TERRITORY AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

This research project examines how people become sufficiently attached to territory where they do not live to become willing to sacrifice blood and treasure for its acquisition or defense. Arguing that "nationalism" based explanations are woefully inadequate (if not, as often, simply tautologous), I propose that specification of a territory to be defended (a "patria" or more modernly, "homeland") provides the essential definition of group membership and allows individuals to coordinate for a collective defense. I examine the history of French state formation and foreign policy beginning with Philip IV (the Fair) 1285 -- 1314. I show that after the treaties of Nijmegen (1678), Ryswyck (1697)and Utrecht (1713) European countries coordinate on a set of principles -- specifically natural frontiers, first rivers, later including mountains -- to define their boundaries, and willingly swapped unequal territories to conform to natural frontiers. I show that in the 20th century new international boundaries resulting from secessions or partitions were drawn not to fit principles of "nationalism" but followed principles of prior historical formation, which in turn often rely on natural frontiers.