It is well-known that one of the biggest consequences of the World War I was the humiliation of Germany, based on ancient Roman principle of Vae victis (woe to the vanquished), loss of extensive territories and depredatory reparations that further spurred the need to revise the Versailles-Washington system, established by the victor nations – Great Britain, France and the U.S., and cardinal redrawing of ”geopolitically unjustified” borders of Europe and Asia in favor of Germany and its allies – Italy and Japan.
Developed by Karl Haushofer (1849-1946), a geography professor with the University of Munich, the ”theory of living space” became the official doctrine of the Nazi Germany. Author of the concept of the ”continental block”, Haushofer believed that the ”day when Germany, Russia and Japan unite, will be the one to decide the fate of the English-speaking world power, demise of the gods”. German geopolitician believed that through concerted effort of two continental powers – Germany and Russia – “New Eurasian World Order” could be shaped and the space of the World Island restructured, so that it is removed beyond the influence of the ”Sea Power”.
Another German geopolitician Carl Schmitt (1888-1985), in his work called ”Space and Greater Space in the Right of the Peoples” (1940), developed one of the most significant geopolitical theories – concept of “Greater space”, that regards the process of evolvement of a state as a drive towards acquisition, as much as possible, of large territories. Moreover, his theories were based on conflicting and extremely competitive concepts of the East and West and Land and Sea (”Earth and Sea”, 1942).
Reformation of the geopolitical systems established after the WWI happened in the course of the World War II. On the eve of 1 September 1939 a following set up of geopolitical was in place: Soviet Union, that adhered to the geopolitical objectives and aspirations of the Russian Empire, Anglo-Saxon geopolitical system, as bedrock of naval civilization that above all, aimed to prevent an alliance of continental powers – German Reich and Soviet Union; geopolitical system of the Axis nations, led by the continental Germany, driven by the objective to realize a theory by the German geopoliticians who regarded the state as a living organism that for its evolution needed expansion of habitat, including planetary scale, that is to say the world dominance.
Germany’s allies – fascist Italy and militarist Japan also shared the German geopolitical approach regarding the need of extending the living space for their countries. Italy, in particular, had set its eyes on the Mediterranean and North and South-East Africa. Japan’s geopolitical doctrine, laid out by then the Prime Minister F. Konoe in 1940, envisioned establishment of the “Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” aimed at building an enormous Japanese empire, based on the idea of Pan-Asianism.
Configuration of the aforementioned geopolitical systems were not rigid structures, as preferences were changing, temporary alliances being forged, and internal frictions and competitions abounded. Thus, seemingly ”illogical” alliances were formed, akin the ones of Munich (1938) and Soviet-German (1939).
As a whole, geopolitical situation in the global balance of forces was dynamically changing in the run-up to the WWII and the world remained Eurocentric. However, world’s geopolitical structure remained shaky. In the political processes, the leading players of the world strictly adhered to the substance of their geopolitical concepts, doctrines and strategies. The West that continued to define the formation of principle world processes, remained divided, and was centered on two civilization matrixes: Anglo-Saxon and Roman – German, with diverging essence of life and vectors of the foreign policy strategy.
The Soviet Union retained and solidified Russian statehood, and continued the buildup of its military-political, ideological-spiritual and intellectual potential, while the geopolitical system of the Axis nations was inspired by the theories of German geopoliticians such as F. Ratzel, R. Kjellen, C. Hauhofer and C. Schmitt.
All in all, in the 1930s, the geopolitical tensions had been gradually escalating, both theoretically and practically, that ultimately lead to the World War II. The main outcome of this war however, was an unconditional victory of anti-Hitler coalition over the Axis countries in 1945, and new “Potsdam” partitioning of the geopolitical sphere of influence in the world between the two former allies – the U.S. and the USSR.
Parvin DARABADI
Doctor of historical sciences, Professor
