Halford Mackinder
Sir Halford John Mackinder (born February 15, 1861 in Gainsborough , † March 6, 1947 ) was a British geographer . He developed the geopolitical heartland theory .
Life
Mackinder went to school at Epsom College and Christ Church , Oxford . He became a geographer and later turned to economics and political science . He campaigned for the union of the geographic branches of physical geography and human geography (anthropogeography). He was a co-founder of the London School of Economics and served as its director from 1903 to 1908.
In 1887 he became lecturer in geography at the University of Oxford , the highest possible position for geographers in Great Britain until then. The University of Reading was co-founded by Mackinder in 1892, further 1893, the Geographical Association , which he chaired from 1913 to 1946. By 1899 he had founded his own geographical school. In 1899 he succeeded in the first ascent of the Batian in the Mount Kenya massif , the second highest mountain in Africa.
His work Britain and The British Seas , published in 1902, was the first comprehensive account of the geomorphology of the British Isles . Mackinder formulated the Heartland Theory as part of geopolitics in 1904 in The Geographical Pivot of History : It states that the rulership of the heartland of Eurasia is the key to world domination and that Great Britain as the leading maritime power, as it cannot rule this area due to its island location could expect a dangerous expansionist power to emerge on the continent, particularly Russia. Probably out of disappointment that he was not given a full professorship, he left Oxford University and became a civil servant . But he continued to give lectures, mainly at the London School of Economics, where he also held a professorship. In 1905 Mackinder coined the term manpower as a measure of population policy.
From 1910 to 1922 he represented the Unionist Party as a member of the British Parliament . In 1920 he was beaten to Knight Bachelor ("Sir"). From 1923 he held a chair at the University of London .
His second major work, Democratic Ideals and Society of 1919, was a consideration of his 1904 work under the impression of the peace treaties after the First World War and Woodrow Wilson's idealism.
His Heartland Theory was initially neglected outside Great Britain, but was taken up by the National Socialists ( Karl Haushofer ) in 1930 . Although there was no evidence that Mackinder sympathized with the Nazi regime, he was severely attacked after the National Socialist appropriation of his work became known. Mackinder was fluent in German and had some friends among Germany's intellectuals .
Quote
"a lump of coal surrounded by fish" in Britain and The British Seas over Great Britain.
Works
- Britain and The British Seas. 1902
- The Geographical Pivot of History. 1904 - German translation: The geographical pivot point of history. In: Lettre International , Edition 120, 2018, pp. 124–129.
- Man-power as a measure of National and Imperial Strength. 1905
- Democratic Ideals and Reality. 1919
- The key to world domination. The Heartland Theory with a situation report by Willy Wimmer . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2019, ISBN 978-3-86489-289-9
literature
- Hanno Beck : Sir Halford Mackinder - creator of the most influential view of the world in modern times (1861–1947). In: Hanno Beck: Great Geographers. Pioneers - outsiders - scholars. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-496-00507-6 , pp. 229-240
- Gerry Kearns: Geopolitics and empire. The legacy of Halford Mackinder , Oxford et al. a. (Oxford University Press) 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-923011-2
- Alexandros Petersen: The World Island. Eurasian geopolitics and the fate of the West , Santa Barbara, CAL (Praeger) 2011. ISBN 978-0-313-39137-8
- Brian W. Blouet: Halford Mackinder. A biography , Texas A&M University Press 1987. ISBN 0-89096-292-8
- Alfred McCoy: Washington's Great Game and Why It's Failing. TomDispatch.com on June 7, 2015 ; German translation: Heartland and world island. Why Halford J. Mackinder's geopolitical theses matter. In: Lettre International , Edition 120, 2018, pp. 120–123
Web links
- Halford Mackinder. British political geographer , Encyclopædia Britannica online, accessed December 23, 2016.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mackinder, Halford |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mackinder, Sir Halford John (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English geographer and geopolitician, member of the House of Commons |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 15, 1861 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gainsborough |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 6, 1947 |