- Heartland
Heartland is used in geography to refer to the central areas of a country. This occurs in many nations and areas, such as
Eurasia and theUnited States .* In Eurasia, the Heartland is remote and inaccessible from the
periphery .* The term Heartland is also frequently used to describe the Midwestern region of the
United States . It is also used for other areas of the US which are culturally similar to the Heartland; for example, theStater Bros. supermarket chain, which is concentrated in the Inland Empire counties of southern and centralCalifornia , ran TV commercials for many years using the slogan "in the Heartland" to refer to inland counties such asSan Bernardino County ,Kern County andRiverside County being culturally more similar to the central United States than to coastal California. In the state ofFlorida is a region called theFlorida Heartland , a six county region that is rural and in the south central part of the state.* The term "
Hindi heartland " is used to refer to theHindi -speaking states of Northern India, namelyUttar Pradesh ,Bihar andMadhya Pradesh .
* InSingapore , "Heartlanders" (as opposed to "Cosmopolitans") was a term popularised in1999 by then-Prime MinisterGoh Chok Tong , to characterise the majority of the Singapore population that is generally poorer, less educated, eitherworking class orlower-middle class , speaks a distinct variety of English (Singlish ), lives in HDB housing estates, and has a local (rather than global) perspective on political, economic and cultural issues.
* InPoland - the main part of country, meaningMazovia .Geopolitics
Heartland as a
geopolitical term was originally created bySir Halford Mackinder in his address, "The Geographical Pivot of History ", to theRoyal Geographic Society ."Heartland" refers to the continuous landmass of
Eurasia measuring more than 21 million square miles (54 million km²). This landmass contains no waterways to the ocean and is contained by theArctic ice cap and drainage to the north, the monsoon lands along thePacific Ocean and theIndian Ocean , theNear East or land of the Five Seas, andEurope . This landmass is remote and inaccessible to itsperiphery . Mackinder argued in his address that this was the strategic region of the foremost importance in the World.The term "heartland" was important in the writings of
Adolf Hitler 's geopoliticalmentor Karl Haushofer , who greatly influenced Hitler's concept oflebensraum which he advanced in "Mein Kampf ", and formed the basis of the eventual establishment of Hitler's New Order--i.e., that it is necessary forNazi Germany to control the heartland of Eurasia by successfully completing the conquest ofRussia .The term is used by
United States geopoliticianZbigniew Brzezinski in his writings.ee also
* "
Heartlanders ", Singapore English language television drama
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