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Sir Halford Mackinder: Theorist of Imperialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Bernard Semmel
Bernard Semmel*
Affiliation:
Park College, Missouri
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Extract

Halford John Mackinder, who has enjoyed considerable recognition as a founder of modern geographical study, achieved a widespread renown over a decade ago as the pioneer of the “science of geopolitics” of which Hitler had become a disciple. His other accomplishments, however, have been rather neglected, especially his work as an economic theorist and politician. At the beginning of the century, Mackinder was a principal spokesman for the Liberal-Imperialists; he was, in fact, well on his way toward a cabinet post. As a free trade Imperialist, he described with unusual insight the imperialism of capital export, anticipating at some points the later analysis of Hobson and the neo-Marxists, Hilferding and Luxemburg. Then, after a remarkable and sudden conversion to the Chamberlain programme of protection, he demonstrated a similar grasp of the rival neo-mercantile imperialism, and became one of its leading public advocates.

Mackinder was born at Gainsborough in 1861. His father was a doctor and, his first interests being in the field of science, he accepted, in 1880, a junior studentship in physical science at Christ Church, Oxford, where he intended to specialize in biology. While at Oxford, Mackinder discovered how broad and varied were his interests and his talents. He read for two honours schools, natural science and modern history, and for the bar–he was called at the Inner Temple in 1886. More and more, however, he devoted himself to geography, a subject to whose acceptance as an academic discipline he was to make so signal a contribution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , November 1958 , pp. 554 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1958

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References

1 See Strausz-Hupé, Robert, Geopolitics: The Struggle for Space and Power (New York, 1942), 53–9, 141–8, 154–9, 249–52.Google Scholar

2 For details concerning Mackinder's life, see Gilbert, E. W., “The Right Honourable Sir Halford J. Mackinder, P.C., 1861–1947,” Geographical Journal, CX, 01, 1948, 94 ff.Google Scholar; and the same writer's “Seven Lamps of Geography: An Appreciation of the Teaching of Sir Halford J. Mackinder,” Geography, XXXIV, 03, 1951, 21–43.Google Scholar

3 See Webb, Beatrice, Our Partnership (New York, 1948), 104–5.Google Scholar

4 Rosebery, , Miscellanies: Literary and Historical (London, 1921), II, 250.Google Scholar

5 The Times, January 24, 1900, 7 b, c. Mackinder agreed on this point; see his Britain and the British Seas (New York, 1902), 346.Google Scholar

6 Mackinder, , “The Great Trade Routes,” Journal of the Institute of Bankers, 03, 1900, 154–5Google Scholar; May, 1900, 271. See also Britain and the British Seas, 343 ff.

7 The Times, July 17, 1901, 7 c, d.

8 See Webb, Sidney, “Lord Rosebery's Escape from Houndsditch,” Nineteenth Century, CCXCV, 09, 1901.Google Scholar

9 For the Coefficients, see Wells, H. G., Experiment in Autobiography (New York, 1934), 650–7.Google Scholar See also Amery, L. S., My Political Life (London, 1953), I, 223–31.Google Scholar

10 The Apologia of an Imperialist (London, 1929), I, 65–6.Google Scholar The references are to Leopold Amery, later Secretary of War in the Churchill cabinet of 1940–5; and Leopold Maxse, the Germanophobe editor of the National Review.

11 Amery, , My Political Life, I, 224.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., 238–9.

13 Ibid., 224.

14 Britain and the British Seas, 352, 346, 348. For the importance Mackinder attached to imperial unity, “to hold our own among the great Empires of the world,” see his The Modern British State (London, 1914), 252–65.Google Scholar

15 See Ashley, , The Progress of the German Working Classes in the Last Quarter of a Century (London, 1904)Google Scholar and The Tariff Problem (London, 1903)Google Scholar; also Semmel, B., “Sir William Ashley as ‘Socialist of the Chair,’” Economica, 11, 1957.Google Scholar

16 See Cunningham, , The Case against Free Trade (London, 1911)Google Scholar and The Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement (Cambridge, 1905).Google Scholar

17 See List, , National System of Political Economy (Philadelphia, 1856), 208–9, 241, 341.Google Scholar

18 London, 1906, 1, 5, 7, 14.

19 See Wells, H. G., The New Machiavelli (London, 1911), 353 Google Scholar, a novel in which the Coefficients appear under the guise of the Pentagram Club; also his Autobiography, 653.

20 Geographical Journal, XXIII, 04, 1904.Google Scholar

21 Money-Power and Man-Power, 21.

22 Ibid., 21–4; also his “Man-Power as a Measure of National and Imperial Strength,” National Review, XLV, 03, 1905, 142–3.Google Scholar

23 London, 1919, 31–2.

24 Ibid., 9–21.

25 Britain and the British Seas, 342.

26 Ibid., 349.

27 Mackinder, , The World War and After (London, 1924), 266.Google Scholar