The Teaching of Geography from an Imperial Point of View, and the Use Which Could and Should be Made of Visual Instruction.1

Abstract

The Colonial Office also engaged in an imperial education project. At the time of the accession to the throne of Edward VII, it established the Visual Instruction Committee at the suggestion of Michael Sadler, Director of Special Enquiries at the Board of Education. Lectures and lantern slides were to be provided for use in schools. One of the individuals who was co-opted in this project was Sir Halford Mackinder, who was, at the time of writing, director of the London School of Economics (1903–1908) and MP for Glasgow Camlachie. He was a founder of geopolitics and a pro-imperialist who became a staunch anti-communist during the First World War. As a member of the Visual instruction Committee of the Colonial Office, he wrote the paper included here. It is noted by imperial historians that the Committee for Visual Instruction was one of the only government-sponsored Empire propaganda initiatives, and it was not a huge success, as it garnered no financial support and its methods soon became outdated. Mackinder was also chairman of the Imperial Shipping Committee and Imperial Economic Committee. Another of his articles was published in the National and English Review in 1905, titled ‘Man-Power as a Measure of National and Imperial Strength’.