An Introduction to The Organic Theory
The organic theory, along with the Heartland and Rimland theories, falls under political geography, otherwise known as geopolitics. Geopolitics refers to how politics plays a role in geography and influences different geographic attributes such as political borders. The term geopolitics once had a negative connotation, due to the organic theory, and in this paper, we shall discuss the reason for this.
It was theorized in 1897 by Friedrich Ratzel, a nineteenth-century German geographer and ethnographer. The name “organic theory” comes from Ratzel’s assertion that political entities, such as countries, behave in a way not too dissimilar from that of living organisms. More specifically, to survive, a political entity requires nourishment to gain political power. This nourishment came in the form of a term he coined called Lebensraum, which translates from German to “living space.” He was referring to the physical territory.
Therefore, we can say that organic theory states that political entities continually seek nourishment in the form of gaining territories to survive in the same way that a living organism seeks nourishment from food to survive. Essentially, the analogy is that food for an organism is territory for a country and the more territory that it conquers the more that the particular political entity can sustain and preserve itself.
As a result, the organic theory implies that for a political entity to maintain control, it invariably needs to seek out Lebensraum and go out and conquer all the territory that it possibly can, and complacency is not an option. Otherwise, it risks its security and is always vulnerable to attacks because other political entities also behave in this organic way and will try to conquer as much territory as they can as well for the purpose of self-preservation. You can compare it to the competition among living organisms for the scarce resource of food, which is their form of nourishment.
Importance and Examples of Organic Theory
Organic theory was another explanation of how and why certain political entities behaved the way that they did. Many political scientists, geographers, and ethnographers took this theory of aiming to use what happened in the past to explain what could happen in the future. Its primary goal was to help influence policy in a certain way so that certain political entities can sustain themselves and predict the way other countries, particularly those currently on the aggressive or with an aggressive nature, will behave given a particular set of circ*mstances.
In its use as a political tool, organic theory was often used as a justification of relentless and aggressive conquering. The idea behind it was self-preservation. The argument was that if one political entity didn’t actively seek new territory and expanded, then its territory was susceptible and prone to outside attack from other political entities who sought the same nourishment.
To see the examples of the organic theory in play, you don’t need to look far. All great empires and political entities throughout history have focused on expansion. There has been no political entity in the world focused on voluntary contraction. The closest thing that occurred in history to voluntary contraction is the split of the Roman Empire its Western and Eastern halves, the latter going on to become the Byzantine Empire. This split was not entirely voluntary, however, as it had to be done due to administrative difficulties within the empire.
You don’t see this happening as much in the modern era due to plenty of pacts, agreements, and treaties calling for ceasefires. Bodies such as the United Nations enforce such accords. However, the innate nature of a state behaving according to the organic theory is still visible. If a country is unable to conquer a territory, then it does the second-best option: it intervenes in external affairs for its gains. An example of this would be the Western intervention in the Middle East.
Another way you can see the organic theory at work in the modern world is through self-determination. Many marginalized ethnic groups, or those who believe that they deserve their political entity, such as stateless nations, aim to separate from the entity that they are currently under the control of. However, if that larger entity lets self-determination run its course, that means it loses territory and therefore, nutrition. For example, India does not want to lose the state of Kashmir to Pakistan because that would mean that Pakistan would gain territory and support its organic behavior, and India would lose nutrition in this case.
There have been many rebuttals to the organic theory. In 1899, Sir William Crookes, a British scientist, said that territorial expansion is not the only thing that can act as nutrition and that technological advances can also solidify a political entity. This argument may explain why more developed nations are more politically stable and less likely to invade and conquer.
So, organic theory seems quite harmless overall. Why does it have such a negative connotation then?
Organic Theory and the Growth of Nazi Germany
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, we said that Friedrich Ratzel was German and developed this theory in 1897. He died soon after in 1904 at the age of 60. However, his legacy lived on to influence Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich and the growth of Nazi Germany only 40 years later.
In the years after Ratzel’s publication of the organic theory, many of his contemporaries began to adopt the concept of Lebensraum and used this idea to continue to draw parallels between political entities and living organisms. These ideas began to catch especially on in Ratzel’s home country of Germany among other German geographers and ethnographers. In Sweden, political scientist Rudolf Kjellen termed the idea that natural geography strongly affected political entities and their relationships as geopolitics in 1899.
Karl Haushofer was a German professor who, in 1924, established the Institute for Geopolitics in Munich, where the organic theory was widely taught. His view was that it was natural for political entities to behave as organisms do, leading to the idea that political entities naturally expand at the expense of weaker political entities.
Adolf Hitler, who had promised a German turnaround after the economic turmoil it had endured after the First World War loss with all the reparations it was forced to pay, found this quite appealing. He used the organic theory to justify all his conquests throughout Europe during World War II. He claimed that if Germany didn’t grow in this way, it would fall victim again to the rest of the Europe and eventually the world as it did during the First World War.
Organic theory was identified closely with geopolitics, a relatively new field at the time, which in turn was used as justification for Germany’s behavior during World War II. As a result, as mentioned in the introduction to this article, this created a negative connotation for both terms by association with Nazi Germany. Geopolitics is no longer regarded as a science. However, it is still given limited use in military strategies and international relations.
Organic Theory and the AP® Human Geography Exam
So, now that you’re aware of what organic theory is, let’s move on to how it applies to the AP® Human Geography exam, both the FRQ and multiple choice sections.
On what is available on CollegeBoard’s resources regarding previous AP® Human Geography FRQs and the practice multiple choice exam, there is no mention of organic theory. However, it is still in the course description, so that means it’s fair game if CollegeBoard decides to put it suddenly on the FRQ or multiple choices.
On the AP® Human Geography multiple choice section, you will mostly get definition-type questions. You need to know what organic theory is and understand the analogy to a living organism. Know why it behaves in this way and the implications for doing so. Go back and reread this article if you’re not entirely sure you have a grasp on the definition of organic theory. You might also be asked to apply it to a real-world example. The most likely case of this would be Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich and Nazi Germany, because Organic Theory originated, and grew in popularity, in Germany, and that the Nazi Party used organic theory to justify its actions.
On the AP® Human Geography FRQ, if you are asked about organic theory or if organic theory is involved in answering one of the questions, it will usually be just one part of a question. You will most likely need to elaborate on the definition of organic theory and the arguments Friedrich Ratzel used to defend it. You may also need to apply it to a real-life situation, which would again ideally be Nazi Germany due to its adoption of this theory as the driving ideology behind its conquests throughout Europe.
Wrapping up Organic Theory
Organic theory is the idea that countries behave like organisms in that they seek nutrition to survive. The nutrition in the country’s case is land territory. It was used by Adolf Hitler to justify his ruthless expansion of Nazi Germany. Regarding the AP® Human Geography exam, you’re more likely to see a question about it on the multiple choice section than on the FRQ.
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