Halford Mackinder

Halford Mackinder

Halford John Mackinder
Born 15 February 1861(1861-02-15)
Gainsborough, England
Died 6 March 1947(1947-03-06) (aged 86)
Nationality  United Kingdom
Fields Geography, Geopolitics, Geostrategy

Sir Halford John Mackinder PC (15 February 1861 – 6 March 1947) was an English geographer and is considered one of the founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy.

Contents

Early life and education

He was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England the son of a doctor, and educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Gainsborough (now Queen Elizabeth's High School), Epsom College and Christ Church, Oxford. At Oxford he started studying natural sciences, specialising in zoology under Henry Nottidge Moseley, who had been the naturalist on Challenger expedition. When he turned to the study of history, he remarked that he was returning "to an old interest and took up modern history with the idea of seeing how the theory of evolution would appear in human development". He was a strong proponent of treating both physical geography and human geography as a single discipline. Mackinder served as President of the Oxford Union in 1883.[1]

Career

In 1887, he published "On the Scope and Methods of Geography", a manifesto for the New Geography.[2] A few months later, he was appointed as Reader in Geography at the University of Oxford, where he introduced the teaching of the subject. As Mackinder himself put it, "a platform has been given to a geographer." This was arguably at the time the most prestigious academic position for a British geographer.

In 1892, he was the first Principal of University Extension College, Reading, which later became the University of Reading[3]. The following year, he was one of the founders of the Geographical Association, which promoted (and promotes) the teaching of geography in schools. He later became chairman of the GA from 1913 to 1946 and served as its President from 1916.

In 1895, he was one of the founders of the London School of Economics. At Oxford, Mackinder was the driving force behind the creation of a School of Geography in 1899[4]. In the same year, he led an expedition which was the first to climb Mount Kenya[5].

In 1902 he published Britain and The British Seas, which included the first comprehensive geomorphology of the British Isles and which became a classic in regional geography[6].

He was a member of the Coefficients dining club, set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb, which brought together social reformers and advocates of national efficiency.[7]

In 1904 Mackinder gave a paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History" at the Royal Geographical Society, in which he formulated the Heartland Theory [8]. This is often considered as a, if not the, founding moment of Geopolitics as a field of study, although Mackinder did not use the term. Whilst the Heartland Theory initially received little attention outside geography, this theory would later exerce some influence on the foreign policies of world powers[9].

Possibly disappointed at not getting a full Chair, Mackinder left Oxford and became director of the London School of Economics between 1903 and 1908. After 1908, he concentrated on advocating the cause of imperial unity and lectured only part-time[10]. He was elected to Parliament in January 1910 as Unionist Party member for the Glasgow Camlachie constituency and was defeated in 1922. He was knighted in the 1920 New Year Honours for his services as an MP.[11]

Heartland.png

His next major work, Democratic ideals and reality: a study in the politics of reconstruction, appeared in 1919 [12]. It presented his theory of the Heartland and made a case for fully taking into account geopolitical factors at the Paris Peace conference and contrasted (geographical) reality with Woodrow Wilson's idealism. The book's most famous quote was: "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island; Who rules the World Island commands the World." This message was composed to convince the world statesmen at the Paris Peace conference of the crucial importance of Eastern Europe as the strategic route to the Heartland was interpreted as requiring a strip of buffer state to separate Germany and Russia. These were created by the peace negotiators but proved to be ineffective bulwarks in 1939 (although this may be seen as a failure of other, later statesmen during the interbelllum). the principal concern of his work was to warn of the possibility of another major war (a warning also given by economist John Maynard Keynes).

Mackinder was anti-Bolshevik, and as British High Commissioner in Southern Russia in late 1919 and early 1920, he stressed the need for Britain to continue her support to the White Russian forces), which he attempted to unite[13].

Significance of Mackinder

Mackinder's work paved the way for the establishment of geography as a distinct discipline in the United Kingdom. His role in fostering the teaching of geography is probably greater than that of any other single British geographer.

Whilst Oxford did not appoint a professor of Geography until 1934, both the University of Liverpool and University of Wales, Aberystwyth established professorial chairs in Geography in 1917. Mackinder himself became a full professor in Geography in the University of London (London School of Economics) in 1923.

Mackinder is often credited with introducing two new terms into the English language : "manpower", "heartland".

Influence on Nazi strategy

The Heartland Theory was enthusiastically taken up by the German school of Geopolitik, in particular by its main proponent Karl Haushofer. Whilst Geopolitik was later embraced by the German Nazi regime in the 1930s, Mackinder was always extremely critical of the German exploitation of his ideas. The German interpretation of the Heartland Theory is referred to explicitly (without mentioning the connection to Mackinder) in The Nazis Strike, the second of Frank Capra's Why We Fight series of American World War II propaganda films.

Influence on American strategy

The Heartland theory and more generally classical geopolitics and geostrategy were extremely influential in the making of US strategic policy during the period of the Cold War.[14]

Influence on later academics

Evidence of Mackinder’s Heartland Theory can be found in the works of geopolitician Dimitri Kitsikis, particularly in his geopolitical model "Intermediate Region".

Mackinder on geography

"...the science whose main function is to trace the interaction of man in society and so much of his environment as varies locally."

"The science of distribution. The science, that is, which traces the arrangement of things in general on the Earth's surface."

Works

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Edmund W. Gilbert, British Pioneers in Geography (Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1972), p. 141.
  2. ↑ H.J. Mackinder, On the Scope and Methods of Geography, Proceedings of the 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, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 113, (Jan. - Jun., 1949), pp. 47-57
  3. ↑ Ian Macrae, “The making of a university, the breakdown of a movement: Reading University Extension College to The University of Reading, 1892-1925”, Journal International Journal of Lifelong Education, Volume 13, Issue 1 January 1994, pages 3-18
  4. ↑ L. M. Cantor, The Royal Geographical Society and the Projected London Institute of Geography 1892-1899. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 128, No. 1 (Mar., 1962), pp. 30-35
  5. ↑ H.J. Mackinder, “A Journey to the Summit of Mount Kenya, British East Africa”, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 15, No. 5 (May, 1900), pp. 453-476
  6. ↑ H.J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas. New York: D. Appleton and company, 1902.
  7. ↑ Beatrice Webb, Our Partnership, Londres, 1948, p. 312.
  8. ↑ H.J. Mackinder, The geographical pivot of history. The Geographical Journal, 1904, 23, pp. 421–37; Pascal Venier, “The Geographical Pivot of History and Early 20th Century Geopolitical Culture”, Geographical Journal, vol. 170, no 4, December 2004, pp. 330-336.
  9. ↑ Sloan, G.R. "Sir Halford Mackinder: the heartland theory then and now", in Gray C S and Sloan G.R., Geopolitics, geography and strategy. London: Frank Cass, pp. 15–38.
  10. ↑ Brian Blouet, "The imperial vision of Halford Mackinder", Geographical Journal, Volume 170 Issue 4, Pages 322 - 329.
  11. ↑ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31712, p. 3, 30 December 1919.
  12. ↑ H.J. Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality, Washington, DC: National Defence University Press, 1996
  13. ↑ Brian W. Blouet, 'Sir Halford Mackinder as British high commissioner to South Russia 1919-1920'. Geographical Journal, 142 (1976), 228-36.
  14. ↑ Sloan, G.R. Geopolitics in United States Strategic Policy, Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books, 1988.

External links

Educational offices
Preceded by
William Hewins		 Director of the London School of Economics
1903–1908		 Succeeded by
William Pember Reeves
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Alexander Cross		 Member of Parliament for Glasgow Camlachie
1910 – 1922		 Succeeded by
Campbell Stephen