The Geographical Pivot of History

<p>“The ideas which go to form a nation, as opposed to a mere crowd of human animals have usually been accepted under the pressure of a common tribulation, and under a common necessity of resistance to external force.” —Sir Halford Mackinder at the Royal Geographical Society, 1904</p><p><em>The Geographical Pivot of History</em> was a paper submitted by Sir Halford John Mackinder in 1904 to the Royal Geographical Society in London. Mackinder had won earlier attention with his concept of geography as a bridge between the natural sciences and the humanities. In this paper, Mackinder  advanced his so-called Heartland Theory, whereby the interior Asia and eastern Europe (“the Heartland”) had become the strategic center of the world as a result of the relative decline of sea power against land power and of the economic and industrial development of southern Siberia.</p><p>Mackinder’s Heartland Theory has been considered the founding moment of geopoli