ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates in detail the imperialism of geographical knowledge through an examination of the institutional context and content of Halford Mackinder's writings. It undertakes a deconstruction of how Halford Mackinder privileged the faculty of sight within the newly emergent discipline, and how he elaborated this into a concept of "visualization", which he described as the very essence of geographical power. Addressing the Manchester Geographical Society in 1890, Mackinder chose to speak on a matter of practical interest to the ruling class in the city: commercial geography. Mackinder's most explicit articulation of his understanding of geography's potential worth in renewing the British Empire is found in a 1907 lecture, "On Thinking Imperially". In it Mackinder suggests that perhaps the chief difficulty in the organization of the British Empire is "the difficulty of effectively picturing the idea of that the Empire".
