A boundary is a physical or artificial line that separates geographical areas and is known primarily for being political boundaries and separating countries.
A border too describes the area controlled by an administrative or political power. A country's government can only create and enforce laws within its borders, for example.
Borders: politics and migration
People can generally move freely within the borders of their own countries, but cannot enter a neighboring country without its permission or knowledge.
However, when neighboring countries have similar political systems or pre-negotiated agreements, their borders can be open and not defended.
Each country has its own rules about who can travel, work and reside within its borders.. Visas and work permits are government documents issued to non-citizens, which limit the type of work or travel they can do in the country and for how long.
For example, citizens of the 27 countries of the European Union (EU) can travel freely between any of the member states, without the need for a visa or a passport.
Only five members of the European Union - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the UK - require travelers from other EU countries to present a passport or visa at the border.
An interesting example of border immigration control in the European Union is Norway. A country that, although not part of the EU, falls within the Schengen area, that is, keep their borders open.
In an opposite example, the Korean Demilitarized Zone - the border between communist North Korea and democratic South Korea - is the most heavily militarized border in the world.
The area, which is 4 kilometers wide and 243 kilometers long, separates the two countries with barbed wire fences, land mines and armed guards.
A protected part of the border separating South Korea from North Korea.
Citizens of most countries must have a passport and official permission to enter North Korea's borders. North Koreans must also have official permission before leaving the nation.
The types of borders
Boundaries can be basically physical, that is, natural or geographic and political.
Physical or geographical boundary
The most common type of boundary is physical or geographic. A geographic boundary is a natural barrier between two areas. Rivers, mountain ranges, oceans and deserts can serve as physical boundaries.
Political boundaries between countries often form along physical boundaries. For example, the border between France and Spain follows the mountain peaks of the Pyrenees, while the Alps separate France from Italy.
The Strait of Gibraltar is the border between southwestern Europe and northwestern Africa. This narrow road between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea is an important political, economic and social boundary between the continents.
Strait of Gibraltar.
Rivers are common borders between nations. The Rio Grande forms a large part of the border between Mexico and the United States, for example.
political borders
Political borders are the dividing lines between countries. These lines are created for separate areas governed by different groups.
Political boundaries change over time through wars, treaties and trade. After the First (1914 - 1918) and Second World War (1939 - 1945), the map of Europe was almost completely redrawn.
Germany's eastern border was moved further west, and the country itself was later divided into eastern and western Germany.
In 1803, the United States purchased 2,147,000 square kilometers (828,800 square miles) of land in a treaty with France, for example.
The US purchase of Louisiana expanded the size of the country to include the areas that are now the Arkansas states, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and parts of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado. and Louisiana.
the borders of Brazil
Brazil has 23,102 km of borders, 15,735 km by land and 7,367 km by sea, and has land boundaries with nine countries in South America: Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname, and with the French Overseas Department of Guyana, in an extension of the order of 16,886 kilometers.
South America map with Brazil borders.
See too:
- What is territory?
- What is migration?