RESPONSE

Take a couple minutes to discuss with your teammates: What should the world community do with North Korea?

3 THEORIES OF NATION-STATE EXPANSION

Organic, Heartland and Rimland

Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904)

Organic Theory

State is like an organism Requires nourishment to prolong

existence

Expand or die

We will keep

expanding until you

die

Lebensraum

Sir Halford Mackinder(1861-1947) Heartland Theory (1904): Land power is important, not sea power World Island

Eurasia Pivot Area

Heartland (Russia/Central Asia) Rimland (Europe/East Asia)

Heart land

Heart land

MacKinder

Sir Halford John Mackinder was a British geographer who wrote a paper in 1904 called "The Geographical Pivot of History." Mackinder's paper suggested that the control of Eastern Europe was vital to control of the world. He formulated his hypothesis as:

Who rules East Europe commands the HeartlandWho rules the Heartland commands the World-IslandWho rules the World-Island commands the world

Mackinder's Heartland (also known as the Pivot Area) is the core area of Eurasia, and the World-Island is all of Eurasia (both Europe and Asia).

Heart land

Heart land

According to Mackinder, the earth's land surface was divisible into:

• The World-Island, comprising the interlinked continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This was the largest, most populous, and richest of all possible land combinations.

• The offshore islands, including the British Isles and the islands of Japan.

• The outlying islands, including the continents of North America, South America, and Australia.

• The Heartland lay at the centre of the world island, stretching from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic. Mackinder's Heartland was the area ruled by the Russian Empire and then by the Soviet Union, minus the area around Vladivostok.

Spykman

In 1942, Nicholas Spykman proposed a theory which countered Mackinder's Heartland Theory. Spykman stated that Eurasia's Rimland, the coastal areas or buffer zone, is the key to controlling the World Island, not the heartland.

Today we look at the Rimland in terms of its economic strength and potential. While the book does deal with economic issues, what has become known as the Rimland Theory deals primarily with military intervention, control and conquest of the Old World.

The theory was later expanded and refined in a series of lectures which were transcribed into the book "The Geography of the Peace".

The Rimland is the concept of a geographic area adjacent to the “Heartland” that is comprised of most of Europe, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, Southeast Asia, and the Far East. This area forms an enveloping geographic ring around Mackinder’s “Heartland.”  In other words, the Rimland essentially surrounds the central, core region of Eurasia.

SPYKMAN - RIMLAND