Abstract
Reviewed by: Colin M. MacLachlan, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA
Historians in general tend to look at treaties setting sovereign limits between nations as fixed and permanent. Changes resulting from defeat in war are possible of course. Statesmen on both sides think in terms of large slices of territory and fixed lines with occasional adjustment for rivers or mountains. In fact it is much more complex. Frontiers are to a degree flexible.
Tamar Herzog demonstrates how borders function by examining the process in South America and on the Iberian Peninsula. Borders reflect the same process whether in South America, Europe or Asia. Walls such as those of the late East Germany are monuments to an unrealistic desire for control.
The author has mined the documentation of the border inhabitants as they extended their reach in both directions across lines drawn by monarchs. Tamar Herzog consulted an incredible number of archival collections to find the information on the activities of those on the national frontiers. Such material is often buried in reports that deal with other matters: for example, in the reports of military commanders and others, noting the activities of Jesuits, traders and Indians, often in passing, which shed a light on the everyday actions that demonstrate possession of territory not necessarily recognized by governments. The author has unearthed important informational fragments from such reports. The process that functioned to divide South America between Spain and Portugal also is evident in Europe on the border between Spain and Portugal and elsewhere.
A series of Papal assignments beginning 1493 and the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 between Portugal and Spain established a division of South America between Spain and Portugal. A Solomon-like decision influenced by the Vatican concerned about intra-Christian rivalry drew a line 100 leagues west of Cabo Verde Islands, with Spain entitled to the territory west of the line and Portugal to the east. While monarchs and popes appear to be the important players in the process at the macro level, they ignored the stakeholders on the ground that in the end determine realty in ways both positive and negative. The view from up-high is just that.
Rain-forest Indians understood they constituted a prize of sorts. They manipulated both sides to encourage gift-giving in return for pro-forma promises to end intertribal warfare. Did they understand political concepts beyond a tribal chieftainship, and did the Europeans understand the function of low-level warfare in adjusting the population to the rain forest’s human carrying capacity? Missionaries believed that conversion by Portuguese or Spanish Jesuits made Indians into vassals of European monarchs. Score-keeping ensuring financial support is a feature of all missionaries then and now. Whether Indians understood what that meant may have been a different matter, although European assumptions that they did were politically sufficient.
Tamar Herzog is concerned with the functional level of soldiers, missionaries (mainly Spanish and Portuguese Jesuits) and rain-forest Indians who worked with or against each other to determine who utilized the resources and who became vassals of Portugal or of Spain. Drawing lines on a map ignored Roman law that defined possession by usage and occupation, such as the grazing of free range domestic animals, collecting wood, harvesting forest products, and hunting and fishing.
In the Iberian Peninsula the border between Spain and Portugal experienced a similar process, although, as she notes, both sides shared the same history and religious loyalties. Portugal emerged out of Castile and both nations shared a king during a 60-year period from 1580 to 1640. The European Union is a natural extension of the earlier pattern that allows cross-border labour movements.
Herzog raises important issues. The question of the legal studies’ usefulness in understanding borders is just one of those issues. Fixed rules or laws are of doubtful utility in a process that is decided from the bottom. The adage that laws are meant to be broken when pitted against reality holds. An example is the US–Mexico line that is penetrated from both sides, creating an intra-national space of some fifty miles or more on both sides, with social and economic implications. Cross-border complaints about intrusions are not sufficient to stop the process. Nevertheless recognition of distinct border cultures is appropriate. Attempts to seal borders are damaging economically, as well as resisted by both sides.
The author has indeed made an important contribution to our understanding of the reality and functioning of borders. This is a rewarding work but one that requires a close reading. Herzog’s dedication to research is admirable although daunting. If historians qualified for sainthood she would be my nomination.