Geographical determinism and possibilism in geopolitics

Abstract

Geography does not decide everything – this statement seems obvious to every contemporary foreign affairs researcher. But it was not for forefathers of geopolitics at the turn of 19^th and 20^th century. It is still not obvious for some geopolitical commentators nowadays as well. In the classical era of geopolitics, some academics were deeply fascinated by the fact that geography affects man's fate. Some of them even believed, that it is the only relevant factor in history. In several cases – as in the case of Fredrich Ratzel – it led to designing political programmes which turned out to have tragic consequences. This geographical determinism, however, was largely criticised by many scholars, mainly in France. The crtiticisim led to the origin of a new current – geographical possibilism. According to this view, geography is just a factor that offers people multiply possibilities. Man, as a free being, can choose. The aim of this paper is to precisely define both geographical determinism and possibilism. This will be achieved by referring the classics: Rudolf Kjellén, Frierdrich Ratzel, Paul Vidal de la Blache, Lucien Febvre and Halford John Mackindera.