Once within borders : territories of power, wealth, and belonging since 1500 / Charles S. Maier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maier, Charles S., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political geography--History.

Political geography.

Territory, National--History.

Territory, National.

Boundaries--History.

Boundaries.

Boundary disputes--History.

Boundary disputes.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 387 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Throughout history, human societies have been organized preeminently as territories-- politically bounded regions whose borders define the jurisdiction of laws and the movement of peoples. At a time when the technologies of globalization are eroding barriers to communication, transportation, and trade, Once Within Borders explores the fitful evolution of territorial organization as a worldwide practice of human societies. Master historian Charles S. Maier tracks the epochal changes that have defined territories over five centuries and draws attention to ideas and technologies that contribute to territoriality's remarkable resilience. Territorial boundaries transform geography into history by providing a framework for organizing political and economic life. But properties of territory--their meanings and applications--have changed considerably across space and time. In the West, modern territoriality developed in tandem with ideas of sovereignty in the seventeenth century. Sovereign rulers took steps to fortify their borders, map and privatize the land, and centralize their sway over the populations and resources within their domain. The arrival of railroads and the telegraph enabled territorial expansion at home and abroad as well as the extension of control over large spaces. By the late nineteenth century, the extent of a nation's territory had become an index of its power, with overseas colonial possessions augmenting prestige and wealth and redefining territoriality. Turning to the geopolitical crises of the twentieth century, Maier pays close attention to our present moment, asking in what ways modern nations and economies still live within borders and to what degree our societies have moved toward a post-territorial world.-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Introduction: A history of political space

1. Spaces of empire, 1500-1650

Spatial imaginaries

Epochs of empire

Empires at sea

Crises of imperial governance

2. Spaces of states, 1550-1700

Descartes and Vauban at war

The transformation of the fortress

Territory and sovereignty

The spaces of early modernity

3. Contesting the countryside

Vauban looks inward

A century of cold and conflict

The Cadastral struggle

Physiocracy goes global

4. Projects for an agrarian regime, 1770-1890

Emancipating the serf, settling the peasant

Reappropriating the land

Myths of the collective

Farewell to free land

5. "An invisible force": railroads, continents, colonies

Railroad nationalism

Continentalism

Last call for territories

Postscript: territorial geometry after 1890

6. From fate to function: the twentieth century and after

The geopolitical ambition

Spaces of ideology: World Wars and Cold War

New geographers, new geographies

Conclusion: still within borders?

Borders besieged

Territory transformed

Territory for whom?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674059788

0674059786

OCLC:

946770189