Page 62 - Encyclopedia Of World History

412 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

If a chieftain or a man leave his house, garden, and field and hires it
out, and some one else takes possession of his house, garden, and
field and uses it for three years; if the first owner returns and

(manorial), and local jurisdictions did not necessarily der towns. Often border guards and customs agents car-
coincide with state borders.The creation of the border as ried out fiscal and political surveillance of travelers, but
an institution was often tied to local interests and griev- they possessed neither the ability nor inclination to
ances, which local people used to seek responses and inspect every border crosser or to document every entry
resources from the national capitals.Although notions of or exit (exceptions existed, such as Russia, which zeal-
“territorial violations” already had emerged during the ously monitored movement across its borders). During
late eighteenth century, the border was only vaguely the last decades of the nineteenth century some European
demarcated and rarely patrolled. France first attempted to countries moved toward controlled entry policies: docu-
seal off its border in 1822 to prevent an epidemic, and menting the entry and exit of each traveler, whether citi-
only by 1868 was a well-marked linear boundary estab- zen or foreign national. State efforts to regulate move-
lished. Sahlins has tried to dispel the notion that borders ment were largely confined, however, to ports, trains, and
were imposed from above on unwilling populations. main roads. During the last decades of the nineteenth
Not enough detailed studies are available for us to century some countries passed laws distinguishing for-
determine whether the Spanish-French example was typ- eigners from native citizens in order to protect local
ical even for Europe. Nonetheless, the rough contours of labor markets from foreign competition.
the emergence of international borders are evident. Dur- During the early twentieth century borders became
ing the early modern period (sixteenth to eighteenth cen- pervasive on a global scale.Virtually the whole globe was
tury) maps became essential to the delineation of political parceled into sovereign jurisdictions, whether inhabited
boundaries, and rulers began to define the limits of their or not. Each state became territorially defined, and each
territories with more and more precision. Correspond- government was authorized under international law to
ingly, borders began to be delineated with increasing pre- determine whom to admit. Passports became required
cision. Usually established by bilateral treaties, borders for movement across international borders. Twentieth-
were demarcated in the landscape (most often by marks century borders were strongly shaped by the activities of
on rocks, trees, or special boundary markers) by com- the European colonial powers. For example, in their race
missioners representing each state in the presence of local to claim huge chunks of Africa after the Congress of
witnesses. The general tendency of the eighteenth and Berlin during the period 1884–1885, the European colo-
early nineteenth centuries was to try to create rational and nial powers ignored existing cultural divisions, drew
orderly boundaries (straight lines appeared for the first straight lines across formidable features of the landscape,
time on maps) that coincided with existing jurisdictions and even laid claim to territories that had never been seen
or natural landmarks such as rivers. Early efforts at migra- by Europeans. Antarctica is now the only continent that
tion control, which were not always necessarily enforced does not have functioning international borders. By inter-
at the borders, aimed to limit the entry or exit of certain national agreement, most states agreed to renounce
groups categorized as undesirable: beggars, carriers of claims of territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
communicable diseases, and politically suspect individu- During the 1930s states enacted the first attempts to
als such as spies, traitors, and revolutionaries. achieve total control over their borders. Extreme bound-
During the second half of the nineteenth century bor- ary maintenance policies (most notably in Nazi Germany,
der infrastructures in Europe became more elaborate. the U.S.S.R., other socialist states, and areas along polit-
Passports, which originated as diplomatic safe conducts, ically sensitive tracts in other parts of the world) were
were not originally indicative of citizenship and were not often instituted for ideological reasons. State efforts to
universally required for international travel until World limit unauthorized movement across boundaries were
War I.As states increased their grasp over their territories, facilitated by two advances in technologies for impeding
more officials were posted along border roads and in bor- movement: barbed wire (developed on the U.S. plains to