The Imperial Vision of Halford Mackinder Author(s): Brian W. Blouet Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 170, No. 4, Halford Mackinder and the 'Geographical Pivot of History' (Dec., 2004), pp. 322-329 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3451461 Accessed: 30/08/2010 15:10 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. 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The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and Blackwell Publishing are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal. http://www.jstor.org The GeographicalJournal, Vol. 170, No. 4, December2004, pp. 322-329 The imperial vision of Halford Mackinder BRIANW BLOUET Departmentof Governmentand School of Education,The College of Williamand Mary in Virginia, Williamsburg,VA 23187-8795, USA E-mail:[email protected] Thispaper was accepted for publication in May 2004 From 1899 to 1939, Halford Mackinder was active in imperial affairs. In 1899, the same year he climbed Mount Kenya, he set out the case for free trade. Rapidly he converted to imperial protectionism, left the Liberal Party and joined the Conservatives. Mackinder, along with his associates in the Conservative Party, Leo Amery and Lord Milner, promoted the cause of imperial unity and imperial preference in trade. During the period 1899-1903, Mackinder's evolving ideas about empire helped shape the Pivot paper, and he spelt out a prescription to avoid imperial decline: bind Britain and the Dominions into a League of Democracies with one fleet and one foreign policy, and encourage economic growth within the empire by a system of tariffs that promoted imperial trade. In Mackinder's parliamentary career (1910-22), his party was never in power and the Liberals retained free trade. Only after World War I, at the end of his parliamentary career, did Mackinder become active in imperial policy as chair of the Imperial Shipping Committee and the Imperial Economic Committee. KEYWORDS: Kenya, Mackinder, free trade, tariff reform, Imperial Shipping Committee, Pivot paper his paper examines the origins and evolution Moseley was appointed to the Linacre chair in of Mackinder's imperial vision and suggests 1881 and did much of his teaching at Oxford in that a profound alteration in his views, par- the purpose built University Museum, on Parks Road, ticularly regarding the economics of imperialism, which was a storehouse of biological, geological, played a part in the formulation of the Pivot paper. and anthropological materials. The Linacre Pro- fessor had an impact on Mackinder, imparting to him an understanding of physical geography and Earlytraining the global distribution of plants and animals. As an undergraduate at Oxford (1880-3), Halford Moseley pressed the Royal Geographical Society Mackinder was trained in zoology by Henry Nottidge (RGS) to establish geography at Oxford and Moseley, Linacre Professor of Human and Compar- Cambridge and when, in 1887, a Readership in ative Anatomy. Moseley was part of the nineteenth Geography was created at Oxford, Moseley insisted century imperial, exploratory scientific tradition. He that the successful applicant had a scientific train- had served on the Challenger expedition (1873-6) ing. This helped to get Mackinder, with a first class as a zoologist, with subsidiary work in botany degree in animal morphology, a second in history, and ethnography (Moseley 1892). Moseley knew and a research award in geology, appointed to the Charles Darwin (the Beagle expedition) and T.H. Readership. Huxley, who had collected scientific materials when Mackinder's experience of the exploratory-scientific on board HMS Rattlesnake (1846-50). Darwin tradition was enhanced by contact with officers advised Moseley, before he set off on Challenger, of the RGS including Henry Bates - Naturalist on to make ethnographic observations, as traditional the Amazons (Bates 1863) - Douglas Freshfield, the lifestyles were disappearing on contact with the Alpinist, Scott Keltie, a pioneer of geographic modern world. education, and Clements Markham, who had 0016-7398/04/0002-0001/$00.20/0 @ 2004 The Royal Geographical Society The imperial vision of HalfordMackinder 323 explored in the Andes and brought back cincona herself expert in the Kamba and Kikuyu languages plants, the bark of which produced quinine, used (Hinde 1901 1904). Another Ginsburg relative, to treat malaria. Campbell B. Hausberg, took on the logistic planning and served as camp master to the expedition. Hausberg was expert with a rifle and a camera. Mount Kenya Many of his photographs, now housed at the School When Mackinder set off to climb Mount Kenya in of Geography, Oxford, are frequently reproduced 1899 he had been schooled in the British, imperial, (6 Tuathail 1996; Ryan 1997). Also in the Mount scientific-exploratory tradition by Professor Moseley Kenya party were Edward Saunders, specimen col- and the officers of the RGS. During his Victorian lector, and Claude Camburn, taxidermist, both childhood, Mackinder read about Captain Cook's recommended by the Natural History Museum, voyages and absorbed an understanding of the London. An experienced alpine guide and a porter, adventure of empire, its interests and competitors. C6sar Oilier and Joseph Brocherel, were to make The motives for climbing Mount Kenya were climbing the mountain possible. The expedition col- not purely scientific. The 'desire to conquer Mount lected botanical and zoological specimens, surveyed Kenya was a deliberate career move by a man the mountain, collected meteorological data, and seeking authority within the new discipline of made a photographic record of the region (Ryan geography in late Victorian Britain' (0 Tuathail 1997, 122). 1996, 76), reinforced by the fact that RGS financial Mackinder's party left England for Marsailles on support for Mackinder's Oxford Readership, and 8 June 1899, travelled by ship through the Suez Canal the School of Geography, might depend upon to Zanzibar (28 June) and then on to Mombasa. Mackinder proving himself as an explorer (Kearns Armed askaris (guards) and some porters were 1997, 458). He was situating himself within the recruited at the coast and Mackinder sent most of scientific exploratory foundations of the discipline, the party inland on the Uganda railway to Nairobi. in order to establish credibility. The railway, financed by the British government, The imperial dimension of the Kenya expedition was started in 1896 to link Mombasa to Lake required that 'behind the duty of science lay the Victoria. Eventually, steamboats were brought by desire to control' (Kearns 1997, 455). In the opinion the rail, in pieces, assembled on Lake Victoria, and of 0 Tuathail, Mackinder wanted 'to penetrate and provided passage to Uganda. The expedition was map the vast interiors of Africa' and the 'expedition part of a larger geopolitical picture (Hyam 1999). to Mount Kenya was to write on this blank page' Authorized by the Foreign Office and partially (1996, 76). Further Mackinder's 'eyes were sover- funded by the RGS, it would fill in spaces on eign, his authority guaranteed by his male body, his the map and be a part of the 'capitalist vanguard' white skin, and his European learning' (1996, 81). (Pratt 1992, 146). Although the expedition was Whether or not we accept 6 Tuathail's view, the mostly scientific, to help promote geography in overall situation is clear: the British government was universities, Mackinder would have understood establishing imperial control over Kenya, Uganda the term capitalist vanguard. Mackinder, anticipating and the headwaters of the Nile. The Mount Kenya J.A. Hobson, believed that a function of imperial expedition was a part of the imperial expansion. expansion was to provide outlets for British overseas Without British government funding of the Uganda investment (Kearns 1993; Mackinder 1900c; Semmel railway, Mackinder's expedition would not have 1968, 157). taken place when it did because, lacking the Mackinder, after administrative work in Mombasa, railway, he could not get to and from the mountain rejoined the expedition at Nairobi on 14 July. More in the time available, if he were to fulfil his Oxford porters were hired and the party set off for Mount teaching commitments. Kenya on 28 July 1899. The expedition passed Mackinder planned the Mount Kenya expedition through well cultivated Kikuyucountry. Some villages carefully and engaged the talents of many people. were friendly, others hostile, and two porters were His wife's sister Hilda (nee Ginsburg) was married killed in one incident. The mountain camps were to Sidney Hinde who had experience in African established at 7200 and 10 300 ft. At 13 000 ft, exploration and was employed by the British just below the Lewis glacier, a stone hut was built government as a colonial administrator in Kenya to shelter the climbing parties. It took three (Hinde 1897). The Hindes provided intelligence in attempts, but on 13 September the summit of the planning phase and by mid-1899 the Hindes Mount Kenya (17 058 ft) was reached.