ABSTRACT
The spaces of Empire were also gendered because they were shaped by physical force. Few men and fewer women climbed mountains in the cause of Empire, but these somewhat exceptional events amplify relations between masculinity, race, knowledge, and imperial politics that are pervasive but perhaps less evident in more mundane spheres. Claiming the mountain for British science and for the Empire would enhance the manly reputation at a time when his scientific practice and even his private life seemed to call this into question. Mackinder's and Kingsley's climbs thus illuminate broader issues of masculinity, racism, violence, and science that are at the conjunction of Geopolitics and Empire. The masculinity and imperialism of the subject were produced at the same time. The German climber, Hans Meyer, who had already become the first European on the summit of the tallest mountain in East Africa, Kilimanjaro, announced in 1898 that he would next try for the second highest, Kenya.
