A Paper on Friedrich Ratzel’s Organic State Theory

By Virgil B. Vallecera

I. Introduction

Friedrich Ratzel brought together for the first time in systematic form the data and problems with which political geography has to deal. Ratzel points out that the State is often treated as if it were “in the air,” and had no connection with the land on which communities live and move and have their being. With his famous works Lebensraum and Politische Geographie, Ratzel made an anthropogeography and geopolitics approach to systematically show the intimate relations which exist between humanity and the geographical stage on which it plays part. It was in his works were Ratzel introduced concepts that contributed to Lebensraum and Social Darwinism.

II. Objective

The aim of this paper is to know the basic tenets of the Organic State Theory advanced particularly by Friedrich Ratzel.

III. Contents

Ratzel’s key contribution to geopolitik was the expansion on the biological conception of geography, without a static conception of borders. He gave similies and metaphors from biology in his analysis of political science and geography, comparing the State with an organism.

States are instead organic and growing, with borders representing only a temporary stop in their movement.

The State is land, with man on the land, linked by the State idea and conforming to natural laws, with development tied to the natural environment (Glassner and de Blij).

It is not the state per se that is the organism, but the land in its spiritual bond with the people who draw sustenance from it. The stretch of a state’s borders is a reflection of the health of the nation. Hence, states, like an animal, must grow and die.

Ratzel’s idea of Lebensraum (living space) would grow out of his organic state conception. Space, for Ratzel, was a vague concept, theoretically unbounded. Hitler Germany had lebensraum in mind when it invaded neighboring states. Raum was defined by where Germans live, where other weaker states could serve to support Germans economically, and where German culture could fertilize other cultures.

Ratzel had seven laws of State growth.

1. The space of States grows with the expansion of population having the same culture.

2. Territorial growth follows other aspects of development.

3. A State grows by absorbing smaller units.

4. The frontier is the peripheral organ of the State that reflects the strength and growth of the State; hence, it is not permanent.

5. States in the course of their growth seek to absorb politically valuable territory.

6. The momentum for growth comes to a primitive State from a more highly developed civilization.

7. The trend toward territorial growth is contagious and increases in the process of transmission.

Ratzel’s deterministic view of the world, however, was not overtly aggressive, but theorized simply as the natural expansion of strong states into areas controlled by weaker states.

IV. Conclusions

In my estimation, Ratzel’s anthropogeography and political geography are convenient terms under which to include all those aspects of geography that deal with the relations of humanity as a whole or divided into communities to the earth, with which alone physical geography has to deal.

With Ratzel’s lebensraum, land or territory has had an organic body. States, like plants and people, need food in the form of ‘living space’ and resources, and they continuously compete for them. They live through stages of youth, maturity, and old age, with possible transformation. When his writings were out territorial size was the measurement of the State’s power.

However, his seven laws of State growth served as welcome justification for imperial expansion; hence, the birth of the German imperial-thinking.