What kind of boundaries do you see?
Function/Purpose
• Keeping People IN
• Keeping People OUT
• Mark limits of jurisdiction – symbol of
SOVEREIGNTY
• Promotes nationalism
The partition of India left both India and Pakistan devastated.
The process of partition had claimed many lives in the riots.
Why was India partitioned this way by the British?
Korea and Vietnam
Types of Boundaries
 Three types of boundaries
 Geometric
 Physical
 Cultural
 Best boundaries are those to
which all affected states agree,
regardless of the rationale used
to draw the line
 Geometric
 Straight-line boundaries that do
not related to the cultural or
physical features of the territories
involved
 Ex. North/South Korea 38th
parallel
 Physical (or natural)
 Separate territories according to
natural features in the landscape,
such as mountains, deserts, or
rivers
 Ex. France and Spain are divided
by the Pyrenees
What types of
boundaries do
you see?
Types of Boundaries
• Cultural Boundaries
– Mark changes in the
cultural landscape, such as
boundaries that divide
territories according to
religion or language
– Sometimes drawn according
to geometric straight lines
– Religious
• Only a few cases where
religion has been used to
select the actual boundary
line
• Example:
– South Asia, partition of
India and Pakistan
– Ireland and North Ireland
– Language
• Europe best example
• Idea spread during 20th
century
– Versailles Conference
Cyprus “Green Line” Boundary
• Contains two nationalities
– Turkish= north, eastern
• 18% of population
– Greek= south
• 78% of population
• Cyprus gained independence in
1960
– Constitution guaranteed Turkish
minority rights
– Cyprus never peacefully integrated
the Greek and Turkish nationalities
• Series of Coups led to Turkish
section declaring itself
independent in 1983
– no one except Turkey recognizes
independence
• Wall constructed between two
areas
– Buffer zone patrolled by UN
– Accepted to EU in 2004
Boundary Evolution
• Evolution
– Another way to classify boundaries
depends not on how they were
created, but how they evolved over
time
• Antecedent boundaries
– Existed before humans
cultures developed into
current forms
• Subsequent boundaries
– Grow to divide space as
result of human interaction
• Superimposed boundaries
– Forcibly put on the
landscape
• Relict boundary
– No longer functions as a
boundary
• Boundary Creation
– Several steps on the growth of
boundaries into final form
• Definition
– Phase in which the exact location of
a boundary is legally described and
negotiated
» De Jure
» De Facto
• Delimitation
– Is the step when the boundary’s
definition is drawn onto a map
• Demarcation
– Is the visible marking of a boundary
on the landscape with a fence, line,
sign, wall, or other means
• Administration
– Is the enforcement by a
government or people of the
boundary that has been created
Boundary disputes •
Type of Disputes – at end
– Territorial Disputes
•
Conflicts over boundaries are divided into
different categories
– Can include mix of categories
• Conflict because one state wants to
annex a territory whose pop. is
ethnically related to them
– Definitional disputes
• Fight over the language of border
agreement in a treaty or contract
– Japan and Russia
– Locational /Positional disputes
• Occur when conflicting parties agree
on the definition but not on where
the boundary exists on a map
– Operational /Functional disputes
• Conflicts over the way a boundary
should operate or function
– Allocational /Resource boundary
disputes
• Fights over resources that may
be divided by the boundary
Frontiers
• Frontier:
 Region where no state exercises
complete and political control or
boundaries are weakly developed
 Antarctica
 Saudi Arabia and Yemen
• A frontier area is uninhabited
or sparsely settled by a few
isolated pioneers
• 19th Century (1800s)
– Vast amounts of frontiers
– Tangible geographic area whereas
a boundary is a infinitely thin,
invisible, imaginary line
– Frontier provides an area of
separation but a boundary brings
two neighbors into direct contact
•
•
•
•
Australia
American West
Canadian North
Sub-Saharan Africa
Vice episodes #2
• April 12, 2013 – North Korea/Kashmir