Sir Halford John Mackinder (15 February 1861 – 6 March 1947) was a British geographer, academic and politician, who is regarded as one of the founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy. He is considered to have introduced the terms "manpower" and "heartland" into the English language. He was the first Principal of University Extension College, Reading (which became the University of Reading) from 1892 to 1903, and Director of the London School of Economics from 1903 to 1908. Initially a liberal and free market proponent, he shifted to support a protectionist and conservative view from 1903. While continuing his academic career part-time, he was also the Conservative and Unionist Member of Parliament for Glasgow Camlachie from 1910 to 1922. From 1923, he was Professor of Geography at the London School of Economics.
Early life and education Mackinder was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, the son of doctor Draper Mackinder (1818–1912) and Fanny Anne (1831–1905) née Hewitt, the daughter of a Lichfield physician. Mackinder was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Gainsborough, Epsom College, and Christ Church, Oxford. He often accompanied his father on medical visits into the countryside. His father had an interest in medical geography and had a large library. His father wished that he would study medicine. At Oxford he started studying natural sciences, specializing in zoology under Henry Nottidge Moseley, who had been the naturalist on the Challenger expedition. When he turned to the study of history in his fourth year he was interested in whether evolutionary ideas applied to the human world. He remarked that he was returning "to an old interest and took up modern history with the idea of seeing how the theory of evolution would appear in human development". He would become a strong proponent of treating both physical geography and human geography as a single discipline. Mackinder served as President of the Oxford Union in 1883 apart from being a member of the scientific society, rifle volunteers, and the war games club.Edmund W. Gilbert, British Pioneers in Geography (Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1972), p. 141.
He received a degree in biology in 1883 and one in modern history the next year. In 1885 he shifted to the study of law and he was called to the bar from the Inner Temple in 1886. He worked in court briefly but he lost interest in law.
Career From 1886, Mackinder took part in giving lectures and courses at extension centres that were created by a group from the Oxford Union headed by Michael Sadler. When he visited London, he came in contact with people at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). The RGS promoted geography education and Mackinder interacted with Scott Keltie, Henry Bates, Clements Markham and others. It was Francis Galton who encouraged Mackinder to publish a paper "On the Scope and Methods of Geography" in 1887, which is considered as a manifesto for the New Geography.H. J. Mackinder, "On the Scope and Methods of Geography", Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Mar. 1887), pp. 141–174; J. F. Unstead, "H. J. Mackinder and the New Geography", Geographical Journal, Vol. 113 (January–June 1949), pp. 47–57. It was a plea for going away from the teaching of isolated facts to a field that included causal relations and structures with the study of the influence of the physical environment on human life and society. A few months later, he was appointed reader in geography at the University of Oxford, a position that was created with help from the RGS, where he introduced the teaching of the subject. As Mackinder himself put it, "a platform has been given to a geographer". This was arguably at the time the most prestigious academic position for a British geographer. In 1892, Sadler promoted the creation of an extension centre at Reading where Mackinder gave lectures. In 1902, it became a university college and Mackinder became the first principal of University Extension College, Reading, a role he retained until he was succeeded, in 1903, by William Macbride Childs. The college became the University of Reading in 1926, a progression that owed no small debt to his early stewardship of the institution.Ian Macrae, "The making of a university, the breakdown of a movement: Reading University Extension College to The University of Reading, 1892–1925", Journal International Journal of Lifelong Education, Volume 13, Issue 1 (January 1994), pp. 3–18. In 1893, he was one of the founders of the Geographical Association (GA), which promoted the teaching of geography in schools. He served as chairman of the GA from 1913 to 1946 and as its President from 1916 to 1917.
Mackinder married Emilie Catherine ("Bonnie") daughter of bible scholar Christian David Ginsburg in 1889. They had a child who died in infancy. They separated in 1900 and she lived on Capri.
In 1895, he was one of the founders of the London School of Economics. At Oxford, Mackinder was the driving force behind the creation of a School of Geography in 1899. It was endorsed by Clements Markham and part of the funding came from the RGS.L. M. Cantor, "The Royal Geographical Society and the Projected London Institute of Geography 1892–1899", Geographical Journal, Vol. 128, No. 1 (March 1962), pp. 30–35.
Mount Kenya expedition In 1899, he led an expedition of the first Europeans to climb Mount Kenya.H. J. Mackinder, "A Journey to the Summit of Mount Kenya, British East Africa", Geographical Journal, Vol. 15, No. 5 (May 1900), pp. 453–476. Mackinder's wife's sister was married to Sidney Hinde who recruited porters for the expedition. The members included Campbell Bernard Hausburg (1873–1941) as photographer and camp-master. He was a maternal uncle of Mackinder's wife Emilie. Edward Saunders served as botanist, Claude Camburn as taxidermist and three Swiss mountain porters. The rest of the team consisted of 170 African helpers at the start. Just as they reached Nairobi, there was an outbreak of smallpox so they were asked to set out. They camped at the base of the mountain but food supplies were not coming through. A party was sent to Naivasha to find supplies. Forty-nine Kikuyus were sent back because food that they expected would be supplied by Masai people was not to be found, the Masai having migrated due to famine. There was a dysentery death and six other Kikuyus deserted. Many of the specimens collected were lost through the actions of his porters. Several porters were punished and eight of his African porters were shot dead, marked on a letter in Hausburg's hand as "shot by order"; it is disputed as to who killed them, as both Mackinder and another man, Edward Saunders were recorded issuing death threats.
Mackinder named the three main peaks of Mount Kenya as Nelian, Batian and Lenana after the names of Masai chiefs as suggested by Sidney Hinde. Sidney and his wife Holda Hinde were working on a book on the Masai people and this was sent back to be edited and published by Mackinder's wife. Many specimens were brought back by the expedition. A new species owl, now treated as a subspecies of the Cape eagle owl Bubo capensis mackinderi, was named after him by Richard Bowdler Sharpe.
Mackinder published some notes from the expedition to the Geographical Journal and the Proceedings of the Zoological Society but a book that he was working on was never published. It had been suggested that this was due to the problems he faced with the expedition. The book was posthumously published in 1991 and it has been suggested that the real problem was the separation of Mackinder from his wife towards the end of 1900. His wife had retained the typescript and it was not after World War II that it finally was deposited at the School of Geography in Oxford.
Politics From 1900, Mackinder taught economic geography at the London School of Economics and in 1902 he became a full-time lecturer and put in charge of setting up a geography department at the LSE. In 1905 he resigned his position at Oxford. In 1903 he became the second director of the LSE and worked here until 1908. See chapter 3: "Astrology and Geopolitics" (Astrologia e geopolitica). Here he organized courses for army officers in the colonial services at what came to be known as "Mackindergarten". His position brought him into a circle of influential people. He became a member of the Coefficients dining club, set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb, which brought together social reformers and advocates of national efficiency.Beatrice Webb, Our Partnership, London, 1948, p. 312. Other members included Leo S. Amery, Sir Edward Grey, W. A. S. Hewins, L. J. Maxse, H. G. Wells, and Michael Sadler. At the 1900 election Mackinder sought a seat as a Liberal candidate at Warwick and Leamington and was defeated. By 1903, Mackinder had changed his political position and no longer supported free trade. He quit the Liberals, advocated protectionism and became a Conservative Party member. In 1904 he formulated his "Heartland Theory" and became keenly involved in geopolitics. In 1904 he founded the Compatriots Club along with Hewins and Amery which supported tariffs in imperialism. In 1908 he was funded by Alfred Milner and Leo Amery to take part in politics. He visited Canada and gave lectures on imperialism. He stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal Unionist in a by-election for Hawick Burghs in 1909. He was elected to Parliament in January 1910 as Liberal Unionist member for the Glasgow Camlachie constituency and remained MP until he was defeated in 1922 as a Unionist. He was knighted in the 1920 New Year Honours for his services as an MP.
Geography and geopolitics
In 1902, he published Britain and the British Seas, which included the first comprehensive geomorphology of the British Isles and which became a classic in regional geography.H. J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas. New York: D. Appleton and company, 1902. In 1904, Mackinder gave a paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History" at the Royal Geographical Society, in which he formulated the Heartland Theory.H. J. Mackinder, "The geographical pivot of history", Geographical Journal, 1904, 23, pp. 421–437; Pascal Venier, "The Geographical Pivot of History and Early 20th Century Geopolitical Culture", Geographical Journal, Vol. 170, No. 4 (December 2004), pp. 330–336. . This is often considered as a, if not the, founding moment of geopolitics as a field of study, although Mackinder did not use the term. Whilst the Heartland Theory initially received little attention outside geography, this theory would later exercise some influence on the foreign policies of world powers.G. R. Sloan, "Sir Halford Mackinder: The heartland theory then and now", in C. S. Gray and G. R. Sloan (eds.), Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy. London: Frank Cass, pp. 15–38.