Baarle
- Contested territories
- Inhabitants 6.668 (Baarle-Nassau) 2.592 (Baarle-Hertog)
- Area 22 enclaves on 7.48 km² (Baarle-Hertog) 8 enclaves on 76.30 km² (Baarle-Nassau)
Baarle is a tiny village that is divided in to thirty pieces of land—mostly enclaves, sub-enclaves and exclaves—on the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. The Belgian parts of the village are called Baarle-Hertog and the Dutch form Baarle-Nassau. The village has two mayors, two police offices and two town councils. The border runs straight through streets, squares, gardens and even houses. It is not without reason that Baarle is often called the most curious village in the world.
Sectional: Theorizing the Contemporary
Baarle tends to be dismissed as irrelevant and gimmicky by most border theorists. Yet the logic that sustains Baarle is the same that we find at work in all nation-states, namely that every inch of the territory must be controlled and that borders should be unambiguously marked.
Franck Billé | 4 Dec 2019
A Town of Two States
Borders, being political creations, have traditionally resulted in significant problems to people living on such territorial anomalies. However in Baarle, with its enclaves, exclaves and counter-enclaves, relative calmness exists. Had such a situation existed anywhere else in the world, there would certainly have been (armed) conflict.
Ramesh Ganohariti | 2 Dec 2019
