The Geographical Pivot Of History

Halford Mackinder was an English geographer and he was also one of the founding fathers of geopolitics. The simplest yet most informative definition of geopolitics is the study of the impacts of geography on politics. On a cultural website dedicated to Mackinder, we can read this quote: “Geopolitics is the connecting bridge between geography and international relations.” In his article “The Geographical Pivot of History”, which he submitted to the Geographical Journal in 1904, Halford Mackinder exposes his theory about the existence of a pivot zone on the world map. But what is a pivot zone, and what makes it what it is?

First of all, let’s define territory. The dictionary proposes two definitions of this term.

The first one is “An area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state.” Since the discovery of the American continent 520 years ago, many land explorations have been conducted, leading to the discovery of every bit of existing Earth land. These lands have then been claimed and designed as “territory” by existing nations or by populations. As the author states in his article, “the outline of the map of the world has been completed with approximate accuracy […] there is scarcely a region left for the pegging out of a claim of ownership.” We can here observe that Mackinder agrees with our first definition of territory, since he describes land as homestead.

The second definition is “An area defended by an animal or group of animals against others of the same sex or species.” The author only alludes to civilized persons in his paper. He says that a nation is, I quote, “opposed to a mere crowd of human animals”. Biologically speaking, we can say that humans are very similar to animals, but what Mackinder meant by this appellation is the lack of education and civilization of some tribes and races. We can take Amerindians (Indians of America) as an example. Their absence of education cost them their freedom to the hands of the European immigrants, who ruled and then exterminated them. These Europeans, who were smart and tactical, took over the American continent in order to create a new territory. Since Mackinder only refers to instructed people, we can say that he doesn’t agree with the second definition of the term “territory”.

Now that we have clarified this important term, we can focus on the issue of natural borders. Natural borders were always a problem for invaders. Back when men only had few land conveyance, like horses, camels, donkeys, it was hard for them to cross borders, mainly when they were natural, like forests and mountains. Water conveyance like boats and ships only helped invaders to conquer territories neighboring seas, oceans and rivers. Civilizations are mostly based on water access. Countries which are enveloped by the same sea or ocean are, in a way, “connected”. The expansion of Europe began with the discovery of navigable waters. According to Mackinder, “Mobility upon the ocean is the natural rival of horse and camel mobility in the heart of the continent.” Simple borders, like lowlands, make things easier for invaders and emigrants to access a country. For instance, we can talk about the case of Lebanon and Syria. The libano-syrian border in the extreme North of Lebanon, after the village of Akkar, is not demarcated, which makes the human flux easier and stronger. Nowadays, with all the economic exchanges, crossing borders was made easier. Merchandise and people can now travel easily, for example

...