During the 7000s b.c.e. nomadic peoples gradually settled in Mesopotamia and domesticated crops such as wheat and barley. Th eir territory was defi ned by two great, meandering rivers that fl owed across the Near East and into the Persian Gulf, the Tigris and the Euphrates. At fi rst the settlements were small, and there was little concept of borders. As set- tlements grew during a population boom enabled by secure farming techniques, some became city-states.
Th e settlements dug irrigation ditches to draw water from the rivers into farmlands; rain was rare, however, and without rain to leech out salts left from the irrigation water, lands became ever less fertile, requiring that more and more land be farmed to feed the growing population. Th is meant that during the Uruk Period of roughly 4300–3100 b.c.e., farmlands of diff erent Sumerian cities began bumping into each other. By then the notion of land ownership was well es- tablished, with property owners identifying their boundaries with large stones. However, ownership of territory by a city’s people was hard to establish, because there were no defensible frontiers. Further complicating the situation were nomadic tribes that would loot the food and wealth of a city or would move into a region of land and settle, creating pressure on nearby cities by competing for natural resources.
During the Early Dynastic Period of the Sumerian culture (2900–2334 b.c.e.) competition for land frequently resulted in warfare. City administrations had been run by a chief admin- istrator, who could be overruled on city policy by a council of civic leaders that in turn could be overruled by a vote of the people. Success in war required strong leaders, and chief ad- ministrators who were notably successful gradually became kings, though their power was still tempered by the will of the voters. Cities came to defi ne their territory as having at their core an urban land area; during the 2000s b.c.e., walls were built around these central urban areas. Around the walled city would be homes and intensively cultivated land, the outer limits of which constantly expanded. Th en there was a sphere of infl uence that included villages protected by the central city and a frontier that was disputed by other cities.
In 2334 b.c.e. Sargon I became king of the city-state Kish, and he may have been the ruler who began the doctrine of constant territorial expansion in order to protect territory already held. Without defensible frontiers, any territory was open to invasion. To many rulers in the ancient Near East the best way to secure territory was to push the frontier out as far as possible; this created a perpetual state of conquest, because protection of newly won lands meant conquering the neigh- bors of those lands. To help hold together his ever-expanding kingdom, Sargon I created a cult of personality, in which he became synonymous with the city-state and claimed to be the
lover of the goddess Ishtar. Th e kingdom he created was called Akkad, aft er the name for Agade, its now-lost capital city. Th e territory of the empire was defi ned primarily by trade routes, along which the Akkadian government would build for- tresses to protect travelers, and it was primarily along trade routes that Akkad directed its aggression. Sargon I and his successors extended the Akkadian Empire into Anatolia and Iran, but eventually it became too big to protect, and nomads invaded along its breadth, causing the empire to collapse in 2193 b.c.e. Still, Sargon left as a legacy the concept of a nation composed of many cities.
Another big step in thinking about borders and frontiers came with the Hittite Empire of about 1650–1205 b.c.e. Th e Hittites settled in Anatolia in about 2000 b.c.e. and estab- lished Hatti, a nation that, like others in the Near East, had a nebulous territory determined more by cultural infl uence than by well-defi ned borders. In 1344 b.c.e. King Suppilu- liuma I established discipline in its government and ordered the government’s policies. In 1335 b.c.e. Egypt’s pharaoh Akhenaten died, and Egypt’s politics became muddled, giv- ing Suppiluliuma the opportunity to seize lands held by Egypt in the Levant.
In 1285 b.c.e. Egypt’s Ramses II tried to recover the lost Egyptian territory, and he and the Hittite ruler Muwattali II met in battle at Kadesh in Syria; both sides claimed victory, but Ramses II nearly lost his life, and the Hittites actually extended their territory southward. Aft er that, Egypt slowly regained territory until the two sides ended their confl ict in 1258 b.c.e. with a peace treaty that was recorded and copies of which still exist. In it, the nations carefully defi ned a border that demarcated the frontiers of each country. Although some portions of national borders were still vague as late as the Per- sian Empire of 559–330 b.c.e., the trend was toward defi ned borders and treaties that recognized where they were.
With the completion of the invasion of the Greeks under Alexander the Great in 326 b.c.e., some portions of national borders were still vague, and the creation of clearly defi ned borders in the Near East became a must. At Alexander’s death the Near East fragmented into small states ruled by Alexander’s generals. One of these generals, Seleucus I, suc- ceeded in uniting most of the Asiatic territories Alexander had conquered into the Seleucid Kingdom (ca. 312–ca. 174 b.c.e.). One of his achievements was to create clearly defi ned borders among the states and between the Seleucid King- dom and its neighbors. In about 174 b.c.e. Mithridates I of the Parthian Empire, originating in Iran, conquered most of the Seleucid Kingdom.
Th e Parthian Empire endured attacks on both its west- ern and eastern frontiers, and the fi ghting in the east was so persistent that a clear border was diffi cult to maintain. In the west former Greek states had clearly defi ned borders left from the Seleucid Kingdom. In 100 b.c.e., western Parthia shared borders with Armenia, Edessa, and the remnant of the Se- leucid Kingdom in Syria as well as smaller states, each with a well-established territory and clearly defi ned borders. Rome
Babylonian boundary marker from about 978-943 b.c.e., Sippar, southern Iraq (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)
borders and frontiers: The Middle East 143
was able to pick off these states one at a time and absorb them into the empire, beginning in 101 b.c.e. with the takeover of small Cilicia in Anatolia.
Th e structure of well-defi ned borders served Rome well. Borders enabled Rome to seize individual provinces within the Parthian Empire on the pretense that it was extending it- self only to the next border to the east and no farther. Parthia played this game as well, and states in northern Mesopotamia and Syria shift ed back and forth between the two countries until 273 c.e., by which time Rome had reorganized its eastern holdings into new provinces that included a chunk of the Par- thian Empire north of the Euphrates River. In about 300 c.e. Constantine created the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire (ca. 300–1453 c.e.), and established its Near Eastern border with a new province called Oriens. When the western empire ended in 476 c.e., the border established by Constantine I for the eastern empire remained intact.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY MICHAEL ALLEN HOLMESNations and states as defi ned in modern terms, with explicit boundaries oft en demarcated by lines of latitude and longi- tude, did not exist in Asia and the Pacifi c region in ancient times. Also nonexistent was the means for making maps that could have recorded boundaries. While cartography using parallel lines running north to south and east to west was developed as early as the third century, standardized, widely distributed maps would not have been available to the masses in ancient times. In turn, borders were not necessarily viewed as fi xed, and from India through Southeast Asia to China the extents of city-states and kingdoms were ever in fl ux.
Th e most immediate ancient borders, then, were fortifi ca- tions surrounding towns and cities, which in northern China appeared as early as Neolithic times, over 4,000 years before the Common Era, when simple ramparts were constructed with compacted earth. Over the centuries, these walls grew higher and more expansive, indicating communities’ needs to defend themselves from invaders. Within the larger states that developed, as oft en coinciding with geographic regions, a fi ef ruled locally was known as a feng, literally referring to its earthen boundaries. Meanwhile, stone walls were also being constructed, particularly to the north, to prevent incursions from the nomadic horsemen-warriors who were the forefa- thers of the Mongols and other peoples.
Modern eastern-central China, excluding Tibet, the northwest, and southern expanses, was unifi ed in 221 b.c.e. with the rise to power of the Qin Dynasty. Accordingly, the Qin emperor Prince Zheng, who became known as Shi Huangdi, or “First Emperor,” is said to have overseen con- struction that connected many of the northern walls to pro- duce the Great Wall. Some historians doubt, however, that the Qin walls were seamlessly interconnected and that it makes sense to speak of a single “Great Wall” in Qin times. Th ese walls were supplemented and rebuilt sporadically over the centuries and, including all of its various branches, came to span some 4,500 miles by the Ming Dynasty, beginning in the 14th century c.e. Its utility ultimately proved marginal, as successful invasions were eventually conducted by the north- ern warriors.
Aside from the historically spectacular Great Wall, bor- ders in the ancient world were largely defi ned by geographi- cal formations that more naturally provided defense and limited the transportation of both peoples and their belong- ings. In the region of China the Gobi Desert, consisting of formidable swaths of both sand and rock, impeded travel to the north, especially on foot, beyond the Great Wall. Simi- larly, the Tarim Basin, consisting largely of the Taklamakan Desert, and surrounding marshlands, restricted travel to the northwest, while to the west, the Tibetan Plateau naturally isolated its own inhabitants. Th rough the Qin Dynasty and into the Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 b.c.e. to 220 c.e., armies undertook incursions into the southern forest-
land and jungle beyond, much of which was subject to vio- lent monsoons, nominally extending the Chinese border to the daunting waters of the South China Sea. Since the land and its peoples were diffi cult to conquer, the Chinese state incorporated the region only in that the emperor declared this intention; many borders would have been defi ned thus in ancient times.
Th e only other ancient Asian kingdom rivaling China in size was India, with the two great regions separated by Ti- bet and the extremely high and vast Himalayas. Th e Hima- layas extend some 200 miles from north to south and, like the Great Wall at its inception, 1,500 miles from west to east. Meanwhile, the Kirthar and Sulaiman ranges to the north- west, which merge into the Hindu Kush to the north, eff ec- tively sealed India off from mass incursions from the Middle East and Central Asia. To the south, the Western and Eastern Ghats prevented unhindered maritime access by way of either the Arabian Sea or the Bay of Bengal.
Whatever borders existed within the Indian subcon- tinent in ancient times are little known, inasmuch as few historical records survive from antiquity. Th roughout In- dia, apart from the mountainous margins, the countryside is mostly fl at, and the majority of rivers are narrow enough to make crossings manageable. Th us, prehistoric kingdoms were established and reestablished constantly, with no spe- cifi c landmarks serving as permanent borders. Th e dis- parate kingdoms centered on the Indus and Ganges river valleys were united for the fi rst time in 324 b.c.e. by Chan- dragupta Maurya, who was perhaps inspired by the failed attempt at conquest of the region by Alexander the Great in 326 b.c.e. When the Maurya Dynasty ended in 185 b.c.e., borders within India returned to a state of fl ux for some 500 years. While Greco-Bactrian, Persian, Scythian, and various barbarian invaders breached India’s natural borders throughout this period, they were typically absorbed into Indian culture and life, essentially leaving the region’s outer borders intact. Northern India was again unifi ed with the advent of the Gupta Empire in 320 c.e.
Other regional kingdoms in ancient times were smaller in scale and even more geographically isolated; consequently both the defi nition and defense of their borders were gener- ally of little concern. One entity found in the third century c.e. in Southeast Asia, covering modern Cambodia and southern Vietnam, left no historical records of its own but was referred to as Funan by the Chinese; it may have been either a state or simply a collective of ports, as the thickly forested terrain would have made regional unifi cation im- practical. Southeast Asia was populated by several bronze- using civilizations, including the Khmer and Cham; other complex cultures have been discovered archaeologically and are not known to us by name. Similarly, while people are known to have used advanced sailing techniques to reach and occupy islands throughout the Pacifi c for millennia, the isolation of individual islands meant that signifi cant states did not come into existence until much later in history. On
the islands of modern Japan as well, while people long in- habited the more arable valleys, the abundant mountains served to inhibit interaction and cooperation among tribes. By the third century c.e. small states had come into exis- tence, but even the largest occupied only a loosely defi ned portion of the southernmost Japanese island, Kyushu. Th e fi rst signifi cant Japanese court did not appear until the sixth century c.e.
EUROPE
BY KIRK H. BEETZMost of the territory of ancient Europe consisted of unsettled wild lands. Th e practice of agriculture probably came to Eu- rope from the Near East, passing through Anatolia in mod- ern Turkey, the Balkans, and then north and west throughout Europe, ending in southern Sweden, with all the people far- ther to the north remaining hunter-gatherers. By 4000 b.c.e. almost all of Europe had adopted agricultural ways. It was a period in which diff erent cultures could mix with only rare confl icts. Th us people could move among settlements in Eu- rope with little hindrance. Th is would continue to be the case until about 2500 b.c.e., but by then what is now called the megalithic culture had begun to change how Europeans re- garded territory.
Th e culture that built the megaliths was probably the fi rst to establish anything recognizable as a single group’s terri- tory. Th e word megalith means “large stone,” and the mega- lithic people built huge stone monuments such as Stonehenge in England. In about 3000 b.c.e. Europeans north and west of the Alps and all the way south through Portugal began build- ing burial chambers constructed of stones that were oft en 13 feet in height. Th ese impressive burial chambers could have been built by large families or clans as ways to let other people know that they claimed the nearby territory and were show- ing their claim by burying their dead in a tomb that could be seen for miles.
By about 2000 b.c.e. burial chambers for only one person were being built, indicating that a tomb was honoring a leader, perhaps a chief or a priest. Other megalithic structures such as Stonehenge were being erected not only to mark burials but also for worship. Th ese building projects involved trans- porting stones weighing several tons for many miles, prob- ably by boat along the Atlantic coast of the Continent and the west coast of Britain and both coasts of Ireland. Planning and building such huge projects required the cooperation of hundreds of people over long periods and probably involved the cooperation of several villages, all part of a chiefdom that ruled over hundreds of square miles of land. Such interaction suggests recognition that one group of people could own ter- ritories consisting of many villages.
In southern and eastern Spain ca. 2340 b.c.e. people began building fortresses. Tin was mined in southern and eastern Spain, and tin was one of the two metals required for making bronze, the other being copper. Of the two met-
als, tin was the harder to fi nd, and merchants from the Near East would sail all the way to Spain to trade for it. To protect their tin mines and themselves, the peoples of the region built walls and towers of stone. Th ese structures meant that they were claiming territories for themselves.
In the 600s b.c.e. Carthage, a city on the coast of North Africa southwest of the island of Sicily, began conquer- ing the southern coast of modern Spain. By 264 b.c.e. the Carthaginians controlled almost all of Spain’s trade in tin. From 237 to 218 b.c.e. they conquered the land north, be- yond the Guadalquiver River in southern Spain and along Spain’s east coast to the Ebro River, displacing Celtic tribes. On the east coast in 218 b.c.e. they conquered the town of Saguntum, an ally of Rome, and this conquest started the Second Punic War (218–201 b.c.e.) between Carthage and Rome. When Rome invaded Spain, the Romans found two kinds of Celtic peoples: one still in the process of shift ing from nomadic lives to living in towns and cities and the oth- er living settled urban lives in Carthaginian territory. At the end of the war, Rome made its newly won Spanish territory into the province Hispania, using the Pyrenees mountain range as its northern border.
North of that border was Gaul, which was populated by Celts. Celt is the name given to the majority of Europeans by the Greeks; the Romans called them Gauls. Anyone speak- ing one of the Celtic languages is called a Celt (pronounced “Kelt”). Th e Celts originated in either central Asia or central Europe. Th ey were a violent people ruled by warriors. Indi- vidual Celtic tribes oft en held ill-defi ned territories in which farmers worked to serve the warriors. Other tribes packed everything they owned onto large carts pulled by horses and traveled across the land. Th ey routinely waged war against each other and raided territories for loot and slaves. In 390 b.c.e. Celts raided Italy and sacked the city of Rome. When Julius Caesar (100–44 b.c.e.) set out to conquer Gaul in 58 b.c.e., Rome already controlled portions of the region in modern-day southern France and northern Italy, with bor- ders through the Alps and along the headwaters of several southern rivers.
In central France, Caesar found many Celts living in towns