By Canon Mike D Williams
A fascinating book that highlights borders you did not know about and those you sometimes wonder about. Lines have been drawn ever since maps became available. Some make geographical sense whilst others appear arbitrary. Often behind the lines are stories of history, politics or war.
Jonn Elledge, a journalist, has put together a collection of short stories about 47 borders with a bonus chapter. Some are big picture divisions of the spheres of influence, most are country borders, with the occasional micro-state. European expansion and imperialism accounts for some of the straight lines we see in Africa and the Middle East. Today’s maps divide the landmasses of planet Earth into roughly 193 discrete bits. Most of these country borders are less than two centuries old. The changes are often the result of empires crumbling.
Each chapter is short – 6-8 pages. Helpfully, for the more complicated borders there are maps to illustrate the story. These range from explaining why Europe is not a peninsula in Asia, the legacies of the Charlemagne empire that dominated western Europe, and the borders of Great Britain. State boundary disputes in the USA feature, the British and French carve up of the Middle East with the Sykes – Picot ‘line in the sand’, the border in Ireland, and the partition of India, plus many others.
Part two examines the legacies of foreign policy disputes, some of which remain flash points today. Eastern Europe, Russia, the Korean division between north and south, China’s claim to the South China Sea, Israel and Palestine, plus the US-Canada border and the trouble with straight lines on a map. Then there are the surprises – enclaves of one country in another, why microstates exist, plus interesting stories about where cities draw their boundaries with the US Capitol, Washington DC, as a square shape between two states.
In the final part, Elledge considers the borders found at sea and in the air along with where and how the date line and time zones were established. Richard Branson’s flight into space in July 2021 is disputed by his rival, Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon. Bezos argues that Branson did not reach the boundary of space at 86km above the Earth. Bozos’ spaceship is designed to fly above the Karman line at 100km, which is where space begins, some say. Even in space, disputes over where borders are drawn occur.
There is humour from the author in the way he writes and his lively style. There are footnotes but they are very far from conventional; often witty, adding interesting facts. The bonus chapter is about Poland and how it has survived as a country even though at times it has not existed when neighbours have taken over. The message is that, at times, to be a country is more about the people than the lines on a map.