[audiobook]
A History of the World in 47 Borders by Jonn Elledge
Boundaries make up a huge part of human history, we are forever arguing over, and sometimes agreeing upon, them. This book takes a closer look at a number of these borders and the history of how they got to be how they are, telling stories along the way.
Some of the borders are chosen because they are important, some because they are interesting, and some just bizarre. He also touches on the more abstract borders of air and space.
There is some information about the political powers that shaped many of the borders, with a lot of European borders coming down to the families ruling the lands and how they got split up in the succession from one generation to the next. While those between Indian and Pakistan are shaped by a desire to separate Muslim and Hindu peoples, even when they had been living reasonably peacefully beforehand.
Where you see straight lines on maps, they often correspond to colonial powers drawing on vague maps of large regions they have no actual claim upon or even real presence in. Some people in corridors of Europe have agree that this side is mine, that side is yours, without any boots on the ground. Sometimes, like with the Mason Dixon line, those lines are surveyed after their drawing, and eventually pick up other meanings – what started as a boundary between states became a symbol of the fight for the freedom of slaves.
The chapters on the division of the middle east would bear another listen, it is an area fraught with conflict, a fire onto which we British poured a substantial amount of accelerant with our misguided attempts to devise a peaceful solution from afar. I still do not understand the political landscape of that part of the world, but I do wish everyone would stop kill each other and be nice.
All in all a fascinating book that explores boundary conditions, what we find there and how it resolves into what we see today. If you like maps this is surely a book for you.