Name: ___________________________________________
Unit
15
Geopolitics
Period: ________
Date: _________
Integrating History
and Geography
The failure of the League of Nations to act powerfully in the wake of several critical events before the Nazis rose to
power certainly helped to inspire Hitler’s aggressive expansionist policies. However, a particular geographic theory
also encouraged Hitler to take a forceful approach toward his neighbors – geopolitics.
The Origin of Geopolitics:
The first political geographer to study the spatial aspects of state behavior within a system
of countries was Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904). He postulated that the state resembles a
biological organism whose life cycle extends from birth to maturity, and ultimately
toward decline and death. To survive, a state requires nourishment – in the global
context, this means territory. Ratzel’s organic theory held that a country, which is an
aggregate of organisms (people), would itself function and behave like an organism. His
ideas gave rise to a subfield of political geography called geopolitics.
The Heartland Theory
Not long after the publication of Ratzel’s initial ideas, other geographers looked at the
overall organization of power and linked their conclusions to the fortunes of existing
states. Prominent among them was the Oxford professor Sir Halford Mackinder (18611947). He was concerned with power relationships at a time when Britain had acquired
a global empire through its naval supremacy. Many of his contemporaries believed
that the oceans – avenues of colonial conquest – were the key to world domination.
Mackinder disagreed. He stated that the future of the world rested in a resource-rich
“pivot area” extending from Eastern Europe to Eastern Siberia (it is easier to move on
land than at sea) – this was known as the “Heartland”. Mackinder referred to the
continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa as a single landmass called the “World Island”.
A country that controlled the Heartland would be self-sufficient in food and natural
resources, and would be in position to conquer the rest of the world island. According to Mackinder, a landbased power, not a sea-based power (e.g. Great Britain
- the most dominant country at that time) would
ultimately rule the world.
Hitler and the Nazi Agenda
Even before the mid 1930s when Germany’s economy
was rapidly expanding, they did not possess enough
resources to cover all their domestic needs. One of the
Nazis’ key political agendas included the need for
Lebensraum, “living space” in which they could expand.
One of Hitler’s closest advisors, Karl Haushofer, was a
major pioneer in the study of geopolitics. Hitler
demonstrated his beliefs in this doctrine when he
rejected overseas colonies as the solution to Germany’s problems, and insisted that the necessary territory was to
be found in Eastern Europe. Since people and nations were locked in a constant struggle for existence, the Nazis
felt perfectly justified in conquering land populated by what they perceived to be biologically inferior Slavs.
This view fit Hitler’s hatred of communism and the USSR very well. It is easy to see how theories in geography
at the time led the Nazis and Germany into a militaristic and expansionist frenzy.
Discussion Question
Compare and contrast the concepts of geopolitics with Herbert Spencer’s notion of social Darwinism and
“survival of the fittest.” In what way did these ideas encourage Hitler and the Nazis to expand their territory?