When passports/border checks became widespread?
score:10
According to The Guardian, "passports were not generally required for international travel until the first world war". Wikipedia concurs
This matches accounts I have read of people travelling from London to Moscow without travel documents. During the First World war, they became necessary, and they never stopped being needed.
Upvote:1
As for passports, AFAIK, they were introduced first in Russia by Michael I, according to ideas of an early socialist Charles Fourier.
Absolute majority (peasants) had no passport and could not travel out of the district. Many people had inner passports, that allowed to travel along the whole empire. And some people got passports that could have leave visa in it.
For example, the greatest Russian poet Pushkin never got such passport, and he had tried many times!
It was absolutely widespread. A person without passport and out of the district where he knew everybody and everybody knew him, had to be catched by police.
Upvote:7
Forever? Every civilization makes it a priority to know who is who and keep out the unwanted people. In the Book of Judges an incident is described from 3000 years ago whereby a shibboleth is used to identify aliens. According to the Wikipedia entry on identity documents, the passports of King Henry V (15th century) were the first such documents, but various personal documentation devices certainly date back to the Romans, if not earlier. Diplomats, of course, have always carried passports since ancient Egyptian times. The word "diplomat", by the way, comes from the Roman word diploma, which was a sort of a passport, or at least was used that way.
Note that there has already been a History channel post on Roman identity documents which may be relevant ("How did the Roman state verify citizenship?").
In terms of the first country to be "checking papers" on every Tom, Dick and Harry in the modern sense, I would probably give that honor to Frederick the Great. He was a real bureaucrat and was known for appointing "Passport Meisters" who required passports even of the most ordinary people to get across borders. He definitely bumped up the usage of passports on a massive scale and set the tone for the later Prussian obsession with elaborately documenting each and every individual.
More post
- 📝 When in 1775 was Anza in Culiacán?
- 📝 Sculpture identification
- 📝 Can someone identify this banknote?
- 📝 What was the historical prevalance of inherited chattel slavery?
- 📝 Have the Pyramid Texts been translated into German?
- 📝 Were the popes during the Avignon era still considered bishop of Rome?
- 📝 In the Middle Ages, adultery was strictly condemned by the Church. How did Kings justify their extra-marital affairs?
- 📝 Were aerial dogfights during WW2 and WW1 typically very one-sided?
- 📝 Has ramming ever been considered a viable tanking tactic?
- 📝 Is there evidence of extensive Viking presence in North America?
- 📝 Relation between Afroamerican religions and colonial metropoles?
- 📝 Did Saint Paul preach at the Theater in Philippi?
- 📝 Why are the democracies of France, Israel and India rated "Flawed Democracies"?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this military uniform?
- 📝 Is there evidence that scrubbing floors on one's hands and knees was a commonplace drudgery for women in the past?
- 📝 What is the oldest discovered Neanderthal boat or raft?
- 📝 American presidents on secession legality?
- 📝 How frequently were homing pigeons used in the World Wars?
- 📝 In what ways was the Gold Confiscation Act of 1933 beneficial/detrimental to Americans?
- 📝 How did the US Navy raise sunken battleships in WWII?
- 📝 In Germany 1935, what happened to the Jews in the armed forces?
- 📝 Was the Times of London available for sale in 19th century Singapore?
- 📝 Why did the USSR support the PRC entry into the UN?
- 📝 What was Texas called after gaining its independence and why was it called that?
- 📝 Is there a historical precedent to the vaccine scare?
- 📝 What would have been the signal that Pontiac would have given to attack in Fort Detroit?
- 📝 Was there an official name for the bomb detonated in the Manhattan Project
- 📝 When and how did the concept of posthumous reward and punishment enter ancient Judaism?
- 📝 Was there anyone involved in the negotiations of New Territories (Hong Kong) lease still alive at the time of the negotiations of its return to China?
- 📝 What evidence is there that Bell stole the telephone design from Gray?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 When passports/border checks became widespread?
- 📝 When did nose-picking became socially condemned?
- 📝 When and how did the presidents of states became governors in the U.S.A?
- 📝 When was the last time there were border controls, customs, or border patrols inside what is now the contiguous US?
- 📝 How and when did the border regime change when the USSR broke up?
- 📝 Printing - When did advertis*m*nts in colour became commonplace?
- 📝 When and where did it first became usual that the ID Card holder signed his card?
- 📝 What happened to horses when cars became popular?
- 📝 Did the chronicler William of Malmesbury write that William Adelin threatened to make Anglo-Saxons 'draw a plow like cattle' when he became king?
- 📝 When did the United Kingdom become "United" rather than merely united? (I.e., that word became part of its name.)
- 📝 When became turks finns?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting?
- 📝 When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 When did bombs actually look like this?
- 📝 How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
- 📝 When has a sovereign state last given territory to another as a gift?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 When did worshipping of ancient Greek gods come to an end?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case when a traitorous military commander took command again for the side he betrayed?
- 📝 Did it take 3 minutes to reload a musket when the second amendment to the US constitution was ratified?
- 📝 When did humans develop the ability to sail any direction regardless of wind direction?
- 📝 When were swords last used in European warfare?
- 📝 Why did Britain not purchase Alaska when Russia had it up for sale?
- 📝 Why was it "acceptable" for Prince Charles to marry a divorced woman, when Edward VIII had to abdicate for marrying divorcee Wallis Simpson?
- 📝 When and how did the USA and the UK become allies?
- 📝 How did pilots know when to release bombs on airplanes during World War2?
- 📝 Was Hitler exclaiming "Heil Hitler!" himself when saluting?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?