A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS ON BORDER AND ITS EVOLUTION
SINIR OLGUSU VE EVRİMİ ÜZERİNE TARİHSEL BİR ANALİZ

Author : Serdar ÇAGIRGA
Number of pages : 528-545

Abstract

The phenomenon of border has witnessed three revolutionary stages on its historical evolution from the first city-states to the modern nation-state. Primitive societies which had been the dominant social form till 4000 B.C. (and continues to constitute a way of life) started to live within the frontiers of empires once they replaced city-states. Empires’ frontiers couldn’t be fixed and maintained a transitional characteristic because of the fact that the logic of imperium relies mainly on conquests and expansions. And also frontiers are flexible, indefinite and reinforced mostly with natural barriers such as mountains, deserts and lakes. As a result of expansionist policy empires manifested a multireligious, multilingual and multiethnic structure where center and periphery components cooperated and shared power. On the other hand, modern phenomena of nation-state, border and boundary has come together in a new social formation where nation is equalized to what is political. This shows us that absolute and definitive lines of nation-state are not eternal and indeed they are historically constructed.

Keywords

Border, boundary, frontier, political power, primitive society, empire, nation-state

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