Halford Mackinder essays

Halford Mackinder essays Halford Mackinder created what is now known as "geopolitics," which relates international political power to the physical setting (Gray 4). Ultimately, Mackinder recognized recurring patterns in the power of landed countries, and he predicted the world's most powerful nations would be those with the most land. Seapower also plays a role in conquest, but not as great as those with superior landpower do. Great Britain, long known for its command of naval prowess, refused to recognize Mackinder's theories, and so, they left themselves wide open to land attack from Germany in the beginnings of World War II. Mackinder proved his theories by looking back in history at the most successful powers in European and Asian conquest. "According to Mackinder, the history of Eurasia is a history of the competition between security communities preeminent in seapower and those preeminent in landpower" (Gray 5). While seapower dominated much of early conquest and colonialism, Mackinder recognized there were many areas of Eurasia that were simply inaccessible by any sea force. He called this the "Heartland," or the "Geographical Pivot of History," and he began to warn nations that whoever dominated this pivotal area of Eurasia, whether it was Russia, Germany, China, or even Japan, would someday be in a position to dominate the world's political processes. This came to be when Germany attacked Poland, and began World War II. Mackinder wanted to create a "cordon sanitaire" as a buffer that would separate Germany and Russia, thus helped to diffuse the Heartland's power, but his recommendation was ignored. After the end of World War II, Mackinder's theories were reexamined, and his worry that the U.S.S.R. would come out of the war as a dominant world superpower proved to be correct. Ultimately, Mackinder urged an Atlantic alliance of the United States, Great Britain, and France, to try t...