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 Heartland
Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island
Who 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".
SPYKMAN - RIMLAND
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.