This map, the work of Richard Edes Harrison, was published in 1942 in the magazine Life to illustrate a geopolitical article by Joseph J. Thorndike Jr.

Thorndike's article details the origins and development of the Geopolitik, The German school of geopolitics that was shaping Germany's policies during the Second World War. It covers the principle of Lebensraum, The Nazi Germany worldview was based on the concept of "living space" and Halford Mackinder's Heartland theory, two of the pillars of Nazi Germany's worldview.

The British Halford Mackinder formulated the Heartland theory in 1904 and later elaborated on it in his book Democratic Ideals and Reality, of 1919. The central thesis is that he who dominates Eastern Europe will dominate the Heartland; he who dominates the Heartland will dominate the World Island (Eurasia and Africa); and he who dominates the World Island will dominate the world. This idea had been virtually ignored in the UK, but in Germany it had a great impact, and it was this German appropriation that Thorndike's article set out to explain to the American public.

Harrison's map focuses precisely on the Heartland, using an orthographic projection that shows the hemisphere of the World Island as if viewed from space. Harrison avoids national borders and organises the territory into large concepts such as the Heartland, the coasts or the Arabian bridge. All this turns Mackinder's theory into an image: the Heartland occupies the visual centre of the world, which is exactly where Mackinder claimed the centre of power lay.

At the end of World War II, this map was also presented as documentary evidence at the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leaders in the International Military Tribunal's file H-3258, which makes this map of particular historical importance.

Sources

• Life Magazine - Geopolitics