Early Modern Border Management and New Historiographical Approaches

The management of borders has become a new urgency, as we have seen in the complicated negotiations between the EU, Northern Ireland and Britain to implement the Brexit agreements. In early modern times, borders were generally not conceptualised as strict lines of demarcation between two states. Early modern borderlines are therefore conceived as ‘moving’ or ‘fuzzy’, and subject to, among others, dynastic regimes and the fortunes of war. In recent years, historians have been increasingly interested in the negotiation of these borders, the practicalities of drawing and maintaining borders and the day-to-day consequences of border management for border societies and travellers. The lecture will address the debates and approaches to early modern border management.