33 2 



The National Geographic Magazine 



parently startling statement, though 

 probably not many Europeans and few 

 Americans can accept Mr Mackinder's 

 arguments and conclusions, as far as the 

 future is concerned. 



Mr Mackinder begins by calling the 

 last four hundred years the Columbian 

 era, inasmuch as the great motive of 

 this period has been the discovery, oc- 

 cupation, and development of the new 

 world — the expansion of Europe. The 

 exploration of the world is now com- 

 pleted ; there are no new outlets to be 

 opened by discovery and a new era must 

 begin. The nations today are in the 

 same condition they were in four hun- 

 dred years ago, before the voyage of 

 Columbus. They are all fenced in once 

 more, and now, as then, every explosion 

 of social forces, instead of being dissi- 

 pated in a surrounding circuit of un- 

 known space and barbaric chaos, as 

 during the Columbian era, will be 

 sharply and destructively reechoed from 

 the far side of the globe. 



At the beginning of this new era all 

 nations once more face the vast interior 

 expanse of Asia; from it during the new 

 era will come again the most coercive 

 forces for the action of nations. 



Mr Mackinder recalled how all the 

 great invasions of Europe in the pre- 

 Columbian era came from central Asia, 

 entering through the gap between the 

 Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea. 

 For successive centuries Europe was 

 nearly swept away by these resistless 

 hordes — Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, Mag- 

 yars, Mongols, and Kalmuks. The full 

 meaning of Asiatic influence on Europe 

 is not, however, describable until we 

 come to the Mongol invasions of the fif- 

 teenth century ; these hordes gathered 

 their first force 3,000 miles away, on the 

 high steppes of Mongolia. All the set- 

 tled margins of the Old World sooner or 

 later felt the expansive force of mobile 

 power originating in the steppe. Rus- 

 sia, Persia, India, and China were either 

 made tributary or received Mongol dy- 



nasties. Even the incipient power of the 

 Turks in Asia Minor was struck down 

 for half a century. !^„. ™ 



The strength of Asiatic hordes lay in 

 their mobility, and ceased when they 

 entered the forests and mountains. 



The grim determination of European 

 peoples to check these successive hordes 

 and not be. crushed into a widespread 

 despotism was the principal reason of 

 European advance and unity during all 

 these ages. Thus the spirit which 

 stimulated the peoples of Europe and 

 made them progress was the healthy 

 and powerful reaction against pressure 

 from the steppe lands of Asia. 



The discovery of the New World 

 changed the relations of Europe and 

 Asia. Europe no longer watched in 

 dread for what might come from Asia. 

 She turned her back on Asia and founded 

 new Europes beyond the oceans. 



But now the whole world is occupied 

 and well filled with people, save only 

 the vast steppes of Euro- Asia. Europe 

 is fenced in again as she was 400 years 

 ago, and can expand no farther. The 

 land power, the steppes of the Russian 

 Empire and Mongolia, dormant while 

 the oceans were being overrun, will now 

 reassert itself. Railways are to give 

 the steppes mobility and replace the 

 horse and camel. Here there is room 

 for hundreds of millions, who shall de- 

 rive countless riches from the wealth of 

 fertile plains, boundless forests, and 

 neighboring mountains. 



For the first time within recorded 

 history we have a great stationary pop- 

 ulation being developed in the steppe 

 lands. This is a revolution in the world 

 that we have to face and reckon with. 



"As regards the potentialities of the 

 land and of the people, I would point 

 out that in Europe there are now more 

 than 40,000,000 people in the steppe 

 land of Russia, and it is by no means 

 yet densely occupied, and that the Rus- 

 sian population is probably increasing 

 faster than any other great civilized or 



