Page 61 - Encyclopedia Of World History

comparative borders and frontiers 411

Article IV. Fugitives [lit., runaways] from either side frontier [as if] for private [and legitimate] business and
who may have settled in the other’s country previous [while in the foreign territory] commit crimes of vio-
to the date of this Treaty may remain. No claims for lence to property and life, they are at once to be
their rendition will be made on either side. But those arrested and sent to the frontier of their own country
who may take refuge in either country after the date and handed over to the chief local authority [military],
of this Treaty of Amity are to be sent without delay to who will inflict on them the death penalty as a pun-
the frontier and at once handed over the to chief local ishment of their crimes. Crimes and excesses com-
officials. mitted by private people on the frontier must not be
made the cause of war and bloodshed by either side.
Article V. It is to be understood by both Govern-
When cases of this kind arise, they are to be reported
ments that from the time when this Treaty of Amity is
by [the officers of] the side on which they occur to the
made, the subjects of either nation, being provided
Sovereigns of both Powers, for settlement by diplo-
with proper passports, may come and go [across the
matic negotiation in an amicable manner.
frontier] on their private business and may carry on
If the Emperor of China desires to engrave [on
commerce [lit., buy and sell].
stone] the Articles of the above Treaty agreed upon by
Article VI. All the differences [lit., quarrels] which the Envoys for the determination of the frontier, and
may have occurred between the subjects [of each to place the same [at certain positions] on the frontier
nation] on the frontier up to the date of this Treaty as a record, he is at liberty to do so. Whether this is
will be forgotten and [claims arising out of them will] to be done or not is left entirely to the discretion of
not be entertained. But if hereafter any of the subjects His Majesty the Emperor of China.
[lit., traders or craftsmen] of either nationality pass the Source: Treaties, Conventions, etc. between China and Foreign States. (1908) III. Miscel-
laneous Series, no. 30. Shanghai, China: Imperial Maritime Customs,Vol. I: 3–7.

linear boundaries were not practical in the desert 1648.The text of the treaty did not specifically deal with
nomadic culture that influenced early Islam. The the question of borders, but it did establish a principle of
fourteenth-century Arab historian ibn Khaldun, for exam- territorial inviolability.The treaty recognized its signato-
ple, portrays Islamic states as surrounded by border ries as equal, regardless of size, religious confession, or
zones rather than lines. Early Ottoman expansion previous imperial affiliation. It also confirmed each ruler’s
seemed to confirm the notion that Islamic states should sovereignty over his or her subjects. By diminishing the
only expand their borders and dictate terms of surrender power of Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire,
to their opponents, but eventually expansion stalled and it set the stage for an international system of states that
pragmatism set in. After the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) regulate their affairs through common and mutually
Ottoman diplomats recognized mutually delineated polit- acknowledged patterns of diplomacy and international
ical borders between Islamic and non-Islamic states, cre- cooperation.This system, with mutually recognized bor-
ating a precedent for participation of Muslim countries in ders and state sovereignty within them, was gradually
the modern international system. expanded and applied to various parts of the world.
As historian Peter Sahlins demonstrated, the territori-
The Modern International alization of the state in Europe was a long and tortuous
System of Boundaries process. Sahlins examined the history of the border
Although various aspects of modern borders have ancient between Spain and France in one area of the Pyrenees
antecedents, the modern international system of territo- Mountains between 1659 and 1868. Even after the two
rially conceived sovereign states is usually traced to the states agreed in principle on partitioning the Cerdanya
Peace of Westphalia, which was concluded in October Valley between them, ecclesiastical, fiscal, seignorial