Political Geograph: Heartland, Rimland & Organic Theories, Slides of Political Geography

Download Political Geograph: Heartland, Rimland & Organic Theories and more Slides Political Geography in PDF only on Docsity!

H E A R T L A N D , R I M L A N D , & O R G A N I C T H E O R I E S

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

! Explain the concepts of political power and territoriality. ! Political power is expressed geographically as control over people, land, and resources (e.g., heartland, rimland, and organic theories). ! Territoriality is the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land.

24. Heartland Theory

! Proposed by MacKinder ! The state that controlled the resource-rich “heartland” of Eastern Europe and Western Asia could eventually dominate the world

24. Heartland Theory

! SIG: influential to US containment policy to stop the expansion of the Soviet Union ! Led to the creation of NATO

24. Heartland Theory

! Ukraine ! Leading wheat producer ! Coal resources ! Black Sea ports ! Hitler invaded Eastern Europe ! Soviet Union controlled after WWII

25. Rimland Theory

! Rimland contains most of the world’s people and large share of the world’s resources

25. Rimland Theory

! Buffer Zone between sea and land power: ! Asia minor ! Arabia ! Iran ! Afghanistan ! Southeast Asia ! China ! Korea ! East Siberia ! Must defend from both sides ! Security problems

Mackinder’s Heartland Theory Spykman’s Rimland Theory ! One Belt, One Road: ! Massive investment in trade routes with Eurasian countries ! Interior development ! South China Sea ! Naval power

China

26. Organic Theory (“Geopolitics”)

! Proposed by Ratzel ! The state resembles a living organism that needs to consume other territories in order to survive ! Based on observations of 19 th century states

26. Organic Theory (“Geopolitics”)

! Hitler and the Nazis conquer European nations due to racial superiority ! Europeans colonizing (God, gold, glory) " spread Christianity, gain natural resources, own property, and benefit from more land

27. Shatterbelt

! A region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals ! Israel (Jews, Christians, Muslims) ! Kashmir (Muslims in NW India) ! Eastern Europe during the Cold War