To whom is this statement attributed? “Who rules Eastern Europe commands the Heartland. Who rules the Heartland commands the World-island. Who rules the World-Island commands the world.”

This individual is thought of as the “Father of Political Geography”. He developed the “Organic Theory of the State” which postulated that the state’s relationship to space was the same as the relationship of an organism to its environment. In effect, the state was a biological organism of sorts with a life cycle.

Nicholas Spykman criticized Mackinder’s notion of a powerful ‘Heartland’ at the center of the Eurasian continent that could threaten the perimeter of the continent (Rimland). Identify two major environmental problems with respect to the ‘Heartland’ that Spykman pointed out to reject Mackinder’s theory.

I talked about why some form of territorial state (however diminished in function) must exist in the foreseeable future, and why you cannot have a capitalist society based ‘entirely’ on allegiance to non-territorial corporations. One reason was that capitalism is based on there being a richer zone of high wages and a poorer zone of low wages to be exploited (like the ‘First’ and ‘Third’ Worlds today). But what was the other reason?

What is ‘Placelessness’?

With respect to the characteristics of political units in circa 1500 Europe, why was there no need for a formal institution that specialized in managing foreign affairs?

Why did the establishment of long-distance trade contribute to the elimination of a fragmented political geography in Europe, both historically ‘and’ contemporaneously?

Who was Alfred Thayer Mahan?

What drove the great eruption of imperialism in the 19th century that established the present hierarchy of states that we see today?

A relationship where a vassal is provided a livelihood by his lord (aristocrat) in return for performance of some specified service is a good definition for: