Alfred Thayer Mahan

1.“The Influence of Sea Power upon History “ book

appeared in 1890

2.& The Influence of Sea Power upon the French

Revolution and Empire in 1892.

3.These works made Alfred Thayer Mahan one of the

leading spokesmen for the age of imperialism.

Rear-Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), one of

the best known American naval and geopolitical
strategists stated:

“Control of the sea by maritime commerce and naval

supremacy means predominant influence in the world
… (and) is the chief among the merely material
elements in the power and prosperity of nations”.
Mahan downplayed the philanthropic side of overseas
involvement & concentrated on harsh political realities.

According to his analysis of history, the great powers

were those that maintained strong navies and
merchant marines.
He urged the United States to forward in its naval
building programs.

Sir Halford John Mackinder

Heart Land Theory or Pivot Theory

He was an English geographer, academic, politician, the
first Principal of University Extension College, Reading
(which became the University of Reading)
and Director of the London School of Economics, who
is regarded as one of the founding fathers of both
geopolitics and geostrategy.

Later, in 1919, Mackinder summarizes his theory as:

He "Who rules East Europe commands the
Heartland;
who rules the Heartland commands the World-
Island;
who rules the World-Island commands

According to Mackinder, the Earth's land surface is divisible

into 03 Zones
1.The World-Island, comprising the interlinked continents of
Europe, Asia and Africa. The largest, most populous, and
richest of all possible land combinations.

2.The offshore islands, including the British Isles (over 6000

Islands) and the islands of Japan (over 6000 Islands).

3.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 then ruled by the

Russian Empire and then Soviet Union,

Minus the Kamchatka Peninsula region, which is located

in the eastern most part of Russia, near the Aleutian Islands
and Kurile islands.

Mackinder – Russia & China & Sea Ability

Sir HJ Mackinder in his famous 1904 article,
‘The Geographical Pivot of History 'in which he posited
that ---

Mackinder’s assertion was based on the indisputable

premise that, whereas Russia, basically was and still is
a land power with an oceanic front blocked by ice,
China owing to its large temperate coastline was both
a land power and sea power.

Subsequently, Mackinder in his widely read and

acclaimed piece ‘Democratic Ideals and Reality’ – 1919
- predicted --------

The Chinese, should they expand their power well

beyond their borders, “might constitute the yellow
peril to the world’s freedom just because they would
add an oceanic frontage to the resources of the great
continent, an advantage as yet denied to the Russian
tenant of the pivot region”.

Along with the United States and the United Kingdom,

China would eventually guide the world by ‘building for
a quarter of humanity a new civilization, neither quite
Eastern nor quite Western’.
A century on, some feel that Mackinder’s prophetic
pronouncements are turning into a reality and China’s
geography is its greatest boon.
The Round World and the Winning of the Peace
I have described my concept of the Heartland, which I
have no hesitation in saying is more valid and useful
today (1943) than it was either twenty or forty years
ago.

I have said how it is set in its girdle of broad natural

defenses -- ice-clad Polar Sea, forested and rugged
Lena land, and Central Asiatic mountain and arid
tableland.

The girdle is incomplete, however, because of an

open gateway, a thousand miles wide, admitting from
Peninsular Europe into the interior plain through the
broad isthmus between the Baltic and Black Seas.

He described this region as holding “a thousand million

people of ancient oriental civilization” that will “grow
to prosperity” and balance the remaining great
geographical regions.

They must grow to prosperity in the same years in

which Germany and Japan are being tamed to
civilization.

They will then balance that other thousand million

who live between the Missouri and the Yenisei.
“A balanced globe of human beings,” he wrote.

“And happy, because balanced and thus free.”