FROM THE PIVOT TO THE HEARTLAND: HALFORD MACKINDER AND WORLD WAR I^*

abstract

In the Geographical Pivot of History paper (1904), Halford Mackinder suggested that four powers might strive for control of Eurasia: Germany, Russia, China, and Japan. In Democratic Ideals and Reality (1919), Mackinder announced that East Europe would be the key to Heartland control. Only two powers abutted East Europe: Germany and the emerging Soviet Union, Germany being the stronger power. Throughout World War I, Mackinder was a member of Parliament and, via his friend L. S. Amery M.P., of the Cabinet Secretariat, Mackinder was given access to cabinet papers, and discussed territorial issues with Amery. Mackinder’s views anticipated and paralleled British Cabinet strategic views. When Mackinder drafted Democratic Ideals and Reality, he had, through Amery, knowledge of high-level British policy objectives concerning postwar Europe. Research in the Amery papers, Churchill College, Cambridge, documents the evolution of Mackinder’s strategic thinking in World War I. Keywords: Mackinder, pivot, Heartland, World War I.