William James Durant's The Geographical Pivot Of History Case Analysis

In 1932, William James Durant, an American historian, in his famous book The Story of Civilization said:
No victory of arms, or tyranny of alien finance, can long suppress a nation so rich in resources and vitality. The invader will lose funds or patience before the loins of China will lose virility; within a century China will have absorbed and civilized her conquerors, and will have learned all the technique of what transiently bears the name of modern industry; roads and communications will give her unity, economy and thrift will give her funds, and a strong government will give her order and peace (Durant, 1935, p.825).
While delivering his ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’ speech to the Royal Geographical Society a few decades earlier,
The key region, according to him was not the Heartland, but the area, that Mackinder called inner or marginal crescent. It was the Rimland region, consisting of of Western Europe countries, Middle East, Southwest Asia, China and Far East, that was key to domination of the larger Eurasian landmass (Petersen, 2011, p.27). In fact, he reworded Mackinder’s statement to ‘Who controls the Rimland, rules Eurasia; who rules Eurasia, controls the destinies of the world’ (Spykman, 1944, p.43). Rimland countries occupied the most fertile and populous part of the world and could secure access to the resources of the inland and set out upon the oceans to impress their will around the world (Petersen, 2011, p.27). Among them Spykman envisaged China as the most powerful Rimland nation and
China’s geography, demands for natural resources, population pressures and unresolved border disputes with neighbours, have forced Chinese leaders in previous years to focus their attention in solving those issues. As Robert Kaplan stated, ‘China’s unprecedented strength on land is partly thanks to Chinese diplomats, who in recent years have busily settled many border disputes with Central Asian republics, Russia, and other neighbours’ (Kaplan, 2010). Furthermore, China’s ‘oceanic frontage has been added to the resources of the great continent’, thereby creates the geopolitical conditions necessary for producing a great power that is supreme both on land and at sea. ‘The People’s Republic of China, situated at the gates of Mackinder’s “pivot region or Hartland”, and with access to the sea, possesses sufficient human and natural resources to make a bid for Eurasian mastery sometime in this new century’ (Sempa, 2009, p.21). Above all, economically and technologically developed and strong China is now capable to fulfil Mackinder’s prophecy and build its great blue water navy which will be source of China’s hard power projection in the 21st