ampldquoThe ideas which go to form a nation as opposed to a mere crowd of human animals have usually been accepted under the pressure of a common tribulation and under a common necessity of resistance to external force.amprdquo ampmdashSir Halford Mackinder at the Royal Geographical Society 1904The Geographical Pivot of History was a paper submitted by Sir Halford John Mackinder in 1904 to the Royal Geographical Society in London. Mackinder had won earlier attention with his concept of geography as a bridge between the natural sciences and the humanities. In this paper Mackinder ampnbspadvanced his socalled Heartland Theory whereby the interior Asia and eastern Europe ampldquothe Heartlandamprdquo had become the strategic center of the world as a result of the relative decline of sea power against land power and of the economic and industrial development of southern Siberia.Mackinderamprsquos Heartland Theory has been considered the founding moment of geopolitics the study of the effects of Earthamp39s geography human and physical on politics and international relations. Mackinderamprsquos theories are further described in his book Democratic Ideals and Reality 1919 also from Cosimo Classics.