Eli5: How do they decide the boundaries between nations?
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It varies a lot, and the answer is kind of different depending on what geographic and historical scale you’re talking about.
Let me give an example: the border between England and Scotland. Now immediately we have a complication here because these are often described as two nations or countries, but they’re part of the same sovereign state. I’ll assume you’re using “nation” to mean “state”. Both of these terms get fuzzy as we look back in time, which is what we’re going to do.
Looking back to the Middle Ages there are the kingdoms of England and Scotland, which had a generally hostile relationship. Borders in the Middle Ages are often very fuzzy things and the theory might vary from the practice – a local lord might legally owe allegiance to one king but actually support another… The border regions between England and Scotland often changed allegiance due to war, diplomacy, inheritance, self-interest, etc..
Over the course of centuries England generally got the upper hand militarily until one monarch ruled both kingdoms (although the Stuarts were a Scottish line of kings ruling England!). But they were still separate kingdoms with a border (of a kind) between them. This border was set by all that history that came before.
The Act of Union of 1707 made them into one kingdom – a single “state” in modern terms – and this border dissolved. Now obviously there’s a history of warfare behind this, but the Act itself wasn’t imposed by violence. It was generally supported by the Scottish gentry.
Today, the UK government has the power to change the border between England and Scotland. Should the village of Lowick be part of Northumberland or Berwickshire? That’s an administrative matter for the UK. It’s politically complicated to do (taking into account the Scottish Parliament), it might upset people, but it’s not going to mean a war or international diplomacy to change.
Of course, this is just changing a boundary within the UK so why is it relevant here. Well… What if Scotland gained independence? In that case it’s likely that the borders would follow the existing borders. So borders between states can be based on the administrative borders that used to exist.
The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland is another good example here. The answer to “why is there a border between the North of Ireland and the rest?” is based on violence, economics, religion, etc.. The answer to “why is the border *here* specifically is “because it follows the county boundaries.”
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