The Geographical Pivot of History : Cosimo Classics : 9781945934810 : 1945934816 : 17 Feb 2020 : "The ideas which go to form a nation, as opposed to a mere crowd of human animals have usually been accepted under the pressure of a common tribulation, and under a common necessity of resistance to external force." --Sir Halford Mackinder at the Royal Geographical Society, 1904 The Geographical Pivot of History was a paper submitted by Sir Halford John Mackinder in 1904 to the Royal Geographical Society in London. Mackinder had won earlier attention with his concept of geography as a bridge between the natural sciences and the humanities. In this paper, Mackinder advanced his so-called Heartland Theory, whereby the interior Asia and eastern Europe ("the Heartland") had become the strategic center of the world as a result of the relative decline of sea power against land power and of the economic and industrial development of southern Siberia. Mackinder's Heartland Theory has been conside