Once within borders: territories of power, wealth, and belonging since 1500

Introduction: A history of political space

Spaces of empire (1500-1650). Two spatial imaginaries

Epochs of empire

Empires at sea

Crises of imperial governance

Spaces of States (1550-1700). Descartes and Vauban at war

The transformation of the fortress

Territory and sovereignty

The spaces of early modernity

Contesting the Countryside. Vauban looks inward

A century of cold and conflict

The Cadastral struggle

Physiocracy goes global

Projects for an Agrarian Regime (1770-1890). Emancipating the serf, settling the peasant

Reappropriating the land

Myths of the collective

Farewell to free land

"An Invisible Force" : Railroads, Continents, Colonies. Railroad nationalism

Continentalism

Last call for territories

Postscript : territorial geometry after 1890

From Fate to Function : the Twentieth Century and After. The geopolitical ambition

Spaces of ideology : World Wars and Cold War

New geographers, new geographies

Conclusion: Still Within Borders?. Borders besieged

Territory transformed

Territory for whom?