Przegląd Geograficzny (2015) vol. 87, iss. 2
Friedrich Ratzel’s views on human geography and geopolitics
Przegląd Geograficzny (2015) vol. 87, iss. 2, pp. 199-224 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.2.1
Abstract
This paper presents the creative achievements of Friedrich Ratzel – an outstanding German geographer commonly considered the world pioneer of political geography and geopolitics. Ratzel’s life and scientific achievements are presented first, and it is noted how his scientific work extend to several dozen books, devoted mainly to regional geography perceived on different territorial scales. It is recalled that Ratzel was the follower and heir to such great German geographers as J. Herder, K. Ritter and M. Wagner. His scientific worldview was also strongly infl uenced by the concepts of Ch. Darwin, H. Spencer, A. Comte and E. A. Haeckel. The remainder of the paper comprises two parts – a consideration of Ratzel’s views in matters of human geography, and then an assessment of his contribution to matters of political geography, which turned into geopolitics, under the intellectual inspiration of Ratzel. As achievements in the domain of human geography are presented, attention is also paid to Ratzel’s injection into explanations of the relations characterising human communities of both biological principles and deterministic factors. In his opinion, the development of human societies resembled nature in that a struggle for life took place, generating a form of natural selection that ensured the elimination of weaker organisms less adapted to the geographical, social and political environment. Another explanatory concept, which played an important cognitive role, was the Wagnerian theory of migrations, adopted by Ratzel. The analysis of the views of Ratzel on human geography seeks to emphasise the interdisciplinary nature of those views, with their connections to biology, sociology, ethnography, demography and statistics. The second part of the paper is then devoted to the scientific contribution made by Ratzel to the appearance of the new scientific discipline that geopolitics became. The basis for his reasoning was the proposition that the state and the nation, like a living organism, undergoes successive phases of development, from simple forms towards more complex ones. This development takes place in the framework of confrontations and military struggles for domination and living space (Lebensraum). Starting from these conceptual prerequisites, Ratzel considered his contemporary international situation and construed the image of future, probable political processes in the world. The presentation of Ratzel’s views stresses how use was later made of these in the formulation of German imperial plans and territorial annexation programs. However, as this phase characterised a period after Ratzel’s death, he cannot be held responsible for the extreme uses to which his ideas were put. Nevertheless, even with an overall positive assessment of the scientific achievements of Ratzel, substantive analysis and evaluation of this controversial issue could not be avoided.
Keywords: Friedrich Ratzel, antropogeografia, geopolityka
[p.ebe@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Citation
APA: Eberhardt, P. (2015). Poglądy antropogeograficzne i geopolityczne Friedricha Ratzla. Przegląd Geograficzny, 87(2), 199-224. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.2.1
MLA: Eberhardt, Piotr. "Poglądy antropogeograficzne i geopolityczne Friedricha Ratzla". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 87, no. 2, 2015, pp. 199-224. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.2.1
Chicago: Eberhardt, Piotr. "Poglądy antropogeograficzne i geopolityczne Friedricha Ratzla". Przegląd Geograficzny 87, no. 2 (2015): 199-224. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.2.1
Harvard: Eberhardt, P. 2015. "Poglądy antropogeograficzne i geopolityczne Friedricha Ratzla". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 87, no. 2, pp. 199-224. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.2.1