Overview

The Geographical Pivot of History was an article submitted by Halford John Mackinder in 1902 to the Royal Geographical Society. In this article, Mackinder extended the scope of geopolitical analysis to encompass the entire globe. The earth, according to Mackinder, was divisible into two regions. The world island, comprising the interlinked continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, was the largest, most populous, and richest of all possible land combinations. Along its periphery were the large insular groups of the Americas, Australia, Japan, and the British Isles. At the center of this world island lay the heartland, stretching from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic. Protected from sea power by ice to the north and mountains and deserts to the south, the island's vast land area was threatened only by land invasion on its western border from Western Europe to Russia. According to Mackinder, effective political domination of this space by a single power had been unattainable in the past because of a lack of proper transportation. Previous invasions from east to west and vice versa were unsuccessful because of the inability to assure a continual supply of men and supplies. Halford John Mackinder Sir Halford John Mackinder PC (February 15, 1861 - March 6, 1947), was an English geographer and geopolitician. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Royal Geographical Society is a learned society, founded in 1830 with the name Geographical Society of London for the advancement of geographical science, under the patronage of King William IV. It absorbed the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa (founded by Joseph Banks in... Geopolitics analyses politics, history and social science with reference to geography. ... World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ... See also: Asian and Eurasian World map showing Asia. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. ... World map showing the Americas The Americas commonly refers to the landmass in the Western Hemisphere consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... This article may contain original research or unverified claims. ... Heartland is a most often a geopolitical term, often used to refer to a central area of Eurasia that is remote and inaccessible from the periphery. ... For other meanings of the word Volga see Volga (disambiguation) Волга Length 3,690 km Elevation of the source 225 m Average discharge  ? m³/s Area watershed 1. ... Length 6,380 km Elevation of the source  ? m Average discharge 31,900 m³/s Area watershed 1,800,000 km² Origin Qinghai Province and Tibet Mouth East China Sea Basin countries China The Chang Jiang (Simplified Chinese: 长江; Traditional Chinese: 長江; pinyin: Cháng Jiāng; Wade-Giles: Chang Chiang... Perspective view of the Himalaya and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ... The red line indicates the 10°C isotherm in July, commonly used to define the Arctic region border The Arctic is the u area around the Earths North Pole. ...

Mackinder believed that the introduction of the railroad as a means of transportation had removed the island's invulnerabilty to domination by a single power. As Eurasia began to be covered by an extensive network of railroads, there was an excellent chance that a powerful continental nation could extend its political control over the Eastern European gateway to the Eurasian landmass. This would be a prelude to that nation's bid for mastery first of the Eurasian land mass and then the entire globe: "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the world-island; who rules the world-island controls the world." With this pithy statement, Mackinder identified the geopolitcal nighmare that was to haunt the world's two sea powers during the first half of the new century—Great Britain and later on the United States. The nightmare was that if Germany or Russia were allowed the conquest of East Europe then this could lead to the domination of the Eurasian land mass by one of these two power as a prelude to mastery of the world. This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... African-Eurasian aspect of Earth Eurasia is the landmass composed of the continents of Europe and Asia. ... Current division of Europe into five (or more) regions: one definition of Eastern Europe is marked in orange Eastern Europe as a region has several alternative definitions, whereby it can denote: the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Central Europe and Russia. ...

References

• William R. Keylor, The Twentieth-Century World and Beyond: An International History Since 1900, 2006. ISBN 0195168437