Natural frontiers is a diplomatic policy that indicates international boundaries and borders should be based on distinct physical features such as coastlines, rivers, mountains, deserts and water basins.
This concept originated in France and has been historically used by Paris to justify claims to certain neighbouring territories.[1][2] Thus both Louis XIV and Napoleon I used the policy it to claim that the Natural borders of France lay well beyond what was considered acceptable by their neighbouring countries. Revolutionary France used the idea to justified conquest of the Rhineland in 1792–1797.[3]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Norman J. G. Pounds, "The origin of the idea of natural frontiers in France." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 41.2 (1951): 146-157.
- ^ Peter Sahlins, "Natural frontiers revisited: France's boundaries since the seventeenth century." American Historical Review 95.5 (1990): 1423-1451.
- ^ Jordan R. Hayworth, Revolutionary France's war of conquest in the Rhineland: conquering the natural frontier, 1792-1797 (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Further reading
edit- Kristof, Ladis K. D. "The nature of frontiers and boundaries." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 49.3 (1959): 269-282.
- Pounds, Norman J.G. "The origin of the idea of natural frontiers in France." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 41.2 (1951): 146-157.
- Sahlins, Peter. "Natural frontiers revisited: France's boundaries since the seventeenth century." American Historical Review 95.5 (1990): 1423-1451. online