Boundaries: The making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees

Book reviews

122

containing a list of the French and Spanish municipal districts included (16 pp.). The central part (‘Physical, human and economic aspects of the Pyrenees’) consists of two very different sections. In the first one (pp. 23-64) the text is the thread, dealing with the climate, the study of historical placenames, the inhabitants and the infrastructure. The maps are conventional (the location of the area, relief maps, axes of communication), but they are consigned to second place by the beauty of the photographs which appear on each page beside the text. The second section of this central part differs from the first: no photographs appear on any of its 40 pages (pp. 65-104) and thematic maps are the main feature. This section deals with the population and its distribution, economic structure and the centres of industry. These two parts, which form the core of the Atlas, will help the reader to appreciate the very special current geopolitical situation of the area in relation to the role played by the border itself. In short, during the industrial era, the Pyrenees have been considered a natural frontier standing between the French and Spanish border regions. Over the years, the Pyreneean economy has integrated with regional centres located at some distance from the mountains: Barcelona, Toulouse, Girona and Perpignan, as a result of which the Pyrenees have become an obstacle astride the border. The Atlas, a reflection of the international political agreements abovementioned, seeks to make the first contribution to the elimination of that obstacle. David Comas Dept. of Geography Estudi General Girona

Univ. Autbzoma

Barcelona

Notes ‘Cooperation Agreement on Management of the Territory between Spain and France’, known as the ‘MOPLJ-DATAR Agreement’ (MOPU: Ministry of Public Works and Development, Madrid; DATAR, D&legation de I’Amenagement du Territoire et a 1’Action Rkgionale, Paris). See, for example, the monograph on this subject published in the magazine Estudios TavitorideS, Madrid, in January 1989, or the article ‘Q’renees without barriers’, in the magazine Revista MOPU, Madrid, May 1989, pp. 58-63.

Boundaries: 7&eMaking of France and Spain in the Pyrenees, Peter Sahlins, University of Califor-

nia Press, Berkeley, 1989. The creation of the border in the Cerdanya valley of Catalonia represents an excellent case-study not only in how nation states establish their boundaries, but also in how those boundaries come to be legitimated and reproduced at the local level. In the Cerdanya, the politically negotiated border divided a cohesive culture having its own language, administrative structures and traditions. How the people on either side of the border came to identify themselves as members of France and Spain, respectively, while retaining an attachment to their own Catalan culture and local sense of place emerges in Sahlins’ book as being of equal importance to, and interactive with, the activities and policies undertaken at the national level to define the jurisdictional and territorial extent of their sovereignty. The thesis of the book is that the construction of the border was a result of a complex interplay between state and local entities. Events and processes on both sides of the border are addressed in the book, but the primary focus is on France. It begins with a discussion of the establishment of the border from the points of view of the French and Spanish states, then addresses its creation from the perspectives of local communities. Following these analyses, the book turns to the effects of the French Revolution and the ensuing crises in Spain on how the border was conceived and defined. A separate chapter is devoted to the genesis of the Treaty of Bayonne and the actual delimitation of the boundary line. A brief epilogue brings the history of the area up to modern times. The author has divided his study into four time periods: 1660-1723 (perpetual warfare; military frontier); 1723-89 (period of peace; attempts to define the states’ separate territories and boundaries in terms of jurisdictional domains); 1789-99 (French Revolution and Spanish reaction; formation of national territories in the borderland; French administrative consolidation); and 1799-1868 (growing politicization of the boundaries and demilitarization of the frontier; attempts to repress territorial violations; creation of an international boundary line). The time period covered by the book is anchored by the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1660) and the Treaty of Bayonne (1868). The former accord specified

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123

that a border through the Cerdanya valley was to

imparted

be

the notion

created

domains

for

the

of the

purpose

French

of defining

and Spanish

the

crowns

setting

a specifically

territorial

of sovereignty

of the boundary

through

respectively.

The latter accord led to the actual

was not

delimitation

and demarcation

Treaty of Bayonne was negotiated

which

formalized

between

of a boundary line

the division

identify a defendable countries.

boundary between the two

a boundary

mountains

as a natural

negotiators

more

based on the F’yrenees frontier.

often

evidence,

gothic sources,

in legitimizing

valley came

In actuality,

of dividing

the of

valley

by

and

known as French and 1690,

remained

in

reality

a military

the

frontier

disputes

as each country

date its jurisdictional

in the number

attempted

of

to consoli-

authority over its portion of

From the point of view of local inhabitants, the

national less

ated

to

frontiers

the

information

eighteenth their

century,

local inhabitants

lives as usual, ignoring

boundary

which

Nevertheless, emerged:

as

continued

the international

theoretically

divided

time

on,

went

when the area functioned

a

them. pattern

as a French

military frontier, the locals banded together common when

stance

military

of opposition hostilities

receded,

the

turned to disputing among themselves, ly over resource

in a

to the French; locals

especial-

issues and attempts to gain or

maintain economic

advantage. Over time, these

disputes increasingly

came to be framed in terms

of ‘us’ u,eysus ‘them’, with ‘them’ being those on the other side of the border. The French Revolution

over

precedence

the

national

a function

nationality-reversed from

eighteenth

boundaries such

encompassed

as those

taxation,

justice

associated and

the focus was

and jurisdictional

a variety of domains with,

religion,

for the

example, Revolution

of territorial of

the

of the proprietor’s debates

over the

in the Cerdanya. In the

the reverse

became

terri-

true.

of sovereignty

The

was con-

and demarcation

of

(p. 255).

evidence

body

in his construction

of a

history of the border between France and Spain. He has succeeded how the border relationships

quite well in demonstrating was the result of the recursive

between

the

authorities

central states and the residents

of the

of the peripheral

locales. These divisions are convincing, especially events

effective

of the

in gathering

period

into

and are

the complex

a comprehensible

structure. national

identities

consolidation

previously,

itself

The author has amassed a considerable of archival

sides

over subjects,

on

the hierarchy that resulted

in the delimitation

the boundary’

provided the greatest

Whereas

process

century, nationality determined

In 1868,

stituted

relying

identity

the eighteenth-century

of a delimited

on jurisdiction

of

‘The

property-itself

impetus for establishment al boundary.

idea

how-

subordin-

in its break with past procedures

concepts:

reaction to the Revolution,

nation-

their

the idea

entirely

The author is also effective

itself, and the Spanish

the comsettle

In practice,

were

the local society. The demarcation was significant

formal territorialization

the

to

proceedings,

innovative

a significant

in

or

regarding the customs and claims of

tory.

However,

France

boundaries, willing

to be expounded.

ever, natural

division of their valley would seem to have been development.

had

and demarca-

than either

fiscal limits of sovereignty

the Cerdanya.

trade

Ironically,

than either of the two states’ (p. 256).

continued

location

military zone, and an increase

to

international

of the Cerdanya

the delimitation

During the delimitation

and

the end of the

the

of using natural features as boundary delimiters

cessation

spelled

of

over resources.

persistently

differences

zone for 30 years after the treaty was signed. The of hostilities

when

in response

Spain; yet when the two states finally agreed to were

been defined in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, Cerdanya

more

to

the Cerdanya

1868,

danger

communities

their

In spite of the fact that a boundary of sorts had

Spanish

‘the village

establish

down to the trading

the two areas had become

struggles

munities

the claims of each

the

been demanding tion

until

arising from issues of contraband

and local

to

recourse

individual villages and their areas of jurisdiction.

Cerdanya

about

Roman and Visi-

made

including

In the end, the process

Cerdanya

to

As its name implies, the treaty sought

to establish

side.

was intended

accomplished

concerns conflict

the two states.

The Treaty of the Pyrenees

historical

of the valleys

dimension

in France. The actual

of the

national

were

border

in depicting

constructed

at the

same

time

of sovereignty was occurring

level

(albeit

at

a

how

on both

different

that at the

pace).

Through analysis of various types of data such as marriage

records,

census surveys, and so on, as

well as letters and other documents written by or pertaining

to individuals

and families,

Sahlins

124

Book ret&us

provides valuable insights into how definition and use of the border occurred at various levels of resolution. The book is a valuable addition to border studies, not only for its historical construction of the delimitation and definition processes, but also for its multi-perspective approach. By attempting to incorporate multiple voices in his history, Sahlins frees the work from the traditional, and limited, regime of political history constructed exclusively from the perspective of the state. By acknowledging the different time elements associated with developments at the state and local levels, the author contributes a certain richness to the events and experiences he seeks to describe. While social processes are handled well in terms of time, Sahlins is Less successful in illustrating how models of concentric circles and segmentary opposition may be applied to the processes he described. His concept that concentric circles are applicable to state activities while segmentary opposition better describes processes at the local level are interesting, but are not consistently enough employed within the text to get a sense of how they might inform analysis of the situation during the various time periods. ft is to be regretted that the author felt constrained to focus so primarily on the French side of the story, due, as he says, to a lack of sufficient source material for the Spanish side. This largely one-sided perspective necessarily illuminates French processes much more clearly than Spanish ones. If ‘multiple voices’ are truly to be heard, surely a more balanced view from the perspective of Spanish Cerdanya would be preferred. Also, with regard to the idea of multiple voices, one gets a sense that the narrative is weighted in favor of local aristocracy and power-brokers. It would have been very interesting if the author had more strongly highlighted the class-based contradictions associated with ‘the making of Prance and Spain’. Although Sahlins is successful in structuring the narrative around four time periods, the text itself displays a certain chronoIogica1 muddle, thus imparting an element of chaos to events

which are already complex. A timeline, or straight listing of the chronology, would have been immensely helpful. For those with a geographical bent, the book is frustrating for the lack of analyses and graphic illustrations of the spatial implications of the various policies, events and disputes which characterized the border during this period. In particular, cartographic depiction of the geographical extent of the military zones, customs zones, and juris~ction~ boundaries would have been useful accompaniments to the text The author also fails to address another important set of borders and boundaries-those which defined the French and Spanish Cerdanyas as integral geographical, cultural and political units. An analysis of these borders would have given greater depth co the analysis of the implications of the development of the ‘borderland’ as a regional entity. Although the author is to be commended for restricting his wide-ranging study to a manageable time period of about 200 years, ending the story at 1868 with onIy a brief epilogue leaves many important questions unanswered. How did people in the borderland define their territory and their culture during the Spanish Civil War and the two World Wars? What were the effects of the Franc0 regime on the area? What are the implications of the expansion of the European Community? The answers to such questions as these could contribute considerably to our understanding of how borders and boundaries have been defined at various levels of analysis in more recent times, and how we might logically expect them to be defined in the future. The above criticisms no~i~standing, Sahlins has made a good beginning toward a reconstructed political and historical analysis of border dynamics. A political geographer could profitably extend the interesting work begun by Sahlins into the arenas of contemporary space and time.

Barbara Morehouse Department

of Geography

University of Arizona