The Amazon River as a «Natural Border» Between Peru and Colombia

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between classical conceptions of «natural borders» in defining the boundaries between countries and their interaction with environmental changes, a topic that is gaining increasing importance in the field of international relations. It does so by examining the relationship between Peru and Colombia in the remote and peripheral Amazon region. The Amazonian rivers should have served as natural borders that promoted cooperation between the two countries; however, different interpretations of which river was a more «natural» border turned the rivers into a source of conflict. Despite the remoteness of the region, both countries fought a series of military engagements during the first thirty years of the 20th century, as they pushed forward their own geographical claims. After resolving their differences in 1934, diplomatic relations remained largely cordial. However, as environmental conditions in the Amazon changed, Colombia questioned the validity of existing borders. Fixed «natural» borders ceased to offer stability they once had, generating a diplomatic dispute that continues to this day. The border dynamics between Peru and Colombia from the 19th century to the present provide an insight regarding the extent to which rivers, as geographical features, serve to define rational frontiers, as environmental realities evolve and climate change intensifies. This leads us to reconsider our own understanding of borders, the basis of any nation-state in the modern era.