Democratic Ideals and Reality |
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Africa allied America Arabia army Asia Austria balance Baltic Baltic Seas base Berlin Black Sea Bosnia and Herzegovina Britain British Cape Caspian Sea century China civilization coast Constantinople Continent continental defense democracy Democratic Ideals desert Dinaric Alps East Europe eastern eastward economic Egypt empire Euphrates Euro-Asia fact fertile fleet forest France French frontier German globe Going Concern Greek human hundred Hungary idea Ideals and Reality India Indies industry insular islands Kazan Kottbus land land-power Latin Peninsula League of Nations Mackinder Mackinder's Magyars man-power Mediterranean merely million mobility modern mountains Napoleon natural navigation Nile North northern ocean organization Persian Petrograd physical geography pivot plain political population present provinces railway regard regions rivers Roman round Russia Sahara Saracen sea-power ships shore Siberia Slavs social society South Southern Heartland southward steppes strategical to-day Turks United Upland valley vast West Europe Western World-Island
Popular passages
Page 176 - From the present time forth, in the postColumbian age we shall again have to deal with a closed political system, and none the less that it will be one of world-wide scope. Every explosion of social forces, instead of being dissipated in a surrounding circuit of unknown space and barbaric chaos, will be sharply re-echoed from the far side of the globe, and weak elements in the political and economic organism of the world will be shattered in consequence.
Page 154 - He defined geography as the science whose main function is 'to trace the interaction of man in society and so much of his environment as varies locally...
Page 196 - It appears to me, therefore, that in the present decade we are for the first time in a position to attempt, with some degree of completeness, a correlation between the larger geographical and the larger historical generalizations. For the first time we can perceive something of the real proportion of features and events on the stage of the whole world, and may seek a formula which shall express certain aspects, at any rate, of geographical causation in universal history. If we are fortunate, that...
Page 201 - All things considered, the conclusion is unavoidable that if the Soviet Union emerges from this war as conqueror of Germany, she must rank as the greatest land Power on the globe. Moreover, she will be the Power in the strategically strongest defensive position. The Heartland is the greatest natural fortress on earth. For the first time in history it is manned by a garrison sufficient both in number and quality.
Page xviii - Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland: Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island: Who rules the World-Island commands the World.
Page 78 - The Heartland is the region to which, under modern conditions, sea-power can be refused access, though the western part of it lies without the region of Arctic and Continental drainage.
Page 192 - This might happen if Germany were to ally herself with Russia. The threat of such an event should, therefore, throw France into alliance with the over-sea powers, and France, Italy, Egypt, India, and Korea would become so many bridge heads where the outside navies would support armies to compel the pivot allies to deploy land forces and prevent them from concentrating their whole strength on fleets.
Page 182 - For a thousand years a series of horse-riding peoples emerged from Asia through the broad interval between the Ural mountains and the Caspian sea, rode through the open spaces of southern Russia, and struck home into Hungary in the very heart of the European peninsula, shaping by the necessity of opposing them the history of each of the great peoples around — the Russians, the Germans, the French, the Italians, and the Byzantine Greeks.
Page 192 - The oversetting of the balance of power in favour of the pivot state, resulting in its expansion over the marginal lands of Euro-Asia, would permit of the use of vast continental resources for fleet-building, and the empire of the world would then be in sight. This might happen if Germany were to ally herself with Russia.
Page 21 - The influence of geographical conditions upon human activities has depended . . . not merely on the realities as we now know them to be and to have been, but in even greater degree on what men imagined in regard to them . . . Each century has had its own geographical perspective ... To this day...