DOCSLIB.ORG

The Genesis of Geopolitics and Friedrich Ratzel Dismissing the Myth of the Ratzelian Geodeterminism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Genesis of Geopolitics and Friedrich Ratzel Dismissing the Myth of the Ratzelian Geodeterminism springer.com Geography : Historical Geography Stogiannos, Alexandros The Genesis of Geopolitics and Friedrich Ratzel Dismissing the Myth of the Ratzelian Geodeterminism Includes an extended presentation of some Ratzel's lesser known essays, which are very important to understand his major books Contains 29 maps of Friedrich Ratzel collected from several books Introduces a new viewpoint in evaluating Ratzel's concept of Political Geography and consequently his contribution to leading geopolitical concepts This book discusses the influence of Friedrich Ratzel's ideas in more contemporary geopolitical analytical systems and the geodeterminism commonly attributed to him. The author thoroughly Springer analyzes the structural components of Ratzel's thought. The research is inspired by the 1st ed. 2019, XVI, 252 p. 53 numerous contradictory approaches in the secondary literature, presenting Ratzel as both 1st illus., 49 illus. in color. humanist and racist, geo-determinist and multidimensional analyst, organicist and social edition scientist, precursor of Geopolitics and opponent to the same idea. In this work,more particular issues are approached: the establishment of a scientific Political Geography; the methodological approach of his multidisciplinary work; the redefinition of his geopolitical Printed book period; his notion of state and the evaluation of sociological and cultural parameters as factors Hardcover of state power; the biogeographical content of the notion of Lebensraum; his attitude towards the racist theories as well as towards the Darwinian theories; his overall worldview and the Printed book confrontation with cosmopolitism; his contribution to an interdisciplinary, positivist and scientific Hardcover approach in analyzing social and international affairs; his thoughts on the architecture of ISBN 978-3-319-98034-8 Europe. The book will be useful for researchers and students in many scientific fields, such as $ 199,99 International Relations, Geopolitics, Geography and History of Geography. Available Discount group Order online at springer.com/booksellers Professional Books (2) Springer Nature Customer Service Center LLC Product category 233 Spring Street Monograph New York, NY 10013 USA Series T: +1-800-SPRINGER NATURE Historical Geography and Geosciences (777-4643) or 212-460-1500 Other renditions [email protected] Softcover ISBN 978-3-319-98036-2 Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. Americas: Tax will be added where applicable. Canadian residents please add PST, QST or GST. Please add $5.00 for shipping one book and $ 1.00 for each additional book. Outside the US and Canada add $ 10.00 for first book, $5.00 for each additional book. If an order cannot be fulfilled within 90 days, payment will be refunded upon request. Prices are payable in US currency or its equivalent. ISBN 978-3-319-98034-8 / BIC: HBTP / SPRINGER NATURE: SCJ22010 Part of .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • “Gift” of Ratzel For/From the Indian Ocean: Thoughts on Mobilities, Materialities and Relational Spaces
    Geogr. Helv., 72, 85–92, 2017 www.geogr-helv.net/72/85/2017/ doi:10.5194/gh-72-85-2017 © Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License. supported by The neglected “gift” of Ratzel for/from the Indian Ocean: thoughts on mobilities, materialities and relational spaces Julia Verne Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany Correspondence to: Julia Verne ([email protected]) Received: 16 September 2015 – Revised: 5 January 2017 – Accepted: 20 January 2017 – Published: 16 February 2017 Abstract. When Korf (2014) recently invited (critical) geographers to come to terms with the problematic heritage of our discipline, especially with respect to spatial political thought, he first of all drew our attention to the intellectual contributions of Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt. While he urges us to rethink our ongoing references to these key thinkers, especially in light of the rather strict avoidance of “politically problematic” figures within our own discipline, such as Haushofer and Ratzel, this article now wishes to address geography’s (dis)engagement with its politically problematic heritage from the opposite angle: focusing on Friedrich Ratzel, it asks if we might have been too radical in condemning his work as only “poison”? What if the neglect of Ratzel has actually led to a moment where his ideas feature prominently in current geographical debates without us even noticing it? By drawing on his contributions to cultural geography and, in particular, the establishment of the cultural historical method and German diffusionism, this article takes up on this question and reflects on the (imagined/actual) role of Ratzel’s scholarship in contemporary geography.
    [Show full text]
  • Alexandros Stogiannos Dismissing the Myth of the Ratzelian
    Historical Geography and Geosciences Alexandros Stogiannos The Genesis of Geopolitics and Friedrich Ratzel Dismissing the Myth of the Ratzelian Geodeterminism Historical Geography and Geosciences This book series serves as a broad platform for contributions in the field of Historical Geography and related Geoscience areas. The series welcomes proposals on the history and dynamics of place and space and their influence on past, present and future geographies including historical GIS, cartography and mapping, climatology, climate history, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, environmental geography, hydrology, geology, oceanography, water management, instrumentation, geographical traditions, historical geography of urban areas, settlements and landscapes, historical regional studies, history of geography and historic geographers and geoscientists among other topically related areas and other interdisciplinary approaches. Contributions on past (extreme) weather events or natural disasters including regional and global reanalysis studies also fit into the series. Publishing a broad portfolio of peer-reviewed scientific books Historical Geography and Geosciences contains research monographs, edited volumes, advanced and undergraduate level textbooks, as well as conference proceedings. This series appeals to scientists, practitioners and students in the fields of geography and history as well as related disciplines, with exceptional titles that are attractive to a popular science audience. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15611
    [Show full text]
  • Tangled Complicities and Moral Struggles: the Haushofers, Father and Son, and the Spaces of Nazi Geopolitics
    Journal of Historical Geography 47 (2015) 64e73 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Historical Geography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhg Feature: European Geographers and World War II Tangled complicities and moral struggles: the Haushofers, father and son, and the spaces of Nazi geopolitics Trevor J. Barnes a,* and Christian Abrahamsson b a Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada b Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Postboks 1096 Blindern, Oslo 0317, Norway Abstract Drawing on a biographical approach, the paper explores the tangled complicities and morally fraught relationship between the German father and son political geographers, Karl and Albrecht Haushofer, and the Nazi leadership. From the 1920s both Haushofers were influential within Nazism, although at different periods and under different circumstances. Karl Haushofer’s complicity began in 1919 with his friendship with Rudolf Hess, an undergraduate student he taught political geography at the University of Munich. Hess introduced Haushofer to Adolf Hitler the following year. In 1924 Karl provided jail-house instruction in German geopolitical theory to both men while they served an eight-and-a-half month prison term for treason following the ‘beer-hall putsch’ of November 1923. Karl’s prison lectures were significant because during that same period Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. In that tract, Hitler justifies German expansionism using Lebensraum, one of Haushofer’s key ideas. It is here that there is a potential link between German geopolitics and the subsequent course of the Second World War. Albrecht Haushofer’s complicity began in the 1930s when he started working as a diplomat for Joachim von Ribbentrop in a think-tank within the Nazi Foreign Ministry.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics of Political Geography
    1 The Politics of Political Geography Guntram H. Herb INTRODUCTION case of political geography, the usual story is of a heyday characterized by racism, imperialism, and ‘La Géographie, de nouveau un savoir politique’ war in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, (Geography: once again a political knowledge). followed by a period of stagnation and decline in the 1950s, and finally a Phoenix-like revival (Lacoste, 1984) that started in the late 1960s and now seems to be coming to a lackluster end with the cooptation This statement by the chief editor of Hérodote, of key issues of ‘politics’ and ‘power’ by other intended to celebrate the politicization of French sub-disciplines of geography. However, as David geography through the journal in the 1970s and Livingstone has pointed out so aptly, the history of 1980s, also, and paradoxically, captures a profound geography, and by extension, political geography, dilemma of contemporary political geography. If, cannot be reduced to a single story (Livingstone, as a recent academic forum showed, the political 1995). There are many stories and these stories is alive and well in all of geography, does this not are marked by discontinuities and contestations, in question the continued relevance and validity of other words, ‘messy contingencies’, which compli- having a separate sub-field of political geography cate things (Livingstone, 1993: 28). (Cox and Low, 2003)? The most fruitful response A further problem is what one should include to such existential questions about academic sub- under the rubric ‘political geography’: publica- disciplines is delving into the past and tracing the tions of scholars, the work of professional academic genesis of the subject.
    [Show full text]
  • GEOG 1280.Pdf
    GEOG 1280 /GEOG 1200 Sept 11/2008 Lecture Outline Telling a story of human geography Origins and evolution • Universal Geography and Humboldt • Geography as Academic Discipline Universal Geography 1800-1874 •Transition from geography as servant of exploration and empire to mature academic subject •As universities spread, academic disciplines know today begin to emerge as defined fields of knowledge Alexander von Humboldt 1769-1859 “…my true purpose is to investigate the interaction of all the forces of nature.” •Dominated 19th century geography; one of most admired men of his time •Uniquely blended general concepts with precise observation •Conception of geography as an integrating science •Insistence that humans are part of nature and not separate Humboldt •Traveled extensively through Central and South America –First to write a scientific description of Latin America •5 volume work ‘Kosmos’ interaction of all natural and human forces at play in the environment •‘…the last man who knew everything’ (Johnson 2005: 3) Institutionalization •University disciplines emerge in a complex intellectual environment –Mechanistic view of ‘science’ dominates –Effects of controversial ideas of Charles Darwin •Must ‘stake claim’ by clearly defining the subject •1874 - First departments set up in German universities •1903 – First department in North America – University of Chicago Friedrich Ratzel ‘Founder of Human Geography’ •First to focus solely on human-made landscape •‘anthropogeography’ •Emphasized humans as makers of landscapes •Introduced idea
    [Show full text]
  • Foundations of Geography – Maria, Sala
    GEOGRAPHY – Vol. I - Foundations of Geography – Maria, Sala FOUNDATIONS OF GEOGRAPHY Maria, Sala University of Barcelona, Spain Keywords: Modern geographic approach, regions, diversification of subject matters, dilemma between physical and human geography Contents 1. Introduction 2. Development of modern geographic thought 3. Basic geographical approach 4. Regions 5. Diversification of subject matters 6. Plurality of approaches in human geography 7. The present dilemma between physical and human geography 8. Future prospects Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary This contribution begins with a presentation of the three articles that constitute this part of the geography topic, which are: Main stages of the development, Theory and Methods, and Geographical Education. It continues with the analysis of the basis of the development of modern geographic thought, in which the scientific, institutional, social and political fundamental contexts are presented. It continues with the description of the basis of the geographical approach, what geographers do and what they think. There is a part dedicated to the traditional focus on the study of regions and how it has evolved through the years. The present day diversification of subject matters in geography and the plurality of approaches in modern human geography are also discussed. The text ends with a discussion on the present dilemma in the relationships between physical and human geography andUNESCO with an overview of the future –prospects EOLSS in the discipline. 1. Introduction Within these topicSAMPLE level contributions three CHAPTERSmain articles have been included: Main stages of development (6.14.1.1.), Theory and methods (6.14.1.2.) and Geographical education (6.14.1.3.), which we are summarizing.
    [Show full text]
  • Contribution of Friedrich Ratzel in Geographical Thought ( 6Th Sem. Geoa) Ritabrata Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor of Geography, Dept
    CONTRIBUTION OF FRIEDRICH RATZEL IN GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT ( 6TH SEM. GEOA) RITABRATA MUKHOPADHYAY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY, DEPT. OF GEOGRAPHY, AHFSM, DOMJUR, HOWRAH ( Date and time of online class: 01.05.2021{ 12.30 pm to 1.30pm }) TOPIC OF DISCUSSION • A. THE CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN GEOGRAPHY AFTER HUNBOLDT & RITTER. • B. EARLY LIFE OF FRIEDRICH RATZEL. • C. DEVELOPMENT OF NEW GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT AFTER NUMEROUS FIELD TRIPS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. • D. THE CONCEPT OF “ANTHROPOGEOGRAPHIE” • E. FOUNDER OF POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. • F. “ FROM AN INVENTORY TO AN EXPLANATORY SCIENCE”. • G. INTRODUCTION OF HYPOTHETICAL-DEDUCTIVE METHODS. • H. CRITICAL EVALUATION OF CONTRIBUTION OF RATZEL. THE CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN GEOGRAPHY AFTER HUMBOLDT & RITTER • A. RISE OF SYSTEMATIC SCIENCES. • B. CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN GEOGRAPHY. • C. PROBLEMS OF METHODOLOGY. • D. CONCEPT OF “LANDER” AND CULTURAL, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. • E. NEW EMPERICAL –THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE IN GEOGRAPHY. • F. ASPECTS OF DUALISM. EARLY LIFE OF FRIEDRICH RATZEL ( 1844-1904) • 1. GRADUATION FROM HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY IN 1868. • 2. INFLUNCED BY TWO OF DARWIN”S MAJOR THEMES-” STRUGGLE & NATURAL SELECTION” AND “ASSOCIATION & ORGANIZATION”. • 3. SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF NATURAL & CULTURAL PHENOMENA. • 4. INFLUNCED BY E.H. HAECKEL. • 5. EMPHASIZE ON FIELD TRIPS. DEVELOPMENT OF NEW GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT AFTER NUMEROUS FIELD TRIPS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES • 1. FIELD TRIPS IN MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES IN 1869. • 2. STUDY AT MUNICH UNIVERSITY. • 3. PUBLICATION OF BOOK “ TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST”( 1871). • 4. VISIT TO USA & MEXICO( 1874-75). • 5. CONCEPT OF “ WAY OF LIVING” AFTER AMERICAN EXPERIENCES. • 6. PUBLICATION OF ANOTHER BOOK FROM 1878 TO 1880 – “ PHYSICAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF USA”. • 7. CRTICISM OF BOTH HUMBOLDT & RITTER”S METHOD.
    [Show full text]
  • Ratzel and the German Geopolitical School – the Inception of Culture As an Essential Element and Factor in the Political Geography
    Revista Română de Geografie Politică Year XII, no. 2, November 2010, pp. 298-308 ISSN 1454-2749, E-ISSN 2065-1619 Article no. 122109-215 RATZEL AND THE GERMAN GEOPOLITICAL SCHOOL – THE INCEPTION OF CULTURE AS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT AND FACTOR IN THE POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY Silviu COSTACHIE University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography, 1 N. Bălcescu Av., Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: [email protected] Nicolae DAMIAN University of Bucharest, Research Center for Regional Development and European Integration, 1 N. Bălcescu Av., Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] Abstract: This study deals with the passing from geopolitics to cultural geography. To highlight the translation under discussion, we have set forth the first geopolitical theories on space and frontiers and outlined some theories about civilization and political power; all these are embryonic factors in outlining the cultural identities. The article underlines, also, the evolution of the basic geopolitical terms that constitute the base of the cultural geography approach. The relation between the political geography and cultural geography is shown at the end of this study. Key words: geopolitics, political geography, cultural geography, space, border * * * * * * THE FOREFATHER OF POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY The scientific work of Friedrich Ratzel 1 must be understood within the context of the times when it was written. When analyzing his work, we must have in view the changes that the German society was going through. If until those times Geography had meant mainly description, with his first work in the field (“Antropogeographie”, the first volume published in Leipzig in 1882, and the second in 1899) the way of understanding geography changed.
    [Show full text]
  • Geopolitics (For Encyclopedia of Globalization, Edited by George Ritzer (Routledge, 2012) George Steinmetz
    Geopolitics (for Encyclopedia of Globalization, edited by George Ritzer (Routledge, 2012) George Steinmetz 1.What is Geopolitics? Historical shifts in meaning and contemporary definitions The word geopolitics points to the interface between two distinct ontological realms and scientific disciplines, geography and politics. The first of these root words, “geography,” is not necessarily restricted in this context to traditional geographic concerns like climate or the earth’s physical surface, but entails a much broader spatial perspective concerned with scale and location, the size, shape, and boundaries of territories, and the processes by which territories are socially defined. The other root word, “politics,” points toward subfields of political science like international relations which are also focused on states and empires, borders and frontiers, international alliances and polarizations, the balance and imbalance of global power, and war, imperialism, and diplomacy (Burchill and Linklater 1996). If geopolitics is delimited by the overlap between geography and politics, this definition does not yet specify the nature of the relationship between the two realms. The founding decades of geopolitical discussion saw an emphasis on geographical modes of explanation. Geopolitical thinkers at the turn of the previous century emphasized the effects of physical geography and spatial location on a state’s growth and decline and its military and foreign policies. The word geopolitics was coined by the Swedish social scientist Rudolf Kjellén (1917: 46), who defined it as “the doctrine of the state as a geographic organism or a spatial phenomenon: i.e., the state as land, territory, region, or, most precisely, as a Reich [realm, empire].” Kjellén’s thinking was based largely on the work of German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, who founded the subfields of political geography and anthropo-geography as the study of the geographical basis of the state’s action (Ratzel 1882, 1897).
    [Show full text]
  • Europe Between Political Geography and Geopolitics II
    MEMORIE DELLA SOCIETÀ GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA VOLUME LXIII A 345289 On the Centenary of Ratzel's Politische Géographie Europe Between Political Geography and Geopolitics Proceedings of the international meeting organised by the Geographical Section of the Department of Political Sciences (University of Trieste) and the International Geographical Union - World Political Map (Trieste, Italy, Wednesday 10th - Saturday 13* December, 1997) II edited by MARCO ANTONSICH VLADIMIR KOLOSSOV M. PAOLA PAGNINI SOCIETA CEOCRAFiOV ITA11ANA Roma - 2001 CONTENTS I PRÉFACE XV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XIX HONORARY DEGREE TO Prof. Paul Claval Motivation de l'attribution de la laurea honoris causa 1 Laudatio (Prof. M. Paola Pagnini) 3 "Géographie et Politique", honorary lecture by Prof. Paul Claval 5 PARTI FRIEDRICH RATZEL: LIFE, WORK AND LEGACY 1.1 Considérations on Ratzel's Context and Theory M. PAOLA PAGNINI Theory and Praxis: from Anthropogeography to Political Geography 19 CALOGERO MUSCARÀ Ratzel's Politische Géographie and Anthropogeographie in the Perspective of the Geographical "Possibilism" of Lucien Febvre 29 - V - FRANCO FARINELLI Friedrich Ratzel and the Nature of (Political) Geography 33 BERNHARD STRECK Diffusionism and Geopolitics in the Work of Friedrich Ratzel 51 FABRIZIO EVA Back to the Future. Reclus versus Ratzel: from State Geopolitics to Human Geopolitics 67 LUCA MUSCARÀ Understanding Ratzel and the Challenge of Complexity 79 INGRID HÔNSCH Friedrich Ratzel's Collected Papers in the Archive for Geography in Leipzig 93 1.2 Ratzel's influence on National
    [Show full text]
  • On the Genealogy of Lebensraum
    Geogr. Helv., 68, 37–44, 2013 www.geogr-helv.net/68/37/2013/ doi:10.5194/gh-68-37-2013 © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License. On the genealogy of Lebensraum C. Abrahamsson Department of Human Geography, Lund University, Lund, Sweden Correspondence to: C. Abrahamsson ([email protected]) Received: 1 February 2013 – Revised: 15 April 2013 – Accepted: 16 April 2013 – Published: 30 May 2013 Abstract. The aim of this paper is to outline a genealogy of the concept of Lebensraum. It will focus on the way that Darwinian evolutionary thought was translated into 19th Century German geography, particularly in the work of Friedrich Ratzel and his formulation of the concept of Lebensraum. The paper argues that the Ratzelian Lebensraum must be viewed as a concept aimed towards a synthesis between biogeography and anthropogeography. The paper will also trace how the Ratzelian Lebensraum came to play a vital part in Rudolf Kjellen’s´ later formulation of an organic theory of the state. Here the paper will focus specifically on Kjellen’s´ organic taxonomy of the political system. The paper will end with a short discussion on the synthetic aspects of the Lebensraum concept, focusing on the seemingly divergent ways that the Lebensraum concept was mobilised within National socialist ideology and planning. 1 Introduction ogisms, such as, “Lebensspielraum”, and designating areas with terms such as “native”, “foreign”, “actual” and “poten- tial” Lebensraum. Furthermore, Troll’s evaluation of the ap- Writing in the immediate aftermath of World War II, pro- propriation of the term was invested in seeking to define “the fessor Carl Troll of Bonn University, a leading expert on ideal form of the Reich and of the Großraum organization of mountain geology, penned a paper with the explicit aim of adjacent areas” and an engineering and calculation geared to- disentangling scientific geography from what he described wards “explor[ing] the way to a perfect Lebensraum” (Troll, as the pseudo-scientific geography of the Third Reich.
    [Show full text]
  • Roll No: Application No: Name: Exam Date: 05-Oct-2020 Exam Time: 09:00-12:00 Examination: 1. Course Code - M.Phil
    Save & Print Roll No: Application No: Name: Exam Date: 05-Oct-2020 Exam Time: 09:00-12:00 Examination: 1. Course Code - M.Phil. 2. Field of Study - Political Geography (POGP) SECTION 1 - SECTION 1 Question No.1 (Question Id - 4) Which one is not a feature of the classical theories of political geography ? (A) State-centrism (B) Attention to events at micro scales (Correct Answer) (C) Euro-Americanism (D) Aspiration to offer geo-strategic policy advice regarding national security threats Question No.2 (Question Id - 33) Borderlands refer to : (A) Dividing line between two nation-states. (B) Geographical regions surrounding international borders with economic and cultural connections between people that often cross borders that mark the nation-states. (Correct Answer) (C) Disputed lands surrounding international borders. (D) Lands surrounding international borders which are jointly governed by nation- states on both sides of the border. Question No.3 (Question Id - 75) Maps are concerned with two fundamental aspects of : (A) Locations and Attributes (Correct Answer) (B) Connectivity and Proximity (C) Distance and Direction (D) Proximity and Distance Question No.4 (Question Id - 28) Methodologically speaking, which of the following is a scale of research ? (A) International (B) District (C) Neighbourhood (D) All of the above (Correct Answer) Question No.5 (Question Id - 8) The impact of Immanuel Wallerstein’s world system theory on the field of Political Geography was : (A) Emergence of insights beyond the state-centrism of earlier Marxist
    [Show full text]