Borders and Empires: A Historical Atlas of Northeast Asia, 1636-2006

This project analyses the changing nature of borders and state-formation in Northeast Asia (Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia and Eastern Siberia), a zone which was for more than three centuries the focus of conflict between rival imperial powers (China, Russia and later Japan), rival settler communities and major indigenous groups. The project examines early maps and archival materials to explain the shifting borders in the region and the creation of new states as an accommodation between imperial ambition, settler aspirations and indigenous self-determination. The project sets this analysis in the broader context of frontier and border theory.