Physical Boundary Ap Human Geography

72 8.4 BOUNDARIES AND BOUNDARY DISPUTES

"Adept fences make skillful neighbors."

-Robert Frost

Equally mentioned in Department xiii.iv, boundaries can influence the solidarity of a land, as boundaries disputes can result in conflict. A purlieus is essentially an invisible, vertical plane that separates one state from some other, so information technology includes both the airspace higher up the line on the surface and the ground below. Boundaries tin can be both physical and anthropogenic, and while it is difficult to categorize all boundaries, some prominent boundary types be.
Physical boundaries are natural features on the landscape such as rivers, lakes, and mountains. The Rio Grande is an important concrete purlieus on the southern edge of the United States. Similar most rivers, the Rio Grande shifts gradually (and sometimes abruptly) through time. As a effect of the fact that the grade of a river is not stock-still, a river boundary can be problematic. In fact, because of the gradual shift in the Rio Grande in the vicinity of El Paso, the United States and Mexico established the Chamizal Treaty which reestablished the boundary and included a more permanent relocation of the river channel by engineering (Figure viii.5). Some examples of mountain ranges as boundaries include the Zagros Mountains between Iraq and Iran, the Pyrenees betwixt Spain and France, and the Andes Mountains betwixt Chile and Argentina.

Figure 8.5 | Chamizal Treaty map
Writer | Mike Hayes
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain
In contrast to concrete boundaries, geometric boundaries and ethnic boundaries are not related to natural features. Instead, in the case of geometric boundaries, they are straight lines. These straight lines could coincide with latitude or longitude, as is the case with the northwestern boundary of the Us with Canada along 49o northward breadth. Likewise, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea is separated by another geometric boundary forth the 141st meridian.
For ethnic boundaries, they are fatigued based on a cultural trait, such as where people share a language or religion. The border between India, which is predominantly Hindu, and Islamic republic of pakistan, which is predominantly Muslim, is i case. Some borders dissever ethnic groups that are more closely related to the people on the other side of the border. For instance, in eastern Ukraine, the majority of the population speaks Russian and is sympathetic to Russians on the other side of the edge. As a result, the electric current conflict between Russian federation and Ukraine has been problematic for the Ukrainian central government considering of the Russian amalgamation with eastern Ukraine. Russian influence in eastern Ukraine is an example of irredentism, or an effort to expand political influence of a state on a group of people in a neighboring state.
Another prime example of where boundaries practice not coincide closely with indigenous groups is in Africa. Almost fifty per centum of the boundaries in Africa are geometric, and at least 177 indigenous groups are split in ii or more states. If all ethnic groups in Africa were to be enclosed in their own boundaries, Africa would have over two,000 countries (1). Because indigenous groups straddle many boundaries in Africa, this situation has led to considerable cross-border trade, but likewise has created numerous conflicts. For instance, several wars accept occurred because the Somali ethnic group is split between five different countries.