Avui tenim el plaer de presentar-los una molt interessant reflexió del Professor Barry Smith, de la Universitat de Buffalo (Estats Units). Amable col·laboració desinteressada (i desconeguda, per ell) que agraïm i que ens fa palès que la "Geopolítica de Diumenge al Matí" té cada dia més adeptes.

The Netherlands is here shown in yellow. Belgium is shown in green. (És en anglès, la reflexió) What follows is a larger-scale image of the southern border of the Netherlands and of the northern border of Belgium:

This border was established as part of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1843 with the creation of the two successor states of the Austrian and Spanish
(Habsburg) Netherlands. In the area round Baarle(marked B in the above) it proved impossible to come to a definitive agreement. In place of a fixed
border (between border posts 214 and 215) each of 5732 parcels of land had their nationality laid down separately. A portion of these parcels form
together the space of 20 Belgian exclaves (today's Baarle-Hertog) lying spread around within the territory of the Dutch Baarle-Nassau and separated
by 5 kilometers from the Belgian motherland:

The orange portions are part of the national territory of the Netherlands. The green portions, which constitute what we might think of as an inland archipelago, are part of Belgium.

Orange portions within green portions represent exclaves of the Netherlands completely surrounded by Belgian territory which are in turn completely
surrounded by the territory of the Netherlands:

The Story of Baarle
(compiled from various sources)

Here is the story of the only enclave in the world consisting of several bits of territory belonging to two different countries. (Sentim haver de desmentir aquesta afirmació, properament us presanterem l'interessant cas de Cooch Behar) In short, here is the story of BAARLE. History has left a territory composed of two municipalities, whose shape is unique, belonging partly to Holland and partly to Belgium.
People are quite comfortable with this situation, even though it raises so many complicated and difficult problems that even the most brilliant jurists are puzzled.
The year of Baarle's founding is not known precisely. Most likely, Baarle was one of a number of prehistoric sites described by Julius Caesar in 54 B.C. The name appears for the first time in 992, when Countess Hislondis donates
her properties in the county of Strijen (where Baarle is situated) to the abbey of Thorn (in Limbourg, one of the 9 provinces of Belgium and one of the provinces of Holland in the East).
At the end of the 12th century, Godfrid of Schoten, the Lord (Sieur, Seigneur), of Breda, owned Breda Castle and the territory south of the castle. His ancestors had bought that territory (as a perpetual and free land
ownership) from the ancestors of Hendrik I, the Duke of Brabant. In those days, however, many a dispute concerning the ownership of the land divided the Duke of Brabant and Dirk VII, the Count of Holland. Probably under threat, Godfried gave the territory to the Duke by grace of the Charter of 1190. Nevertheless Duke Henry gave the territory immediately back to Godfried, but in the form of a loan.
Godfried thereby acknowledged the Duke as the proprietor, and this caused the Count of Holland to declare in 1203 that he renounced his rights on the territory. To express his gratefulness towards Godfried, the Duke of Brabant added large sections of forest and torbieres (dried swamp with a deposit you can burn) to the property he had on loan, territory reviously not belonging to Godfried.
But while lending the whole county of Breda to Godfried, he kept for himself all the inhabited parcels, which became BAARLE-HERTOG. (Hertog = le Sieur Duc) (not to be confused with the prefectoral town of Bar-le-Duc, Meuse, France). He loaned another portion (non-inhabited parcels, some of which were themselves enclaves surrounded by inhabited parcels) together with the torbieres to the Sieurs de Breda, and thus to their suzerains, the Counts of Nassau. Later, the Duke lost all his right upon this territory he did not own.
Dating from that moment, a difference was born between Baarle under theDuke of Brabant, and Baarle under the Count of Holland, in the Nassau family. The existence of BAARLE-NASSAU became a fact.
With the Peace of Munster of 1648 (one of the treaties of Westphalia putting an end to the 30 Years War), it was decided that the portion of Baarle under the Count of Nassau should be added to the "Generalitetslanden" (The United Provinces), because this part belonged to the Baronnie de Breda; and that the portion of Baarle beonging to the
Baronnie de Turnhout, in Brabant, should be added to the South Netherlands (the present Belgium).
What is remarkable is that the partition of the territory would not change across all succeeding historical events. Neither the Peace of Munster (signed in 1648 at the same time that the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle acknowledged the
existence of the Northern United Provinces), nor the foundation of a unitary Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815 after the gouvernment of the French Empire, nor even the uprising of the Belgians in 1830 could change the situation.
The Treaty of Maastricht of 1843 delimited the boundary between the Netherlands and Belgium, but even then it was found impossible to compromise on the territory of Baarle. It was instead decided to leave things as they stood, for it was impossible to define the boundary between boundary poles 214 and 215 (about 50 km).
Instead of defining a boundary, it was accepted that the nationality of 5732 parcels be established one by one. A part of these parcels constitute the (at least) twenty Belgian enclaves, presently Baarle Hertog, which are situated within the territory of the Dutch municipality of Baarle-Nassau.
They lie about five km beyond the Belgian border, but there is also a small enclave of Baarle-Nassau inside Belgium.
This bizarre situation has obviously led to a number of difficulties. A normalisation of the situation was often tried. Even now some think the situation is bad and unbearable.
The inhabitants of Baale think otherwise. They do not want to lose their special ambiance and they want to keep Baarle as it is now: Baarle-Nassauhertog, a historically, geographically and politically peculiar village. Not only in Europe - but in the whole world.
A house is deemed to be in the country where its front door is located. (Si heu arribat a llegir fins a aqui envieu-nos un e-mail fent-nos-ho saber i participareu al sorteig d'una fantàstica samarreta gentilesa de la funadació "Geopolítica del Diumenge al matí")This gave rise to some problems in 1997 when the border between Belgium and the Netherlands was remeasured. In at least one case a house would have had to move from Belgium to the Netherlands. The inhabitants did not want that to happen, but the solution was simple: they moved the front door of their house.

THE END

Diumenge que ve: "Mapa Militar de Baarle-Hertog, la topografia d'un destí"