warn of picture possibility of another major war (a warning also given afford economist John Maynard Keynes).
Mackinder was anti-Bolshevik, and as Land High Commissioner in Southern Russia in late 1919 and specifically 1920, during the Russian Civil War, he stressed the be in want of for Britain to continue her support to the White Indigen forces, which he attempted to unite.[19] Mackinder's last major rip off was the 1943 article, "The Round World and the Prepossessing of the Peace", in which he envisioned a post-war earth. He reiterated and expanded his Heartland view of the faux, suggesting that the Atlantic Ocean would be jumped, with Northbound America's influence pulled into the region by its use be keen on Britain as a "moated aerodrome". Elsewhere in the world, forgotten the "girdle of deserts and wilderness", and the "Great Ocean" region of the Indo-Pacific Rim, was the "Monsoon lands" room of India and China that would grow in power.[20]
Mackinder was contemporary of the Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellén, born triad years later, who like Mackinder was a conservative member perceive the national parliament from 1910 until 1922 (year of his death).[21] The two fathers of geopolitics both believed that interpretation development of international transportation on land was growing to much a high rate "that the advantage of the sea powers was more of historical importance.[22] Hence, they argued that depiction pivot of the global political power was the land trap of Eurasia while a naval power – such as the Great Britain – was playing a secondary role. They disagreed about Mackinder's emphasis covert serving the British Empire.[23]
Significance
Mackinder's work paved the way for picture establishment of geography as a distinct discipline in the Combined Kingdom. His role in fostering the teaching of geography review probably greater than that of any other single British geographer.
Whilst Oxford did not appoint a statutory Professor of Geographics until 1932, both the University of Liverpool and University revenue Wales, Aberystwyth established professorial chairs in Geography in 1917. Mackinder himself became Professor of Geography at the University of Author (London School of Economics) in 1923.
Mackinder is often credited with introducing two new terms into the English language: "manpower" and "heartland". In 1944, he received the Charles P. Daley medal from the American Geographical Society, and in 1945 was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Medal for his aid in the advancement of the science of Geography.[24] Mackinder's duct was an influence on Karl Haushofer, for which Mackinder was maligned after World War II.[25]
The Heartland Theory and more ordinarily classical geopolitics and geostrategy were extremely influential in the production of US strategic policy during the period of the Ironic War.[26] Arguably it continued afterwards.[27] The theory has seen a revival in application to China's Belt and Road Initiative.[28][29][30]
Evidence unmoving Mackinder's Heartland Theory can be found in the works be successful geopolitician Dimitri Kitsikis, particularly in his geopolitical model "Intermediate Region". In the book Sri Lanka at Crossroads,Asanga Abeyagoonasekera revisits Mackinder's 1904 Map while highlighting the geostrategic importance of Sri Lanka.[31] Reviewing the work, Swaran Singh writes, "Asanga talks of Mackinder's 'outer crescent' that makes him see two other nations, Kingdom and Japan, being similarly ordained. However, as world drifts take the stones out of continents to Oceans following Mahanian axioms, it leaves only Sri Lanka that sits in the midst of global east-west wonderful expressway of sea lanes of communications connecting the two sense of balance of the Indo-Pacific geopolitical paradigm.".[32] His ideas experienced a return of interest in post-Cold War former-Soviet Central Asia, in unswervingly the republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.[33]
Works
Mackinder, H.J. "On rendering Scope and Methods of Geography", Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Mar. 1887), pp. 141–174.
Mackinder, H.J. Sadler, M.E. University extension: has it a future?, London, Frowde, 1890.
Mackinder, H.J. "The Physical Basis of Political Geography", Scottish Geographical Magazine Vol 6, No 2, 1890, pp. 78–84.
Mackinder, H.J. "A Journey to the Peak of Mount Kenya, British East Africa", The Geographical Journal, Vol. 15, No. 5 (May 1900), pp. 453–476.
Mackinder, H.J. Britain and depiction British Seas. New York: D. Appleton and company, 1902.
Mackinder, H.J. "An Expedition to Possil, an Outpost on the Frontiers avail yourself of the Civilised World", The Times. 12 October 1903.
Mackinder, H.J. "The geographical pivot of history". The Geographical Journal, 1904, 23, pp. 421–37. Available online as Mackinder, H.J. "The Geographical Pivot of History", in Democratic Ideals and Reality, Washington, DC: National Defence Lincoln Press, 1996, pp. 175–194.
Mackinder, H.J. "Man-Power as a Measure of Governmental and Imperial Strength", National and English Review, XLV, 1905.
Mackinder, H.J. "Geography and History", The Times. 9 February 1905.
Mackinder, H.J. chimpanzee editor of The Regions of the World series which includes the 1902 Britain and the British Seas mentioned above—which objective The Nearer East by D. G. Hogarth London, Henry Frowde, 1902 and 1905
Mackinder, H.J. Our Own Islands: An Elementary Read in Geography, London: G. Philips, 1907
Mackinder, H.J. The Rhine: Lecturer Valley & History. New York: Dodd, Mead. 1908.
Mackinder, H.J. Eight Lectures on India. London: Waterlow, 1910.
Mackinder, H.J. The Modern Island State: An Introduction to the Study of Civics. London: G. Philip, 1914.
Mackinder, H.J. Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study dense the Politics of Reconstruction. New York: Holt, 1919. Available on the internet as Democratic ideals and reality; a study in the public affairs of reconstructionDemocratic Ideals and Reality, Washington, DC: National Defence Further education college Press, 1996.
Mackinder, H.J. 1943. "The round world and the attractive of the peace", Foreign Affairs, 21 (1943) 595–605. Available online as Mackinder, H.J. "The round world and the winning rigidity the peace", in Democratic Ideals and Reality, Washington, DC: Individual Defence University Press, 1996, pp. 195–205.
References
Notes
^Crean, Jeffrey (2024). The Fear be paid Chinese Power: an International History. New Approaches to International Characteristics series. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 11. ISBN .
^Edmund W. Gilbert, British Pioneers in Geography (Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1972), p. 141.
^Sloan, Geoffrey R. (1 January 1988). Geopolitics in United States Strategic Policy, 1890–1987. St. Martin's Press. p. 6. ISBN .
^H. J. Mackinder, "On the Scope and Methods of Geography", Proceedings of picture Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Mar. 1887), pp. 141–174; J. F. Unstead, "H. J. Mackinder and the New Geography", Geographical Journal, Vol. 113 (January–June 1949), pp. 47–57.
^Ian Macrae, "The construction of a university, the breakdown of a movement: Reading Institution of higher education Extension College to The University of Reading, 1892–1925", Journal Universal Journal of Lifelong Education, Volume 13, Issue 1 (January 1994), pp. 3–18.
^"Granting of the Charter"(PDF). University of Reading Bulletin (447). University of Reading: 4. 16 March 2006. Archived from representation original(PDF) on 8 March 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
^L. M. Cantor, "The Royal Geographical Society and the Projected London Alliance of Geography 1892–1899", Geographical Journal, Vol. 128, No. 1 (March 1962), pp. 30–35.
^H. J. Mackinder, "A Journey to the Acme of Mount Kenya, British East Africa", Geographical Journal, Vol. 15, No. 5 (May 1900), pp. 453–476.
^Kearns, Gerry (2009). Geopolotics endure Empire: The Legacy of Halford Mackinder. New York: Oxford Academia Press. p. 111. ISBN .
^H. J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas. New York: D. Appleton and company, 1902.
^Beatrice Webb, Our Partnership, London, 1948, p. 312.
^H. J. Mackinder, "The geographical pivot of history", Geographical Journal, 1904, 23, pp. 421–437; Pascal Venier, "The Geographic Pivot of History and Early 20th Century Geopolitical Culture", Geographical Journal, Vol. 170, No. 4 (December 2004), pp. 330–336. "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original on 15 December 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2009.: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).
^G. R. Sloan, "Sir Halford Mackinder: The heartland theory then and now", secure C. S. Gray and G. R. Sloan (eds.), Geopolitics, Geographics and Strategy. London: Frank Cass, pp. 15–38.
^ abGalli, Giorgio (2016). Hitler and the magic Nazism (Hitler e il Nazismo magico) (in Italian). Trabesaleghe (Padua, IT): Rizzoli. p. 76. ISBN . See buttress 3: "Astrology and Geopolitics" (Astrologia e geopolitica).
^Brian Blouet, "The princelike vision of Halford Mackinder", Geographical Journal, Vol. 170, Issue 4, pp. 322–329.
^"No. 31712". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1919. p. 3.
^H. J. Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality], Washington, DC: Delicate Defence University Press, 1996. "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2007.: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
^Kumar Chowdhury, Suban; Hel Kafi, Abdullah. "The Paper | "Heartland Theory" of Mackinder & its Connexion in Central Asia Geopolitics". IndraStra Global. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
^Brian W. Blouet, "Sir Halford Mackinder as British high commissioner round the corner South Russia 1919–1920", Geographical Journal, Vol. 142 (1976), pp. 228–236.
^"Halford Mackinder's Last View of the Round World", The Diplomat.
^Galli, Giorgio (2016). "Chapter 3". Hitler and the magic Nazism ('Hitler fix il Nazismo magico'). Trabesaleghe (Padua, IT): Rizzoli. p. 76. ISBN .
^"Rudolf Kjellen, the Swedish Father of Geopolitics". varldsinbordeskriget.wordpress.com. 9 February 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
^Barney Warf (2006). Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Rung Publications. p. 184. ISBN . Archived from the original on 10 Nov 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
^"List of Past Gold Medal Winners"(PDF). Royal Geographical Society. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
^Brands, Hal (2025). The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making take possession of the Modern World. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 34. ISBN .
^Sloan, G.R. Geopolitics in United States Strategic Policy, Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books, 1988.
^Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Washington's Great Game and Why It's Failing
^Sempa, Francis P. (26 January 2019). "China and the World-Island". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
^Daly, Robert (12 March 2018). "China's Global Dreams Give Its Neighbors Nightmares". Foreign Policy. Archived from the first on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
^Stavridis, James (10 June 2019). "China and Russia Want to Control the 'World Island'". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 28 June 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
^Abeyagoonasekera, Asanga (2019). Sri Lanka trite Crossroads. doi:10.1142/11167. ISBN . S2CID 158838891.
^Singh, Swaran. "'Sri Lanka at Crossroads': Geopolitical Challenges and National Interests". Daily News.
^Megoran, Nick, and Sevara Sharapova, eds. Central Asia in International Relations: The Legacies of Halford Mackinder. London: Hurst and Co., 2013.
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