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66-485: The name Guanzhong means "within the passes", referring to the four major mountain pass fortresses historically defending the region. The region was the traditional heartland of Qin state during Zhou dynasty and thus often nicknamed the " 800 li of Qin land ". The Yellow River , Lüliang Mountains and the eastern end of the Qinling separate the region from the (then) politically orthodox Central Plain , which

132-452: A mountain range or over a ridge . Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migration throughout history. At lower elevations it may be called a hill pass . A mountain pass is typically formed between two volcanic peaks or created by erosion from water or wind. Mountain passes make use of a gap , saddle , col or notch . A topographic saddle

198-620: A buffer to the Christian states to the north. The Upper March ( al-Tagr al-A'la ), centered on Zaragoza , faced the eastern Marca Hispanica and the western Pyrenees , and included the Distant or Farthest March ( al-Tagr al-Aqsa ). The Middle March ( al-Tagr al-Awsat ), centred on Toledo and later Medinaceli , faced the western Pyrenees and Asturias. The Lower March ( al-Tagr al-Adna ), centred on Mérida and later Badajoz , facing León and Portugal. These too would give rise to Kingdoms,

264-574: A depopulated border region. Such self-sufficient landholders would aid the counts in providing armed men in defense of the Frankish frontier . Aprisio grants (the first ones were in Septimania ) emanated directly from the Carolingian king, and they reinforced central loyalties, to counterbalance the local power exercised by powerful marcher counts. After some early setbacks, Emperor Louis

330-519: A few years later (1327) it passed into the hands of the family of Bourbon . The family of Armagnac held it from 1435 to 1477, when it reverted to the Bourbons, and in 1527 it was seized by King Francis I and became part of the domains of the French crown. It was divided into Haute-Marche (i.e. "Upper Marche") and Basse-Marche (i.e. "Lower Marche"), the estates of the former being in existence until

396-457: A lesser miles with armed retainers, who theoretically owed allegiance through a count to the emperor or, with less fealty , to his Carolingian and Ottonian successors. Such territory had a catlá ("castellan" or lord of the castle) in an area largely defined by a day's ride, and the region became known, like Castile at a later date, as "Catalunya". Counties in the Pyrenees that appeared in

462-440: A loanword from Persian . See Krajina and Military Frontier . The Chinese concept of March is called Fan (藩), referring to feudatory domains and petty kingdoms on the borderlands of the empire. In their initial development during the later Zhou dynasty , the commanderies ( jùn , 郡) functioned as marches, ranking below the dukes ' and kings ' original fiefs and below the more secure and populous counties ( xiàn ). As

528-650: A long career as purely conventional designations under the Holy Roman Empire . In modern German, "Mark" denotes a piece of land that historically was a borderland, as in the following names: From the Carolingian period onwards the name marca begins to appear in Italy, first the Marca Fermana for the mountainous part of Picenum , the Marca Camerinese for the district farther north, including

594-531: A nearby mountainside, as with the Eisenhower Tunnel bypassing Loveland Pass in the Rockies, to allow faster traffic flow throughout the year. The top of a pass is frequently the only flat ground in the area, and may be a high vantage point. In some cases this makes it a preferred site for buildings. If a national border follows the ridge of a mountain range, a pass over the mountains is typically on

660-654: A part of Umbria , and the Marca Anconitana for the former Pentapolis ( Ancona ). In 1080, the marca Anconitana was given in investiture to Robert Guiscard by Pope Gregory VII , to whom the Countess Matilda ceded the marches of Camerino and Fermo . In 1105, the Emperor Henry IV invested Werner with the whole territory of the three marches, under the name of the March of Ancona . It

726-528: A political purpose, such as providing warning of military incursions or regulating cross-border trade. Marches gave rise to the titles marquess (masculine) or marchioness (feminine). The word "march" derives ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root * mereg- , meaning "edge, boundary". The root * mereg- produced Latin margo ("margin"), Old Irish mruig ("borderland"), Welsh bro ("region, border, valley") and Persian and Armenian marz ("borderland"). The Proto-Germanic *marko gave rise to

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792-427: A separate fief about the middle of the 10th century when William III, duke of Aquitaine , gave it to one of his vassals named Boso , who took the title of count . In the 12th century it passed to the family of Lusignan , sometimes also counts of Angoulême , until the death of the childless Count Hugh in 1303, when it was seized by King Philip IV . In 1316 it was made an appanage for his youngest son Charles and

858-786: A style of street racing which may take place on these roads. There are thousands of named passes around the world, some of which are well-known, such as the Khyber Pass close to the present-day Afghanistan-Pakistan border on the ancient Silk Road , the Great St. Bernard Pass at 2,473 metres (8,114 ft) in the Alps , the Chang La at 5,360 metres (17,590 ft), the Khardung La at 5,359 metres (17,582 ft) in Ladakh , India and

924-888: Is also used, particularly in Europe. In the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas, passes are denoted by the suffix "La" in Tibetan, Ladhakhi, and several other regional languages. Examples are the Taglang La at 5,328 m (17,480 ft) on the Leh-Manali highway , and the Sia La at 5,589 m (18,337 ft) in the Eastern Karakoram range. Scotland has the Gaelic term bealach (anglicised "balloch"), while Wales has

990-413: Is analogous to the mathematical concept of a saddle surface , with a saddle point marking the minimum high point between two valleys and the lowest point along a ridge. On a topographic map , passes can be identified by contour lines with an hourglass shape, which indicates a low spot between two higher points. In the high mountains, a difference of 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) between the summit and

1056-403: Is appointed by the king (from 802), the appointment settles on the heirs of a strong count (Sunifred) and the appointment becomes a formality, until the position is declared hereditary (897) and then the count declares independence (by Borrell II in 985). At each stage the de facto situation precedes the de jure assertion, which merely regularizes an existing fact of life. This is feudalism in

1122-430: Is around 13 °C (55 °F), and the annual rainfall ranges from 400 to 900 mm (16 to 35 in), averaging around 600 mm. Because some years have low precipitation and evaporation rates are high, the region's natural vegetation is a mix between forests and steppes . Before human settlements converted the plains for agriculture , it was home to a diverse range of wildlife . The Guanzhong region became

1188-592: Is located at the center of the region, mostly south of the Wei River. Other major prefectural cities in the Guanzhong region include (from west to east) Baoji , Xianyang , Tongchuan and Weinan . The four major historic fortifications that enclose Guanzhong region are: Two more passes were later added, namely: Historically the most important fortress of the above passes was the Hangu Pass, which commanded

1254-635: Is located east of the strategic Hangu Pass and therefore was historically referred as the Guandong ("east of the pass") region by the Qin people, who later conquered the eastern states and unified China as a centralized empire — the Qin dynasty — for the first time during the 3rd century BC . Afterwards, subsequent prominent dynasties such as the Han and Tang (both considered China's historical golden ages ) also had

1320-631: Is now a part of Årjäng Municipality . In the Middle Ages the area was called Nordmarkerna and was a part of Dalsland and not of Värmland. The name of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the midlands of England was Mercia . The name "Mercia" comes from the Old English for "boundary folk", and the traditional interpretation was that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the Welsh and

1386-771: Is the Brenner pass in the Alps . Some mountain passes above the tree line have problems with snow drift in the winter. This might be alleviated by building the road a few meters above the ground, which will make snow blow off the road. There are many words for pass in the English-speaking world. In the United States, pass is very common in the West , the word gap is common in the southern Appalachians , notch in parts of New England , and saddle in northern Idaho . The term col , derived from Old French,

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1452-525: The Julian March because of its positioning and as an act of defiance against the hated Austro-Hungarian empire. Marche were repeated on a miniature level, fringing many of the small territorial states of pre- Risorgimento Italy with a ring of smaller dependencies on their borders, which represent territorial marche on a small scale. A map of the Duchy of Mantua in 1702 (Braudel 1984, fig 26) reveals

1518-510: The Old English word mearc and Frankish marka , as well as Old Norse mǫrk meaning "borderland, forest", and derived from merki "boundary, sign", denoting a borderland between two centres of power. In Old English, "mark" meant "boundary" or "sign of a boundary", and the meaning only later evolved to encompass "sign" in general, "impression" and "trace". The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia took its name from West Saxon mearc "marches", which in this instance referred explicitly to

1584-594: The Palakkad Gap at 140 metres (460 ft) in Palakkad , Kerala , India . The roads at Mana Pass at 5,610 metres (18,410 ft) and Marsimik La at 5,582 metres (18,314 ft), on and near the China–India border respectively, appear to be world's two highest motorable passes. Khunjerab Pass between Pakistan and China at 4,693 metres (15,397 ft) is also a high-altitude motorable mountain pass. One of

1650-724: The Taifas of Zaragoza , Toledo , and Badajoz . Denmark means "the march of the Danes ". In Norse , "mark" meant "borderlands" and "forest"; in present-day Norwegian and Swedish it has acquired the meaning "ground", while in Danish it has come to mean "field" or "grassland". Markland was the Norse name of an area in North America discovered by Norwegian Vikings . The forests surrounding Norwegian cities are called "Marka" –

1716-540: The Wei River from the ruined old Zhou capital of Fenghao . Four passes were then built to defend this new heartland against hostile attacks from both the east and the west. During the Warring States period , Qin grew powerful under Shang Yang 's legalist reforms, and militarily became increasingly more successful, and its rivals to the east claimed that the Qin army was a "troop of tigers and wolves", and it

1782-470: The chokepoint on a narrow land corridor along the south bank of Yellow River and what was then the only traversable passage into the Guanzhong region from the North China Plain . The formidable resilience of the Hangu Pass was what enabled the Qin state to defeat numerous anti-Qin alliances formed by its eastern enemy states during the Warring States period . The average annual temperature

1848-490: The crownland established in the Guanzhong region. The Guanzhong Plain traditionally includes the central part of modern Shaanxi province and the extreme northwestern tip of Henan province (the western half of Sanmenxia ). The average altitude of the region ranges from 300 to 700 m (980 to 2,300 ft) above sea level . Xi'an , the provincial capital of Shaanxi and the largest city in Northwest China ,

1914-515: The gyepű was not controlled by a Marquess. The Gyepű was a strip of land that was specially fortified or made impassable, while gyepűelve was the mostly uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land beyond it. The gyepűelve is much more comparable to modern buffer zones than traditional European marches. Portions of the gyepű were usually guarded by tribes who had joined the Hungarian nation and were granted special rights for their services at

1980-602: The 17th century. From 1470 until the Revolution the province was under the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris. Several communes of France are named similarly: The Germanic tribes that Romans called Marcomanni , who battled the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries, were simply the "men of the borderlands". Marches were territorial organisations created as borderlands in the Carolingian Empire and had

2046-506: The 9th century, in addition to the County of Barcelona , included Cerdanya , Girona and Urgell . Communications were arduous, and the power centre was far away. Primitive feudal entities developed, self-sufficient and agrarian, each ruled by a small hereditary military elite. The sequence in the County of Barcelona exhibits a pattern that emerges similarly in marches everywhere: the count

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2112-710: The Anglo-Saxon invaders, although P. Hunter Blair has argued an alternative interpretation that they emerged along the frontier between the Kingdom of Northumbria and the inhabitants of the River Trent valley. Latinizing the Anglo-Saxon term mearc , the border areas between England and Wales were collectively known as the Welsh Marches ( marchia Wallia ), while the native Welsh lands to the west were considered Wales Proper ( pura Wallia ). The Norman lords in

2178-486: The Guanzhong region, and used it as his base to eventually defeat Xiang Yu in the subsequent civil war . After establishing the Han dynasty , Liu Bang created a new capital named Chang'an , which is just across the Wei River from the ruined Qin capital Xianyang. Since the Western Zhou dynasty, the area was the capital region of China for a total of 12 dynasties including the Qin, Western Han , Sui , and Tang . By

2244-617: The Kingdom of Hungary and was controlled by a Count or Countess. In addition to the Carolingian Marca Hispanica , Iberia was home to several marches set up by the native states. The future kingdoms of Portugal and Castile were founded as marcher counties intended to protect the Kingdom of León from the Cordoban Emirate , to the south and east respectively. Likewise, Córdoba set up its own marches as

2310-616: The Pious ventured beyond the province of Septimania and eventually took Barcelona from the Moorish emir in 801. Thus he established a foothold in the borderland between the Franks and the Moors. The Carolingian "Hispanic Marches" ( Marca Hispanica ) became a buffer zone ruled by a number of feudal lords, among them the count of Barcelona . It had its own outlying territories, each ruled by

2376-466: The Qin dynasty soon fell into chaos due to the corrupt rule of Qin Er Shi and Zhao Gao , and various rebellions broke out. In 206 BC , the rebel leader Liu Bang successfully invaded Guanzhong and forced the last Qin ruler, Ziying , to surrender the capital Xianyang, ending the Qin dynasty. Liu Bang entered the capital peacefully, and issued strict orders forbidding his troops from looting and harming

2442-575: The Tang dynasty the economic center of China had shifted south to the Yangtze basin and Guanzhong became increasingly dependent on supplies transported via the Grand Canal . After the destruction of Chang'an in the last years of the Tang, Guanzhong became less significant politically as well as economically in later dynasties. Mountain pass Aa mountain pass is a navigable route through

2508-569: The Welsh Marches were to become the new Marcher Lords . The title Earl of March is at least two distinct feudal titles : one in the northern marches, as an alternative title for the Earl of Dunbar (c. 1290 in the Peerage of Scotland ); and one, that was held by the family of Mortimer (1328 in the Peerage of England ), in the west Welsh Marches . The Scottish Marches is a term for

2574-791: The Zhou capital Haojing in 771 BC , the Western Zhou dynasty collapsed and the surviving Zhou court fled east to Luoyi . The Yíng clan , then a minor marcher vassal based in the Longxi Basin as a buffer state on the western frontier of the Chinese civilization, sent troops to escort King Ping of Zhou along the journey. In gratitude, King Ping granted a mid-level nobility to the Yíng leader, Count Xiang , and promised him authority to permanently claim any lands his clan can recapture from

2640-514: The border regions on both sides of the border between England and Scotland. From the Norman conquest of England until the reign of King James VI of Scotland , who also became King James I of England , border clashes were common and the monarchs of both countries relied on Marcher Lords to defend the frontier areas known as the Marches. They were hand-picked for their suitability for the challenges

2706-458: The border, and there may be a border control or customs station, and possibly a military post. For instance, Argentina and Chile share the world's third-longest international border , 5,300 kilometres (3,300 mi) long, which runs north–south along the Andes mountains and includes 42 mountain passes. On a road over a pass, it is customary to have a small roadside sign giving the name of

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2772-613: The borders, such as the Székelys , Pechenegs and Cumans . A ban on settlement north of Niš by the Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century helped to establish uninhabited marchland between the empire's territory and Hungary. The Hungarian gyepű originates from the Turkish yapi meaning palisade . During the 17th and 18th centuries these borderlands were called Markland in the area of Transylvania that bordered with

2838-466: The commanderies formed the front lines between the major states , however, their military strength and strategic importance were typically much greater than the counties'. Over time, however, the commanderies were eventually developed into regular provinces and then discontinued entirely during the Tang dynasty reforms. The European concept of marches applies just as well to the fief of Matsumae clan on

2904-458: The early ninth century, Charlemagne issued his new kind of land grant, the aprisio , which redisposed land belonging to the Imperial fisc in deserted areas, and included special rights and immunities that resulted in a range of independence of action. Historians interpret the aprisio both as the basis of feudalism and in economic and military terms as a mechanism to entice settlers to

2970-485: The famous but non-motorable mountain passes is Thorong La at 5,416 metres (17,769 ft) in Annapurna Conservation Area , Nepal. March (territory) In medieval Europe , a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland , as opposed to a state's "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which different laws might apply. In both of these senses, marches served

3036-463: The heartland of the Zhou after Jī clan leader Gugong Danfu relocated his people south from Bin (modern day Binzhou, Shaanxi ) to evade the violent raidings by Xunyu , Xianyun and Di nomads. It is from Guanzhong region that the Zhou state prospered and eventually conquered the Shang dynasty to establish the Zhou dynasty in 1046 BC. After the Quanrong nomads, with collaboration from Marquess of Shen , killed King You of Zhou and sacked

3102-535: The independent, though socially and economically dependent arc of small territories from the principality of Castiglione in the northwest across the south to the duchy of Mirandola southeast of Mantua : the lords of Bozolo , Sabioneta , Dosolo , Guastalla , the count of Novellare . In medieval Hungary the system of gyepű and gyepűelve , effective until the mid-13th century, can be considered as marches even though in its organisation it shows major differences from Western European feudal marches. For one thing,

3168-451: The larger landscape. Some counts aspired to the characteristically Frankish (Germanic) title " Margrave of the Hispanic March", a "margrave" being a graf ("count") of the march. The early history of Andorra provides a fairly typical career of another such march county, the only modern survivor in the Pyrenees of the Hispanic Marches. The province of France called Marche ( Occitan : la Marcha ), sometimes Marche Limousine ,

3234-419: The locals. However, he was forced to hand control over to another more powerful rebel leader Xiang Yu , who sacked, pillaged and torched Xianyang before enfeoffing the Guanzhong region to three surrendered Qin generals Zhang Han , Sima Xin and Dong Yi , collectively known as the " Three Qins ". However, merely four months later, Liu Bang returned with his newly appointed generalissimo Han Xin and reconquered

3300-552: The marches were given the power to terminate indictments. In later years, wardens of the Irish marches took Irish tenants. Marquis , marchese and margrave ( Markgraf ) all had their origins in feudal lords who held trusted positions in the borderlands. The English title was a foreign importation from France, tested out tentatively in 1385 by Richard II , but not naturalized until the mid-15th century, and now more often spelled " marquess ". The specific subdivisions of Armenia are each called marz, մարզ (pl. "marzer, մարզեր"),

3366-402: The marches. For example, the forests surrounding Oslo are called Nordmarka , Østmarka and Vestmarka  – i.e. the northern, eastern and western marches. In Norway, there are – or have been – the counties: In Finland, mark occurs in the following placenames in Satakunta : In Värmland in Sweden , Nordmark Hundred was the frontier area near the border to Norway. Almost all of it

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3432-434: The mountain is defined as a mountain pass. Passes are often found just above the source of a river , constituting a drainage divide . A pass may be very short, consisting of steep slopes to the top of the pass, or a valley many kilometers long, whose highest point might only be identifiable by surveying . Roads and railways have long been built through passes. Some high and rugged passes may have tunnels bored underneath

3498-409: The name of his earldom for several reasons: Welsh marches referred to several counties, whereby the title signified superiority compared to usual single county-based earldoms. Mercia was an ancient kingdom. His wife's ancestors had been Counts of La Marche and Angouleme in France. In Ireland , a hybrid system of marches existed which was condemned as barbaric at the time. The Irish marches constituted

3564-474: The nomads. The resultant Qin state then spent the next few centuries fighting off various nomads to its north and west and eventually consolidated its base in the Guanzhong Plain and the Loess Plateau . The Qin capital then relocated progressively east from Qinyi (in modern Qingshui County , Gansu ) to Yong (in modern Fengxiang County , Shaanxi ), then to Yueyang (in modern Yanliang District of Xi'an , Shaanxi), and eventually to Xianyang northeast across

3630-479: The pass and its elevation above mean sea level . Apart from offering relatively easy travel between valleys, passes also provide a route between two mountain tops with a minimum of descent. As a result, it is common for tracks to meet at a pass; this often makes them convenient routes even when travelling between a summit and the valley floor. Passes traditionally were places for trade routes, communications, cultural exchange, military expeditions etc. A typical example

3696-411: The responsibilities presented. Patrick Dunbar, 8th Earl of Dunbar , a descendant of the Earls of Northumbria was recognized in the end of the 13th century to use the name March as his earldom in Scotland, otherwise known as Dunbar, Lothian, and Northumbrian border. Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March , Regent of England together with Isabella of France during the minority of her son, Edward III ,

3762-578: The similar bwlch (both being insular Celtic languages). In the Lake District of north-west England, the term hause is often used, although the term pass is also common—one distinction is that a pass can refer to a route, as well as the highest part thereof, while a hause is simply that highest part, often flattened somewhat into a high-level plateau. In Japan they are known as tōge , which means "pass" in Japanese. The word can also refer to narrow, winding roads that can be found in and around mountains and geographically similar areas, or specifically to

3828-462: The southern tip of Hokkaidō which was at Japan's northern border with the Ainu people of Hokkaidō , known as Ezo at the time. In 1590, this land was granted to the Kakizaki clan, who took the name Matsumae from then on. The Lords of Matsumae, as they are sometimes called, were exempt from owing rice to the shōgun in tribute, and from the sankin-kōtai system established by Tokugawa Ieyasu , under which most lords ( daimyōs ) had to spend half

3894-412: The territory between English and Irish-dominated lands, which appeared as soon as the English did and were called by King John to be fortified. By the 14th century, they had become defined as the land between The Pale and the rest of Ireland. Local Anglo-Irish and Gaelic chieftains who acted as powerful spokespeople were recognised by the Crown and given a degree of independence. Uniquely, the keepers of

3960-407: The territory's position on the Anglo-Saxon frontier with the Romano-British to the west. During the Frankish Carolingian dynasty , usage of the word spread throughout Europe. The name "Denmark" preserves the Old Norse cognates merki ("boundary") mǫrk ("wood", "forest") up to the present. Following the Anschluss , the Nazi German government revived the old name "Ostmark" for Austria. In

4026-407: The west by Poitou. It embraced the greater part of the modern département of Creuse , a considerable part of the northern Haute-Vienne , and a fragment of Indre , up to Saint-Benoît-du-Sault . Its area was about 1,900 square miles (4,900 km ) its capital was Charroux and later Guéret , and among its other principal towns were Dorat , Bellac and Confolens . Marche first appeared as

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4092-425: The year at court (in the capital of Edo ). By guarding the border, rather than conquering or colonizing Ezo, the Matsumae, in essence, made the majority of the island an Ainu reservation. This also meant that Ezo, and the Kurile Islands beyond, were left essentially open to Russian colonization. However, the Russians never did colonize Ezo, and the marches were officially eliminated during the Meiji Restoration in

4158-483: Was a usurper who had deposed, and allegedly arranged the murder of, King Edward II. He was created an earl in September 1328 at the height of his de facto rule. His wife was Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville , whose mother, Jeanne of Lusignan was one of the heiresses of the French Counts of La Marche and Angouleme . His family, Mortimer Lords of Wigmore , had been border lords and leaders of defenders of Welsh marches for centuries. He selected March as

4224-400: Was afterwards once more recovered by the Church and governed by papal legates as part of the Papal States . The Marche became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. After Italian unification in the 1860s, Austria-Hungary still controlled territory Italian nationalists still claimed as part of Italy . One of these territories was Austrian Littoral , which Italian nationalists began to call

4290-450: Was often said that "Guanzhong produces generals; Guandong produces ministers". After constructing irrigation systems such as Zhengguo Canal , the already fertile Guanzhong region became extremely productive, allowing Qin state to become the preeminent power, repeatedly defeating and seizing more territory from its rivals to the east, and eventually unified China and established the Qin dynasty in 221 BC . After First Emperor 's death,

4356-402: Was originally a small border district between the Duchy of Aquitaine and the domains of the Frankish kings in central France, partly of Limousin and partly of Poitou . Its area was increased during the 13th century and remained the same until the French Revolution . Marche was bounded on the north by Berry , on the east by Bourbonnais and Auvergne ; on the south by Limousin itself and on

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