The Boundaries of the Carpathian Basin – Frontiers and Regions

Abstract

The Carpathian Basin (or Pannonian Basin) is the south-eastern part of Central Europe, its geopolitical place being defined by geography (it is placed between the Eastern Alps, the Dinaric Alps, and the Carpathian Mountains) and from historical point of view by the fact that its core region was ruled for many centuries by the Hungarian Kingdom and the Habsburg Monarchy, and the neighbouring states aimed to extend their territories in the basin reducing the central role of the basin from the margins. The changes of the spatial domination in the Carpathian Basin created several centre–periphery relations, which established, through a longue durée, specific social features in some border regions of the Carpathian Basin. This paper examines from the viewpoint of limology (border studies) three frontier regions of the basin, Spiš, Székely Land, and Banat, and investigates the historical process of the regional construction in order to ascertain what circumstances helped or blocked these periphery constructions.