“Borders and Territories”.

ZUSMAN PERLA

Latin American Geographies.

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2024; p. 24 - 37

Latin American countries began to form in the wake of their independence from European powers. What role did territories play in the constitution of the states? State formation was based on colonial administrative units, but ruling elites proposed to occupy the spaces controlled by indigenous populations. The elites presented these spaces as unoccupied and available for appropriation. At the same time, the delineation of boundaries between state territories reshaped the mobility of societies now living in border areas. These territorial practices aimed to establish closed states, with a homogeneous identity. However, the multicultural nature of society could not guarantee identity homogeneity. In fact, society comprised individuals who had migrated from Europe or Asia, criollos born in the region who had European ancestors, multiple indigenous nations, mestizos, and forcibly enslaved Africans brought to the region. In this context, the idea of territory emerged as providing symbolic unity and cohesion to country inhabitants, mitigating gender, class, and ethnicity differences.The chapter is divided into four sections. Section one will describe the characteristics of the independence process and its implications for the construction of new territorial designs. In addition, it will highlight the limited divorce of these proposals from European ideas and values regarding civilization. Section two will identify state practices to occupy territories under indigenous control, a process that concurred with the definition of international boundaries. Then, section three will present uti possidetis and natural boundaries, the criteria used to define international boundaries, along with the strategies adopted to face implementation challenges. Section four will focus on bordering practices during the 1930s, which tightened border controls and regulation, and established protected areas. Finally, the concluding remarks aim to shed light on a re-signification of the dimensions ascribed to borders in the process of state formation, in the current global scenario. The analysis will focus on territory and border formation processes in South America during the 1870-1940 period.