Border control was practically impossible until the very modern era (last 100 years or so). The infrastructure for controlling borders only became possible due to technology.
All a country could do was control choke points, and they had to fight up close and personal. Closest you could get to monitoring was paying scouts or dudes in towers. With the advent of vehicles, roads became more important, and more of a choke point.
But nothing would stop a random dude walking in from the Canadian forests and Mexican deserts. Other countries can give us other examples.
May I introduce to you the wall? There’s a whole wonder of the world that’s a wall: a Great one in China.
Also, there used to be people on those walls with pokey things that hurt. People outside the empire/nation/whatever they called it back then didn’t want to go near it when they weren’t supposed to, since they didn’t want to be poked by the pokey things.
With the invention of firearms, you can shoot a tiny pokey thing really fast! Pokey things have really advanced over the years, for the better or worse.
The Great Wall was not very effective. China has been successfully invaded many times, including (but not limited to) the Jurchen, Mongols, Manchus and many many others.
And the Great Wall is an exception. Most walls were around cities, not countries.
like, wasn’t the great wall of china (which is actually multiple walls, btw) more a military thing to keep the raiders out? not ordinary merchants or pilgrims.
Yes, to keep the invaders out. That’s border control, no? To control the flow of people between borders, military or otherwise, is border control. To control borders.
You still have to have loads of humans to man those walls, along with paying them and the associated logistics. Firearms weren’t too great at range until the 20th century, mostly lacking center-fire cartridges and rifling and such.
You could control choke points, but nothing was stopping a random dude from walking in through the forest or desert.
Border control was practically impossible until the very modern era (last 100 years or so). The infrastructure for controlling borders only became possible due to technology.
All a country could do was control choke points, and they had to fight up close and personal. Closest you could get to monitoring was paying scouts or dudes in towers. With the advent of vehicles, roads became more important, and more of a choke point.
But nothing would stop a random dude walking in from the Canadian forests and Mexican deserts. Other countries can give us other examples.
May I introduce to you the wall? There’s a whole wonder of the world that’s a wall: a Great one in China.
Also, there used to be people on those walls with pokey things that hurt. People outside the empire/nation/whatever they called it back then didn’t want to go near it when they weren’t supposed to, since they didn’t want to be poked by the pokey things.
With the invention of firearms, you can shoot a tiny pokey thing really fast! Pokey things have really advanced over the years, for the better or worse.
The Great Wall was not very effective. China has been successfully invaded many times, including (but not limited to) the Jurchen, Mongols, Manchus and many many others.
And the Great Wall is an exception. Most walls were around cities, not countries.
like, wasn’t the great wall of china (which is actually multiple walls, btw) more a military thing to keep the raiders out? not ordinary merchants or pilgrims.
Yes, to keep the invaders out. That’s border control, no? To control the flow of people between borders, military or otherwise, is border control. To control borders.
You still have to have loads of humans to man those walls, along with paying them and the associated logistics. Firearms weren’t too great at range until the 20th century, mostly lacking center-fire cartridges and rifling and such.
You could control choke points, but nothing was stopping a random dude from walking in through the forest or desert.
Smuggling was a thing back then, right? Paying someone to help you navigate the not so hospitable and easy-to-get-lost-in deserts and forests.