Geographical Pivot of History

HJ Mackinder
• British predominance in the world rested on its
“command of the sea”
• 1500 to 1900 – Columbian epoch – Last stage of geo-
graphical exploration
– Geographical exploration through voyages was nearly
over
– In 400 years the outline of the map of the world was
complete with approximate accuracy
– In Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and
Australia there was scarcely a region left for the
pegging out of a claim of ownership, unless as the re-
sult of a war
– Post-Columbian age
– Towards the beginning of 20th century and especially
after WW-I Great Britain was anxious to maintain stat-
ues quo and the integrity of its empire
• Towards 1900 “a new balance of power is being evolved” that included
“five great world states, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and America”
• Britain’s position as a preeminent world power was endangered due to
“permanent facts of physical geography” in the form of present of vast
powers, broad-based on the resource of half continents – Russia and
USA
• Threat to British preeminence and to the liberty of the world was the subject of
Mackinder’s bold provocative essay

– “The Geographical Pivot of History” – a lecture delivered to the Royal Geo-

graphical Society on January 25, 1904

Euro-Asia
• Mackinder pictured Europe and Asia as one great continent: Euro-Asia
– a continuous land, ice-girt in the north, water-girt elsewhere, mea-
suring 21 million sqm.
– The Centre and north of Euro-Asia measure some 9 million square
miles have no available waterways to the ocean, but, on the other
hand are generally favourable to mobility of horsemen

– To the east and south of this heart-land are marginal regions,

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 History of Euro-Asia
• Between 5th to 16th centuries, a succession of nomadic
people (Huns, Avars, Bugarians, Magyars, Khazars, Patzi-
naks, Cumans, Mongols, and Kalmuks) emerged from Cen-
tral Asia to conquer/threaten the states and peoples lo-
cated in the marginal crescent (Europe, the Middle East,
Southwest Asia, China, Southeast Asia, Korea, Japan)

• Beginning the late 15th Century the great mariners of the

Columbian generation used sea power to envelop Central
Asia

• Rise of sea powers reversed the relations between Europe

and Asia
 Middle Ages Europe

UNKNOWN
OCEANS
HORSEMEN

 Europe was caged between an impassable desert to south, an

unknown ocean to west, and icy or forested wastes to north and
north-east and in the east and south-east was constantly threatened
by the superior mobility of the horsemen.
 While Europe expanded overseas, the Russian state expanded to the south
and east, a vast space of great human and natural resources
• Northern-Central core of Euro-Asia as the “pivot region”
or ‘Heartland’ of world politics
• The particular events out of which sprang the idea of Heartland were
the British war in S. Africa & Russian war in Manchuria
– British war against the Boers (South Africa) fought 6000 miles
away across the ocean
• Ethnic, political and social tensions among European colonial powers, indigenous
Africans, and English and Dutch settlers led to open conflict in a series of wars
and revolts between 1879 and 1915 that would have lasting repercussions on the
entire region of southern Africa.
• The war fought by Russia at a comparable distance
across the land expanse of Asia
– Russian invasion of Manchuria occurred in the aftermath of the
First Sino-Japanese War (1894–5) and Japanese occupation of Man-
churia caused the Russians to speed up their long held designs for
imperial expansion across Eurasia.

• The Russian army

in Manchuria was a
Significant evidence
of mobile land power,
as the British army in
South Africa was of
Sea-power.
 U RI A
MANCH

SOUTH AFRICA
 Mackinder – British Geographer
• In 1904 gave a talk at the Royal Geographical Society - ‘The Geograph-
ical Pivot of History’, which was illustrated with this world map.
• Mackinder believed that central Asia, or what he called ‘Eurasia’, repre-
sented the pivotal area of the world’s politics, and that whoever con-
trolled this vast, landlocked region and its resources would effectively
rule the globe.
• He first offered the theory of the "Pivot Area" a designation for the
core area of Eurasia, which was protected from the maritime powers
of the day.
• He reasoned that the development of the potential power of this
area could enable the continental power that controlled it to domin-
ate the world.
• Expanding upon this concept, and with the recent experience of World
War I to draw upon, he broadened the scope of his concept of the
"Pivot Area," renamed it the "Heartland," and published Democratic
Ideals and Reality in 1919.
• Post-WW-I, Britishers were anxious to maintain status quo and integrity
of their empire
• With this aim in view Mackinder developed the concept of HL
• His argument: Geography should serve as a bridge
between the physical sciences and the social sciences
• The impact of geographic facts on society and the effect of
society on the environment were essential to the discipline.
• He wrote at a time when the major explorations of the
globe had been completed. There was no land left to
discover.
• At the time the physical geography being taught was
geology, and the teaching of political geography required
little more than recitation of demographic facts.
• While the creation of discipline of geography in England
cannot be credited entirely to Mackinder, his controversial
presentation to the Royal Geographic Society and the sub-
sequent discussion of it did have an impact and led to
the creation of geography readerships at both Oxford
and Cambridge with support from the Society.
 Basis of Heartland Theory
• Land based power, not a sea based power would ultimately rules
the world – greatest power would control the land, not the sea
– Warning to Britain – a naval power, ignoring land power
– Sought to caution Britain against a possible German attack and domi-
nation of world Islands
– To utilize geopolitics not for furthering the expansion of the British em-
pire, but for maintaining the status quo in global political arrangements
– Warned about the possibility of rise of a power in the inner portion
of Eurasia with possibility of world domination - Russia
• Why Eurasia?
– Central location
– Possesses sustainable conditions for the development of military, industry
– Plains, populous
– Impregnable to attacks from sea
• The control of the heartland, i.e. the inner portion of the Eurasian
Steppes by any ambitious land power was likely to lead to the domi-
nation by that power of the entire globe
• Mackinder attempted to illustrate the importance of global geographical
hierarchy
– Heartland theory divides the world’s land into three zones
– The World Island – consisting Europe, Asia and Africa
• Interlinked continents
• Largest, most populous, resource rich regions
– Offshore Islands – consisting Britain, Japan
– Outlying Islands – consisting of North America, South America, Australia
 Central Eurasia

T L AND
R
HEA

C EN T
RE S
N E RC
I N

E R C RE SCENT
OUT
 Dictums
• Control of the superior resources of the Heartland could
enable a state to conquer the rest of the World-Island
(inner crescent)
– Control of the World-Island would mean control of more
than 50% of world resources making possible of the con-
quest of the world’s remaining land
 Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland;
 Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Is-
land;
 Who rules the World-Island controls the world.
 First Revision 1919
• Mackinder altered the focus of his concept in 1919 in an article
“Democratic Ideals and Reality” – prescriptive in manner
• He modified his Pivot area to include areas of Baltic Sea, middle &
lower Volga, Black Sea, Persia, Tibet, and Mongolia and named it,
Strategic Heartland
• Focus on Central Europe: Special attention given to
Germany and the new communist Russia
• Both sea power and air power are essentially based on
territory and resources
• Predicted that possible future cooperation between
Berlin (Germany) and Moscow could lead to the estab-
lishment of an invincible combination of air, land, and
sea power.
– More threatening to British power as most of Russia’s territory
cannot be attacked by sea power
– Mackinder concluded that there was no chance for Britain
to challenge a possible German-Russian alliance
– Suggested creation of buffer states in Eastern Europe which
would prevent any close cooperation between Berlin and Mos-
cow
 Second Revision - 1943
• Discarded his 1919 dictum
• Included other geographical areas
– Midland Basin: In the mid-1920s, Mackinder shifted his focus
to North America and Western Europe.
– The area of abundant rainfall and coalfields are in the eastern US
whereas in Europe, they are in the West. Thus, the Eastern US
and Western Europe are two halves of a single community
separated by the North Atlantic. He named Eastern US,
North Atlantic, and Western Europe as the Midland
Basin
– Not only updated heartland theory but also identified
other geographical features including the Pacific and
Indian Ocean and the monsoon land of India and
China, which predicted would play an important role in
the future global balance of power
– Five balancing Units in the world system
• North Atlantic – Midland Ocean
• Asian Heartland Powers
• Monsoonal Land of India and China
• South Atlantic
• Mantle of Vacancies – from Sahara to Central Asia
 Midland Ocean – Fulcrum of power moved West again
• After heartland concept, Mackinder developed another concept as a
reposte to the threat of resurgent Germany, not the Soviet Union
– Midland Ocean – NATO was formed just after 6 years
• The North Atlantic and its dependent seas and river basins
• A bridgehead in France
• A mooted aerodrome in Britain
• A reserve of manpower agriculture and industry in USA and Canada
– Appreciation for sea power and its relevance
Criticism
• Mackinder had overlooked in his model the existence of another
Heartland in Anglo-American which was capable of occupying an
imp place in global affairs as the one in Eurasia. Though he men-
tioned his heartland as a part of the Midland Basin in his last revi-
sion of his model in 1943, he failed to follow up the apparently ob-
vious consequences.
• Biased View:
– Imperial Britain interest were central focus

– Climatological difficulties were overlooked

– Over simplification of land and sea power: oversimplification of history

and dangerous determinist prediction – sea power-land power rivalry

– Science and technology / nuclear weapons and air navigation/ballis-

tic missiles / hypersonic missiles have made time and distance/space
insignificant
• Irrational view
– Analysis is not rational because it assumes conflict
in a system where there is none

• Problem relates to date of publication. Original state-

ment of the thesis was based upon data available prior to 1904. If
indeed his model constituted geographical formula into which one
could fit any political balance, as Mackinder himself asserted and
if the pivot area gave so much power to the possessor, why
was Russia by 1904 not more of a world power than was?
 Essence/Relevance of Mackinder’s Heartland Theory

• Organic View: His aim was to explain human history as

part of the life of the world organism
• Coordinating influence of Geography over policy: Iden-
tified the subtle relationship between geography and
the evolution of policy decisions.
– In that the geographical environment doesn’t define the choices
of policy-makers; it nonetheless provides an important coordi-
nating influence;
– Man and not nature initiates, but nature in large measure con-
trols
• Highlighted the importance of the geographical con-
figuration and location within which political power ex-
ercised
– In particular Mackinder underlined the changing political rele-
vance of a state’s geographical location
• Mackinder developed a synthesis between the patterns of
physical geography and political history
• He also appreciated the strategic importance of the new
technology for the interplay between geography and mili-
tary power. In particular, the configuration between sea
power and land power
– The great strength of Mackinder’s heartland theory is the blending
together of an understanding of the political implications of new
technology with the persistence of certain geographical patterns of
political history.
– It explained how a technology-induced change in favour of land
power would have profound political consequences for those
states which were located in the Rimland area
• Revolutionary idea
• The insight that Mackinder provided was the importance of
the threat that land power could pose to sea power, in
the 20th century
 Relevance
• The aim of Mackinder’s whole policy was to create a
favourable geographical field in which the ideological
threat of Bolshevist rule could be contained and pre-
vent the emergence of a centralised military power
• Mackinder identified the existence of a closed interna-
tional state system where the idea of world domination
was for the first time, a viable political aim
• Mackinder has left a legacy which can be utilized to out-
line the geographical perspective of the 21st century.

• He drew attention to the geographical patterns of politi-

cal history – his argument regarding the control of the
Eurasian landmass is still considered as the major geo-
graphical prize
• Mackinder’s idea have often been assisted with environ-
mental determinism. Although the geographical environ-
ment does not define the choices of policy-makers, it none-
theless provides an important, if not crucial, conditioning
influence.
– His analysis represented a picture of the constellation of forces
which existed at a particular time and within a particular geo-
graphical frame of reference
• His explanation was flexible, cooping with the shifting
conditions and circumstances
• The Heartland theory is still influential in foreign policy
outlook of the US and Russia in Central Asia.
– Competition for gaining control of natural resources and market ac-
cess between Russia and US together with geopolitical and strategic
factors characterized the geopolitics of Central Asia.
• Heartland theory was a founding moment for geopolitics
– Any movement which is made in one part of the world affects
the whole of the international relations of the world
 Examining Mackinder's Heartland

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 Rimland Theory by Spykman (1942-43)
• Nicholas Spykman sought to arouse the US against the
danger of world domination by Germany
• Most American academic geographers vigorously repudi-
ated German geopolitik
• He felt that only a dedicated alliance of Anglo American
sea power and soviet land power could prevent Germany
from seizing control of all the Eurasian shorelines and
thereby gaining domination over world-island
• Subsequently applied to contain Soviet expansion; the
dominant goal of US foreign policy from the late 1940s to
the end of Cold War was to contain soviet power within the
geographical boundaries established at the WWII
• Soviet power extended into Southeast Asia and Southwest
Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean Sea, and Central
America
• In Mackinder there is one pattern of conflict in history
– that between Seapower and heartland.
• In Spykman, there are two – that between Seapower
and heartland, and that between an independent center
of power in the Rimland with both Seapower and heart-
land allied against it – dualism in Spykman
– The decline of one pattern will simply be replaced by another in
accordance with new centers of power in the world
– USSR disintegration – China’s emergency
• Both considered to be Geographic Pivots of History
• Both geostrategic theories written at different times, but
both seeing the World Island composed of Europe, Rus-
sia, the Middle East and Asia. North America, South
America and Africa were labelled as Outlying Islands in
both theories.
• Spikman took the basic inspiration and concept from Mackinder. He
had the same global view as Mackinder but rejected the land power
doctrine
• He argued that coastal Eurasia (Mackinder’s inner crescent) that is Rim-
land, not the Heartland, was the key to world power.
• Rimland includes – Eurasian coastal land including maritime Europe, the
Middle East, India, South East Asia and China that key to world central
because of their population, rich resources, their use of interior Sea lanes
• The inner crescent of amphibian states surrounding the Heartland con-
sists of:
– European coast land,
– Arabian Middle-Eastern desert
– Asiatic monsoon land
• “Beyond the mountain barrier, the coast land region, which is called by
Mackinder the inner crescent may more effectively be referred to as the
Rimland, a name which defines its character accurately.
• Beyond lie the offshore islands and continents of Great Britain,
Japan, Africa and Australia which compose the outer crescent, to which
the terminology ‘offshore’ will be used…than that of Mackinder.
• The surrounding string of marginal and Mediterranean seas which
separate the continent from the oceans constitutes a circumferential mar-
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Offshore Islands and Continents

• First two regions are clearly defined as geographical ar-
eas, but the third is a unit only from the special his-
torical point of view represented by Great Britain
• The Asiatic monsoon land looks like a single region
– Similarities of climate and easy accessibility of the area to sea
power
– Protected from the Heartland by a string of barriers from the
Himalayas and Tibet to the vast desert and mountain regions of
Sinkiang and Mongolia
– But the mountains however do not make the monsoon lands
behind them a single unit
– The ranges of Burma and Indo-China extend down to the sea
and interpose a great obstacle to contacts between the two
great states.
– India and the Indian Ocean littoral, then fall into a different
geopolitical category from China
Validity of Spykeman’s thesis
Validity of Mackinder’s thesis
• Costal Eurasia (Mackinder’s inner crescent) that is Rim-
land, not the Heartland, was the key to world power

• If there is to be a slogan for the power politics of the

old world, it must be: who controls the Rimland rules
Eurasia; who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of
the world
Importance of Ocean / maritime
• The fundamental fact which is responsible for the conditions…of
world politics is the development of ocean navigation and the dis-
covery of sea routes to India and America.

• Maritime mobility is the basis for a new type of geopolitical struc-

ture, the overseas empire

• The sea has become a great artery of communication and a new

structure of great power and enormous extent – British, French, Ja-
panese empires and the sea power of USA have all contributed to the
development of a modern world which is a single field for the interplay
of political forces

• It is sea power which has made possible to conceive of the Eurasian

Continent as a unit and it is sea power which governs the relation-
ships between the Old and the New Worlds
 In Reality
• There has never really been a simple land power-sea
power opposition.

– The historical alignment has always been in terms of some

members of the Rimland with Great Britain against some
members of Rimland with Russia, or Great Britain and Russia
together against a dominating Rimland power.

• The heartland Rimland model generated

considerable speculation in the 1950s
Validate of Traditional Theories
of Political Geography
in the Cold War Context
Do the actions and outcomes of Cold War validate or inval-
idate traditional theories of political geography?
• By the end of WWII it was clear that the effect of Heart-
land could be equated with the USSR. Germany’s failure
to defeat Russia had enhanced Mackinder’s reputation
• From this point onwards there existed a general model
which is known as the Heartland-Rimland thesis involving
land power (USSR) vs sea power (USA) separated by a con-
tact zone (Rimland).
• Heartland-Rimland thesis could become an ideological tool
of the US foreign policymakers
• The world was reduced to two superpowers with the onset
of Cold War and Heartland-Rimland thesis provided an
easy way of conceptualizing the new situation
• The original hydrology basis of pivot area and
Mackinder’s concern for German expansion were con-
veniently forgotten and left with a model in which the
enemy the USSR had control of the fortress – the
Heartland, the policy was formulated accordingly
• The US has gone to war twice within 30 years and the
threat to its security each time has been the possibil-
ity that the Rimland regions of the Eurasian landmass
would be dominated by a single power
• Soviet Union had control of East Europe and the Ara-
bian Middle-Eastern desert, as the result of German
defeat by its army.
• Spikeman, therefore, argued that US policy should be
directed to the control of the Rimland states or at
least to the prevention of their control by USSR
• It is not clear whether the post-war US policy of containment, as ad-
vocated by Truman and Kenan and later by Acheson and Dullels,
simply manifested Spykman’s dictum on Rimland.
• Post-1945 period Mackinder’s model proved more relevant and time
tested
• The heartland rose to prominence only after the defeat of Germany
in the WWII
• The Heartland Russia was succeeded by the Soviet Union which
emerged as the strongest power in Eurasia.
• The whole of Eastern Europe developed into a satellite area or de-
pendent areas of the Heartland Soviet Russia, while the broad re-
gion, east of the Yenesie river including China, witnessed communist
upsurge followed by its success in China, thus a contiguous unbro-
ken communist sphere superposed on a vast landmass from the
Baltic Sea to the Pacific coast.
• Thus communism penetrated into the monsoon lands of China and
continental Europe but threatened European inner crescent and the
Arabian Middle East-Indian crescent with expansion.
• Sino-Soviet pressure was felt all along the Rimland/inner crescent ar-
• Soviet expansionist policy divided the world into two
– Zone of Peace: the region that is already subject to communist
rule; no possibility of challenge to communist rule
– Zone of War is the region where communist rule is not yet, but in
due course will be, established; They promote, assist and lead po-
litical tendencies both violent non-violent that operate against
non-communist rule
• Some major conflicts took place in Berlin, Korea, the Mid-
dle East, Vietnam, and Afghanistan in the post-1945 era –
all of which are premised on preventing Heartland So-
viet domination of the World-Island
• The policy of N deterrence would never have developed
by for Heartland-Rimland dichotomy
– USSR had the superior geopolitical location then nuclear arsenal
would act as a counterbalance to Heartland Russia’s basic strate-
gic advantage
• This situation necessitated the outer crescent-inner crescent/Rim-
land combine to resist the outward expansion of the Heartland
Soviet Russia into the neighbouring areas.
• The Heartland Russia was conceived of a fortress, and required to
be surrounded by the ring of anti-Heartland Soviet alliances in
the inner crescent or Rimland, and here the Spykman’s model
found its geographical expression, through the containment pol-
icy.
– Spykman argued that the key to maintaining post-war stability lay in pre-
venting any power from obtaining control of the Rimland
• US Containment Policy – Kennan and Truman till GW Bush Sr.
• 1947 March: President Truman made a speech in Congress re-
questing aid to government of Greece and Turkey – Truman
Doctrine – US Must help free peoples to maintain their free insti-
tutions
– Formation of regional alliances – between 1947-60 US formed mutual
security agreements with 46 countries with most of the Rimland nations
and in the outer crescent.
– Providing economic and military assistance to other nations to prevent
• NATO
• Rio Treaty – South America
• ANZUS Treaty Australia
• SEATO – East Asia
• Philippines Treaty
• China Treaty
• Japanese Treaty
• Korea Treaty
• The outer crescent-inner crescent combine led by
Anglo-America came out with a series of multilateral
and military alliances such as NATO in Europe, CENTO
in West Asia, SEATO in East Asia and ANZUS in the Pa-
cific, against the Heartland Communist bloc
 NA WTO
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CEATO

ANZUS

• Projection of adequate power along the periphery of the

Soviet Empire in an arc extending from Norway across
Central Europe, through Balkans, the middle east, and
Southeast Asia curving from South-Central Asia to Korea
and Japan
• The Heartland Communist bloc also
had Warsaw Pact in Europe and a
separate Sino-Soviet military alliance
in Asia
• Whole of the inner-crescent or Rim-
land turned into a potential battle-
ground between expanding Heartland
Communist bloc and the opposing
outer-crescent-Inner-crescent combine
• Mackinder predicted about Russia as Heartland power
to emerge if defeat Germany as the greatest land power
on the globe
• Both superpowers emphasized the value of Mackinder’s
marginal crescent and Spikeman’s Rimland – most of
the Cold War conflict occurred in the Rimland / Mar-
ginal Crescent
• Kennan concluded that the key to the success of contain-
ment was industrial might
– Five of the industrial centres – US, Britain, West Germany, Japan
and Soviet Union
– US and allies owned four out of five – to be successful, contain-
ment must limit the Soviet to that one 2 of the 4 industrial centers
controlled by the US and its allies were in marginal crescent, the
others, Japan and the US were in outer
 – Key territories within the Rimland included the oil fields of the mid-
dle east, warm water seaports in the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean
and the Pacific
– In Greece, Turkey, and Iran – the first contest between two superpow-
ers
• Containment strategy
– Adequate power projection along the periphery of SU in an arc
style
– Maintaining and strengthening NATO
– Helping to stabilize the middle east – Persian Gulf region
– Strengthening relationship with China
– Maintaining US forward position in Australia, Philippines, Korea,
Japan
– Direct containment of Soviet power by alliances
– Strategy both failed and succeeded – Soviet power extended into
SE Asia, SW Asia, Africa, Middileast, Caribbean Sea, Central Amer-
ica
– Containment succeeded as the map of Europe was not altered in
45 years, nor was in geopolitical terms the map of Central Asia
• Both validated and invalidated
– Conduct of the Cold War was not based on
the principles espoused by either Mackinder
or Spikeman
• US action was purely reactive
– Both sides emphasized the value of
Mackinder’s marginal crescent and Spyk-
man’s Rimland – neither side was able to ob-
tain control of the Rimland fully
– Single Superpower – not predicted by both
– Limiting the Soviet access to resources, US
brought the fulfillment of Spykman’s theories
• The creation of NATO in 1949 marked the departure
of US foreign policy.
– Mackinder’s theory offered the geopolitical foundation for
this departure, but it was Spykman who turned this theory
into central prescription for US policy
• During the cold war, in geopolitical terms China and
Western Europe were two large weights on the periph-
eries of Eurasian landmass adjacent to the Soviet Heart-
land. The effective control of either territory by Soviet
Union through direct conquest or political hegemony
would have drastically shifted the correlation of world
forces in Moscow’s favour.
• Mackinder’s ominus vision of a Heartland-based world
empire would have come precariously close to realiza-
tion.
• America’s Strategy in World Politics – the first
line of defence of the US lies in the preservation
of a balance of power in Europe and Asia.

• Containing Soviet Power was the main aim of

George F Kennan

• Strategy: Each nation’s quest for security in-

evitably lead to conflict because “the margin of
security for one is the margin of danger for the
other, and alliance must, therefore be met by
counter-alliance and armament by counter arma-
ment in the central competitive struggle for power