Geographical Pivot Of History Case Study

There is a saying that location is the most important thing for business and having it right makes the difference between success and fiasco. It seems that to some extent, the same principle applies to the geopolitics as well. On the word of the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, Colin Gray, ‘the wealth necessary for advanced civilization must have geophysical references’ (Gray, 2013, p.125). The importance of the geographical location is also the key element of the theory introduced by a British geographer, Sir Halfords John Mackinder at the turn of the 19th century. In his paper called "The Geographical Pivot of History", he first introduced a formula ‘which shall express certain aspects, at any rate of geographical causation in universal history’ (Mackinder, 1904). The
It is also surprising that Mackinder, who argued ‘that technological pro-gress made it increasingly possible for a single power to control the Eurasian heart-land’ (Simon, 2013 p.42), missed wholly the development of air power and could not recognize the implications that the new technology was about to bring with it. The importance of air power was already pointed out during his presentation in 1904 at the Royal Geographical Society by Mr Amery, who argued that with introduction of airpower ‘great deal of this geographical distribution must lose its importance, and the successful powers will be those who have the greatest industrial bases. It will not matter whether they are in the centre of a continent or on an island’ it out to him’ (The Geographical Journal, 1904 p.441). However, the airpower was just half of the problem, but introduction of the ballistic nuclear missiles made Mackinder Heartland theory obsolete because of the greatest natural fortress has lost its