An English Translation and Analysis of Major General Karl Ernst Haushofer's Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean: Studies on the Relationship Between Geography and History (Studies in Geography, 7)

This new translation and updating of Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean will allow English speakers to enjoy and learn from Karl Haushofer's seminal work. Born into an academic family in Munich in 1869, Haushofer attended Cadet school and joined the Bavarian General Staff. He spent two years in the Far East, returning by way of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 1910. Impressed with the Japanese, he wrote four books urging an alliance between Germany and Japan. After serving in WWI, he retired with the rank of general and taught at the University of Munich. In 1926 he wrote Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean, which contended that the center of world power had moved from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and advocated an alliance of Germany, Russia, India, China and Japan against the Colonial powers and the USA. He predicted mass migration around the Rim of the Pacific, and urged Japan to move against Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, not China. Hitler's rise to power brought Haushofer into prominence. Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, moves into the Middle East, conquest of China by the Communists, the Indian-Russian alliance, and invasion of Afghanistan almost brought Haushofer's Eurasian empire into reality. Current events in the Pacific Rim continue to bear out Haushofer's predictions. German general Haushofers published this work in 1924. In his examination of Indo-Pacific political relations, he argues that the locus of political power inexorably was moving east, with the center of power soon to be located in Russia and China. He recommended deeper ties between Japan and Russia in the interests of their own security. According to Tambs (former director of the Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona State U. at Tempe), the work was deeply influential on both Russian and Japanese policy makers. With an "analysis" consisting of a preface placing the work in historical context, the title of this volume is somewhat misleading. Translated from the German work Geopolitik des Pazifischen Ozeans, Studien über die Wechs elbeziehungen zwischen Geographie und Geschichte. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR "In the making of a tourist resort, the strangers and their presence are only half the matter; the other half is the local people and their reactions. This study examines what the Taorminese did to develop their resources, the image and myth of Taormina, reconstructing its history from the local people's point of view. The social organization of the community, its urban statute and sentiment, its first contact with outsiders, its history and monuments, its popular culture and sense of identity are carefully investigated."--Jacket.