No man's land

and Hulluch in Artois, France, taken at 7.15 pm 22 July 1917, during World War I. German trenches are at the right and bottom, British trenches are at the top left. The vertical line to the left of centre indicates the course of a pre-war road or track.|alt=An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the opposing trenches and no-man's land between Loos and Hulluch in Artois, France, taken at 7.15 pm 22 July 1917. German trenches are at the right and bottom, British trenches are at the top left. The vertical line to the left of centre indicates the course of a pre-war road or track.]]

No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms.

Origin

The Oxford English Dictionary contains a reference to the term dating back to 1320, and spelt nonesmanneslond, when the terms was used to describe a disputed territory or one over which there was legal disagreement. The same term was later used as the name for the piece of land outside the north wall of London that was assigned as the place of execution.

World War I

The British Regular Army did not widely employ the term when they arrived in France in 1914. The terms used most frequently at the start of the war to describe the area between the trench lines included 'between the trenches' or 'between the lines'. This was dubbed the "Cactus Curtain", an allusion to Europe's Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain in East Asia. U.S. and Cuban troops placed some 55,000 land mines across the no man's land, creating the second-largest minefield in the world, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. On May 16, 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered their removal. The U.S. land mines have since been replaced with motion and sound sensors to detect intruders. The Cuban government has not removed the corresponding minefield on its side of the border.

Israel

Portions of the disputed land along the Green Line can be considered a "no man's land".

See also

Bir Tawil

Neutral Ground

Terra nullius, a legal term describing land that no country has yet laid claim to, or land that has been clearly relinquished by a previous owner

References

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Category:Land warfare Category:Disputed territories Category:Trench warfare