Subject: re andorra condo or nondo<br/>
Date: Oct 08, 2001 @ 20:11<br/>
Author: m donner (&quot;m donner&quot; &lt;maxivan82@...&gt;)<br/>
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<br/><br/>
<div id="ygrps-yiv-423587441">eef marcel anton & all adesfre fideles<br/>
<br/>
the true origins of the annually alternating tributary relationship between <br/>
andorra & the relevant authorities on either side of the pyreneean divide <br/>
are probably lost in prehistory<br/>
tho it appears that andorrans at least claim to have documentation of this <br/>
signed by charlemagne himself<br/>
who certainly at least half liberated them from the too pushy moors on the <br/>
other side at that time<br/>
<br/>
but the andorran position of deliberately straddling a major frontier is not <br/>
novel or unique<br/>
<br/>
before the days of modern boundaries<br/>
frontier areas were frequently occupied by buffer or intermediary kingdoms<br/>
also known as marches<br/>
<br/>
anyway i think that is really what andorra was & is<br/>
a march by choice tho a sort of condo by design<br/>
& thus perhaps more of a nondominium than a condominium in reality<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
there seem to be other vestigial remains of these buffer states on the <br/>
modern globe too<br/>
<br/>
bhutan & mongolia might be other examples<br/>
tho i really dont know<br/>
<br/>
& such occupied buffers<br/>
  if that is what they are<br/>
may need to be distinguished from unoccupied ones<br/>
<br/>
like i think the tails of afghanistan & namibia were originally designed to <br/>
be empty buffer zones<br/>
& so they never became independent countries as these others did<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
anyway the fact that chirac in paris is one copresident<br/>
& a spanish cleric is the other<br/>
  & hence as likely to be facing the vatican as madrid btw<br/>
i think still amply demonstrates the andorran taste & capacity for fence <br/>
sitting between whoever will have them<br/>
<br/>
but again i think that means the andorran comfort zone must lie mainly in <br/>
the discontinuity between the already delimited esfr boundaries<br/>
& thus between the tripoints as already agreed & marked by france & spain<br/>
<br/>
m<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
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