Image: Jan S. Krogh
National borders are often a touchy subject involving a combustible mix
of politics, patriotism and geography. Some borders are complex because
of they’re based on natural rivers that change course over the period
of many years, and some are complex because they’re political creations
to solve territorial disputes.
Take, for example, enclaves and exclaves. These are territories that
are entirely surrounded by another. You all already know the most famous
example: the Vatican City is an enclave in the city of Rome, Italy.
Then, let’s take it to the next level: enclaves within enclaves. To say
that they’re complicated is an understatement. Let’s take a quick look
at two of the world’s most complicated borders:
Baarle-Nassau
In John’s post The
Office Building That is Half in Germany, Half in the Netherlands,
Neatoramanaut Texticulos
pointed us to this complicated border.
Image: Tos/Wikipedia
The Baarle-Nassau
/ Baarle-Hertog
border is complicated because of medieval treaties, land-swaps, and land
sales between the Lords of Breda and the Dukes of Brabant. Today, we have
a counter-enclave (an enclave within an enclave): parts of the Netherlands
that exist inside Belgium, which is inside the Netherlands.
Photo: Jerome/Wikipedia
Cooch Behar
If you think the Baarle-Nassau border is complicated, that ain’t nothing
compared to the Cooch Behar border between Bangladesh and India.
There are 102 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh, and 71 Bangladesh enclaves
inside of India. There are 28 counter-enclaves and even one counter-counter-enclave
(yes, the only "enclave within an enclave within an enclave"
in the world).
How did Cooch Behar became so complicated? The blame went to two local
kings, the Raja of Cooch Behar and his rival, the Faujdar of Rangpur,
who used land and villages as stakes in card and chess games.
The Economist has a fascinating article on "the
land that maps forgot":
The people who actually live in enclaves (and counter-enclaves) in
a certain sense “don’t see” the borders. They speak the
same language, eat the same food and live life without regard to the
politicians in Dhaka, Kolkata and Delhi. Many of them cross the border
regularly (the bribe is US$6 a trip from the Bangladeshi side).A few years ago, away from Cooch Behar, on the eastern border with
India, I met a man who lived smack on the border between Tripura state
and Bangladesh. His living room was in Bangladesh, his toilet in India.
He had been a local politician in India, and was now working as a farmer
in Bangladesh. As is typical in such places, he sent his daughters to
school in Bangladesh, and his sons to India, where schools, he thought,
were much better. To his mind, the fence dividing the two countries
was of little value. But, he conceded, “at least my cows don’t
run away anymore.”
