Heartland
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'''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 the [[United States]].
* In Eurasia, the Heartland is remote and inaccessible from the [[periphery]].
* The term Heartland is also frequently used to describe the [[Midwestern_United_States|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, the [[Stater Bros.]] [[supermarket]] chain, which is concentrated in the [[Inland Empire (California)|Inland Empire]] counties of southern and central [[California]], ran TV commercials for many years using the slogan "in the Heartland" to refer to inland counties such as [[San Bernardino County]], [[Kern County]] and [[Riverside County]] being culturally more similar to the central United States than to coastal California. In the state of [[Florida]] is a region called the [[Florida 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 the [[Hindi]]-speaking states of Northern India, namely [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Bihar]] and [[Madhya Pradesh]].
* In [[Canada]], the Heartland area stretches from [[Québec City|Québec]] on the St. Lawrence River to [[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]] at the south-western tip of Ontario. The [[Quebec City-Windsor Corridor]], as it is usually referred as, contains over half of the country's population and is where the bulk of early European colonists settled when emigrating to Canada.
* In [[Singapore]], "Heartlanders" (as opposed to "Cosmopolitans") was a term popularised in [[1999]] by then-[[Prime Minister of Singapore|Prime Minister]] [[Goh Chok Tong]], to characterise the majority of the Singapore population that is generally poorer, less educated, either [[working class]] or [[lower-middle class]], speaks a distinct variety of English ([[Singlish]]), lives in [[Housing and Development Board|HDB]] housing estates, and has a local (rather than global) perspective on political, economic and cultural issues.
* In [[Poland]] - the main part of country, meaning [[Mazovia]].
== Geopolitics ==
[[Image:mackinderheartland.png|right|200px]]
Heartland as a [[geopolitical]] term was originally created by [[Sir Halford Mackinder]] in his address, ''[[The Geographical Pivot of History]]'', to the [[Royal 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 the [[Arctic]] ice cap and drainage to the north, the monsoon lands along the [[Pacific Ocean]] and the [[Indian Ocean]], the [[Near East]] or land of the Five Seas, and [[Europe]]. This landmass is remote and inaccessible to its [[periphery]]. 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 geopolitical [[mentor]] [[Karl Haushofer]], who greatly influenced Hitler's concept of [[lebensraum]] which he advanced in ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', and formed the basis of the eventual establishment of Hitler's [[New Order (political system)|New Order]]--i.e., that it is necessary for [[Nazi Germany]] to control the heartland of Eurasia by successfully completing the conquest of [[Russia]].
The term is used by [[United States]] geopolitician [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] in his writings.
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:American political terms]]
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[[ru:Хартленд (геополитика)]]