Finished works → Political science → Vidal de la Blanche
Abstract (17 pages)
Introduction
Geopolitics is one of the most influential intellectual trends of the twentieth century, determining the nature of research in such areas as foreign policy and military strategy states, national interests, analysis and forecasting of local and global international conflicts.
The word “geopolitics” is made up of two Greek roots: “geo” - earth and that which is connected with the earth, “politikos” - that which is connected with the “polis” - the state, citizenship. In a broad sense, this concept refers to the consciously pursued or spontaneously formed policy of states, to the extent that it is related to geographical and territorial factors. It is assumed that geopolitics as a scientific discipline studies, first of all, geopolitics in the broad sense of the word.
The formation of French geopolitics took place in an atmosphere of Franco-German confrontation: economic competition, military rivalry of 1870 - 1871, which ended with the defeat of France and the proclamation of the German Empire as a geopolitical challenge to its southwestern neighbor (in the Palace of Versailles near Paris), post-war disputes over territorial affiliation Alsace and Lorraine and finally the first World War with her western front, where the fiercest battles took place between French and German units. Hence, the entire French geopolitics developed as the antithesis of the German one. The founder of the French school of geopolitics was undoubtedly Paul Vidal de la Blache.
The purpose of our work is to consider the features of the geopolitical thought of the founder of French geopolitics, Paul Vidal de la Blanche.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve a number of problems:
1. Define the concept of Vindal de la Blanche as basic in French geopolitics;
2.Study the essence of the concept of “possibilism”;
3.Compare the geopolitical theory of Vindal de la Blanche and Ratzel;
4. Reveal the essence of de la Blanche’s views on the problems of Western Europe.
Conclusion
Thus, the founder of the French geopolitical school, Vidal de la Blanche (1845-1918) is a professional geographer. At one time, he became interested in the political geography of F. Ratzel and, on its basis, created his own geopolitical concept, in which, nevertheless, he deeply criticized many of the key provisions of German geopoliticians. In the book “Picture of the Geography of France,” published in 1903, he writes, in particular: “The relationship between soil and man in France is marked by the original character of antiquity, continuity... People live in the same places from time immemorial. Springs and calcium rocks initially attracted people as convenient places for living and protection. Our man is a faithful student of the soil. Studying the soil will help determine the character, morals and preferences of the population.”
As we see, here he stands firmly on the soil theory. But subsequently, to a greater extent, his ideas were formed on the basis of the rich tradition of French geographical and historical concepts.
The French school of geopolitics is the least expansionist and the most humanitarian. Paul Vidal de la Blanche (1845–1918) sharply criticized Ratzel for his geographical determinism and put forward the principle of “possibilism”, which is fundamentally important for modern geopolitics, according to which a particular space only provides a person with the possibilities of one or another geopolitical configuration, but the realization of these possibilities depends on the will of the people.
The geographer considered the leading historical process to be the civilizational process - the gradual integration of small social cells into more and more complex organisms - countries, peoples, civilizations. Vidal de la Blanche envisioned the creation of a world state in the future, but not through conquest, like other geopoliticians, but through peaceful civilizational integration.
Important for French geopolitics is the idea of convergence, the interpenetration of opposing geopolitical forces - Land and Sea, great powers. Blanche saw the solution to the border dispute between France and Germany in the transformation of Alsace and Lorraine from a zone of conflict into a zone of cooperation.
The geopolitical ideology of the European Union is largely based on the geopolitical ideas of de la Blache and his followers; the ideas of globalization in their “internationalist” aspect are also largely related to the influence of the French school, which has great merit in developing the ideas of flexibility and variability in geopolitics.
Bibliography
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Founder of the French geopolitical school Vidal de la Blanche (1845-1918) - professional geographer. At one time, he became interested in the political geography of F. Ratzel and on its basis created his own geopolitical concept, in which he nevertheless deeply criticized many of the key provisions of German geopoliticians. In the book “Picture of the Geography of France,” published in 1903, he writes, in particular:
The relationship between soil and man in France is marked by an original character of antiquity, continuity... People have lived in the same places since time immemorial. Springs and calcium rocks initially attracted people as convenient places to live.
tion and protection. Our man is a faithful student of the soil. Studying the soil will help determine the character, morals and preferences of the population 27 .
As we see, here he stands firmly on the soil theory. But subsequently, to a greater extent, his ideas were formed on the basis of the rich tradition of French geographical and historical concepts. He critically comprehended and reworked many currents of German political and geographical thought. This critical approach is clearly visible when compared with the approach to geopolitics of its founder F. Ratzel. A critical spirit in relation to the teachings of German geopoliticians is characteristic of absolute majority scientists of France in the first half of the 20th century. If the core of Ratzel's theory is the categories of space (Raum), geographical location state (Lage), “need for territory,” “sense of space” (Raumsinn), then Vidal de la Blanche has a person in the center. De la Blanche is essentially the founder of the “anthropological school” of political geography, which in his “execution” became an alternative to the German school of geopolitics “the theory of large space” and was called possibilism.
This confrontation in science is a reflection of real contradictions between two neighboring countries, France and Germany, friends and rivals, a reflection of the entire sum of contradictions that have accumulated over centuries.
Different scientific approaches to resolving global contradictions between two countries are a theoretical reflection of attempts to resolve global problems, search for the most optimal ways achieving your goals.
In his fundamental work “Eastern France” (1919), Vidal de la Blanche analyzes the problem of geopolitical rivalry between France and Germany - the problem of Alsace and Lorraine, and eastern France in general. He put forward the idea of transforming these lands (mostly German-speaking), which were transferred back to France during the First World War, into a zone of mutual cooperation between the two countries. To transform these rich provinces not into a barrier that fences off one country from another, giving benefit to only one side, but to make them as permeable as possible. In fact, the French geopolitician created a historical model of the development of first the Franco-German, then the European geopolitical space as a whole. De la Blanche still gave preference to French interests. This is evident from how thoroughly he proves the historical and geographical facts of these lands belonging to France.
Unlike the German school of geopolitics, de la Blanche rejects rigid geographical determinism, which sometimes resembles fate. He put in the first place not geographical fatalism, but the will and initiative of man; man, like nature, can be considered as a “geographical factor.” Moreover, he assigned an active role to this factor as a subject of influence on historical processes. But this active subject does not act in isolation, but within the framework of a natural complex.
Main element his theories are a category of local development of civilization. Its basis is made up of individual foci, which are the first bricks, elements of civilization. They are small groups of people who are formed in the interaction of man with nature. In these primary cells - social cells - certain “ways of life” are gradually formed.
Interacting with environment, a person grows and develops. The scientist noted:
Geographical individuality is not something given in advance by nature; it is only a reservoir where the energy inherent in nature sleeps, which can only be awakened by a person 28.
These primary centers, interacting with each other, begin to form and, finally, form the basis of civilization, which, as it evolves, expands and covers more and more new territories. This expansion does not always occur smoothly and progressively. In the process of expansion and complication of structures, civilization experiences setbacks, bursts of energy are replaced by catastrophes and regression. The very forms of interaction between “primary foci” - cells are diverse and contradictory: there is influence (assimilation), borrowing and even complete destruction.
According to de la Blanche's theory, the process of interaction begins and, increasingly accelerating, occurs in the northern hemisphere from the Mediterranean to the Chinese Sea. In his opinion, in Western and Central Europe the interaction of the primary foci (elements) of civilization occurred almost continuously and
political formations, replacing each other, were superimposed on one or another configuration of interacting sets of small centers, communities, these unique microcosms.
The rapprochement and interaction of these heterogeneous elements, the assimilation of one another led
to the formation of empires, religions, states, through which the skating rink of history rolled with greater or less severity... It was thanks to these individual small centers that life glimmered in the Roman Empire, and then in the Western and Eastern Roman empires, in the imperial government entities Sassanids, Persians, etc. (In large areas of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, the civilizational process was often interrupted, resuming somewhat later and partially) 29 .
As we see, de la Blanche repeats some of the ideas of F. Ratzel: their approaches to world history as a “continuous process of differentiation.” But if we talk about by and large, then this idea was formulated, substantiated, and developed more deeply and thoroughly by both of these scientists by G. Spencer.
We have already noted above that Vidal de la Blanche, in his concept, unlike F. Ratzel and other geopoliticians, emphasized not only the surrounding geographical environment. He viewed the role of states and political entities in the process of development of civilizations differently. If for F. Ratzel, as already said, the state is also an organic being, “developing in accordance with the law of growing territories,” then the French geopolitician believes that the state rather resembles something external, secondary, determined by the nature and form of interaction of local cells of civilizations.
This interaction occurs the more actively, the better the communications between local foci are: rivers, lakes, seas, highways and railways etc. De la Blanche paid a lot of attention to communications in his works and argued that in the future, with appropriate communications, with the active interaction of individual centers of civilization, the creation of a world state is possible. And a person in that state will recognize himself as a “citizen of the world.”
Interesting aspect in the theory of the French geopolitician is the idea of gradually overcoming the contradictions between continental and maritime states. This consolidation, in his opinion, will occur through the formation of fundamentally new relations between land and sea. He believed that continental spaces were becoming more and more permeable, as all types of communications were being improved, the road network was expanding and modernizing; sea routes and transportation (in general, sea and ocean) are becoming increasingly dependent on connections with continents. In this regard, he says that the “interpenetration” of land and sea is a universal process 30 .
And one more touch in the multi-level concept of the French scientist. (We have already noted above that his state is, as it were, secondary, “a product of the activity of individual cells, communities, aware of the unity, similarity, compatibility of the main elements of their existence,” it (the state) is a product of this realized unity.) Based on this, geopolitics specifically understands the boundaries of states. The border is a living, conscious phenomenon; it is not determined by the “external” framework of the state or directly by physical and geographical factors.
