If you look at a map of the Roman Empire, you can see it encircling the Mediterranean. Even the Byzantines and the Ottomans seemed to bend around the Mediterranean. Or if you look at the Phoenican thalassocracy or the Delian League, you see loose networks of cities, yet it's still a very fluid spread across the sea itself. Well, that's fair, it makes sense they'd want to stay near the sea. What about the land powers? Well, the Achaemenids at their height, on a map, look like a very fluid expanse from Persia into the west.
So why is it that modern states resemble solid blocks more than anything else? They look fractured along natural barriers and look a lot more concentrated than the sprawling empires. The only modern state with the imperial sort of shape seems to be the Soviet Union, but it's still not quite the same.
Is this a result of nationalism? A change in technology? The way the borders are negotiated? Or is the 'fluidness' just an artifact of the way modern maps draw ancient borders? Can fracturing into 'blocky' states be prevented, and if so, what might a Europe with more diffuse, fluid borders be like?
So why is it that modern states resemble solid blocks more than anything else? They look fractured along natural barriers and look a lot more concentrated than the sprawling empires. The only modern state with the imperial sort of shape seems to be the Soviet Union, but it's still not quite the same.
Is this a result of nationalism? A change in technology? The way the borders are negotiated? Or is the 'fluidness' just an artifact of the way modern maps draw ancient borders? Can fracturing into 'blocky' states be prevented, and if so, what might a Europe with more diffuse, fluid borders be like?