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Statewise: Jurisdictional Fictions, Transnational Politics And Remaking The Nation State On The Chiapas-Guatemala Border, 1821-1899, Lean Sweeney

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Statewise: Jurisdictional Fictions, Transnational Politics And Remaking The Nation State On The Chiapas-Guatemala Border, 1821-1899, focuses on the undrawn border between Mexico and Guatemala during the nineteenth century. I argue that this lack of national definition allowed social actors and state authorities in both Mexico and Guatemala to successfully negotiate alliances and competing territorial claims. In this space of "jurisdictional fiction," where the Mexican and Guatemalan governments' claims to authority were undermined by their lack of political, economic and military control, exiles could become political leaders, contrabandists could hold the keys and records to the customs house, displaced indigenous …