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So, this is the flag of Chad and this is the flag of Romania. Confusing, right? Well you
know what’s really confusing: the 17th century in Europe. Finland was Swedish, Venice was
a country ruled by a Doge, Germany was a bajillion different things, Belgium was Spanish but
called the Netherlands, really nothing made sense. One of the few things that did made
sense, though, was that, aside from Spain holding territory on five different continents
and France four, mainland Spain looked like Spain and mainland France looked like France.
Spain was ruled by the Habsburgs, an 11th through 17th century version of the Kardashians
that gained huge amounts of power through marrying other powerful people. These Habsburgs
also happened to rule the Holy Roman Empire to the north and east which meant that France
was completely surrounded. The country remembered the venerable adage, “violence is always
the answer,” and got to fighting. The Habsburgs and French were already fighting in the thirty
years war but as they teach you in war school, if you’re already fighting one war might
as well start another on a completely different front. So blah, blah, blah 24 years of fighting,
a couple hundred thousand casualties, and surprise, surprise there was really no clear
winner but Spain and France agreed to sign a treaty to end the conflict.
Today the French-Spanish border just looks like this. You could actually accidentally
drive into Spain as there’s no border controls thanks to the EU Schengen zone but back in
the 17th century the border was one of the most heavily guarded in the world. You could
compare it to the DMZ between North and South Korea today minus the world’s most threatening
toddler. In the Korean DMZ the two country’s representatives meet in buildings directly
on the border which have tables inside directly on the border so South Koreans can sit in
their country and North Koreans can sit in theirs but back centuries ago, the French
and Spanish had a different solution. They would meet here—on Pheasant Island in the
middle of the Bidassoa River between the French town of Hendaye and the Spanish town of Irun.
Throughout history this island had been used a few times as a diplomatic meeting point.
In that time diplomacy normally meant sending your royal son or daughter to another country
to be married to their royals but in this case they had advanced to forcibly marrying
their kids and signing a treaty In the treaty signed on Pheasant Island, the
Treaty of the Pyrenees, the island was established as a condominium—not where your Grandma
lives, a territory administrated by multiple countries. There are a few modern-day examples
of this kind of territory. Antarctica, for example, is one as every country that’s
signed the Antarctica treaty is responsible for the administration of the continent. The
Moselle River, which forms part of the border between Luxembourg and Germany, is also a
condominium and so there are a number of bridges and islands which are part of both countries.
There’s a tiny island in the river quite fittingly near the town of Schengen that’s
mostly French but also both German and Luxembourgish. What makes Pheasant island different than
every other condominium in the world, though, is that it is not part of both countries at
the same time. Between the 1st of February and the 31st of July each year Pheasant is
part of Spain then from the 1st of August to the 31st of January it’s part of France
meaning that the territory of each country fluctuates by 0.00263 square miles depending
on the time of year. Now, most other places in the world changing an island’s sovereignty
two times a year would be an enormous hassle but what’s convenient about Pheasant is
that the island is uninhabited so there’s no population that has to switch between being
unemployed and on strike every six months. Maintaining an empty football field sized
piece of land is still a big responsibility, though. Of course the two countries aren’t
actively trying to kill each other nowadays so they don’t need to meet on the small
island to exchange children anymore but the island still does need maintenance. Depending
on what time of year it is, the island’s upkeep will either be performed by the French
or the Spanish parks department. Young hooligans also often try to camp on the island but they’re
dealt with by the police force of the country the island currently belongs to. In the past
there was a ceremony to mark the handover of the territory every six months but more
recently that practice has stopped. The island is in the Basque country which has a fairly
strong separatist movement from Spain and to a lesser extent France. The road signs
on the Spanish side, for example, are in Basque and English with Spanish left out. A ceremony
marking Spanish sovereignty would therefore just be asking for trouble but the transfer
of sovereignty still happens silently. Pheasant island will likely eventually disappear as
it’s slowly eroding but, at least until laws are changed, this territory will continue
flip flopping between countries every six months.
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