The Role of Geographic Expertise in International Border Disputes

A great deal of consequence attaches to the placement, marking, mapping, and monitoring of borders and the lines that separate nations. Throughout the article attention is drawn to the role of geographic regional expertise and map analysis in providing the background for territorial and related disputes over sovereignty. This article traces, through maps, the evolving story of the international boundary between the United States and Canada in the vicinity of Lake Erie. Between the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the delimitation of the actual boundary between the United States and the Dominion of Canada in Lake Erie in the 1820s, the depiction of the boundary was prone to two types of error: the gross inaccuracy of the base maps on which the lines were drafted and the imprecision of the words and methods used to describe or compute the location of the boundary. Although much less controversial than in the Northeast United States, where settlement was delayed until the Webster–Ashburton Treaty in 1842, the issues were nevertheless quite significant in Lake Erie. A series of partial efforts to describe the boundary, culminating in a fishery dispute, finally led to a definitive effort by the International Waterways Boundary Commission. Perhaps surprisingly, given the date of the original declaration in 1783, this did not happen until 1908. This article provides an opportunity to review both historical and cartographic aspects of the problem of defining a boundary in a water area and uncovers a forgotten gem—a paper that exactly described an appropriate analytical cartographic technique—the medial axis

Archaeology · Boundary (topology) · Boundary line · Cartography · Commission · Declaration · Dominion · Geography · International law · Maritime boundary · Political science · Politics · Regional science · Settlement (finance) · Sovereignty · Treaty · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Computer Science · Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration · Engineering · Law · Migration, Health, Geopolitics, Historical Geography

• Recent geohistorical research on boundary-making. Challenging conventional narratives on borders and modern state-building

  Open Access•Paloma Puente-Lozano, Paloma Puente‐lozano et al.•Geography Compass•2022

  Incluir item

• Environment, Culture, and The Great Lakes Fisheries

  Open Access•John C Hudson, Susy Svatek Ziegler•Geographical Review•2014

  Incluir item

• Maps and History

  Norman J W Thrower, Jeremy Black•The Journal of Military History•1998

  Incluir item

• The Passionate Canadians

  Francis M Carroll•The New England Quarterly•1997

  Incluir item

• Edward Everett and the Northeastern Boundary Controversy

  George J Gill•The New England Quarterly•1969

  Incluir item

• Measures of Distance Employed on 17th and Early 18th Century Maps of Canada

  Conrad E Heidenreich•Cartographica The International…•1975

  Incluir item

• Changing National Perspectives And The Mapping Of The Great Lakes Between 1755 And 1795

  G Malcolm Lewis•Cartographica The International…•1980

  Incluir item

• The Cartography of Dietrich Brehm and Thomas Hutchins and the Establishment of British Authority in the Western Great Lakes Region, 1760-1763

  Keith R Widder, Keith Widder•Cartographica The International…•1999

  Incluir item

• Mapping The Great Lakes / The Period Of Exploration, 1603–1700

  Conrad E Heidenreich•Cartographica The International…•1980

  Incluir item

• Red lines on maps

  J P D Dunbabin, Jean Dunbabin•Imago Mundi•1998

  Incluir item

• Mapping The Great Lakes / The Period Of Imperial Rivalries, 1700−1760

  Conrad E Heidenreich•Cartographica The International…•1981

  Incluir item

• The Western Reserve; The Story of New Connecticut in Ohio

  John D Barnhart, Harlan Hatcher•The Mississippi Valley Historical…•1950

  Incluir item

• A Book of Old Maps Delineating American History from the Earliest Days down to the Close of the Revolutionary War

  Lawrence J Burpee, Emerson D Fite et al.•The Mississippi Valley Historical…•1927

  Incluir item

• The Michigan-Wisconsin Boundary Case in the Supreme Court of the United States, 1923–26

  Lawrence Martins, LAWRENCE MARTIN•Annals of the Association of…•1930

  Incluir item

• Cartographic Veracity in Medieval Mapping

  Christopher D Lloyd, Keith D Lilley et al.•Annals of the Association of…•2009

  Incluir item

• The Second Wisconsin-Michigan Boundary Case in the Supreme Court of the United States, 1932–1936

  Lawrence Martins, LAWRENCE MARTIN•Annals of the Association of…•1938

  Incluir item

• Atlas of Early American History

  James W Vining, Lester J Cappon et al.•Geographical Journal•1977

  Incluir item

• The Unfortified Boundary

  Open Access•Ralph H Brown, Major Joseph Delafield et al.•Geographical Review•1945

  Incluir item

• The Unguarded Boundary

  Open Access•John W Davis•Geographical Review•1922

  Incluir item

• Problems of Water-Boundary Definition

  Open Access•Whittemore Bogg, S Whittemore Boggs•Geographical Review•1937

  Incluir item

• John Jay

  Donald Roper, Richard B Morris•The William and Mary Quarterly•1983

  Incluir item

• Borderline Science

  Eugene Cittadino•Isis•2004

  Incluir item

• Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History

  Gary Clayton Anderson, Helen Hornbeck Tanner•Western Historical Quarterly•1988

  Incluir item