We frequently think about world politics from the perspective of the centers of political power that dominate it, whether empires or powerful nation-states. This class instead approaches the study of empires and nation-states through a focus on the political histories of borderlands – multi-imperial, multi-national places at the intersections of larger forces, but with a life all their own. The course first introduces some core questions: what do we mean by empire, nation, and borderland? How can we study these phenomena, in the past and in the present day? The bulk of the course is dedicated to learning about the political histories of a trio of world-historical borderlands, drawing from Spanish, Ottoman, American, Comanche, Navajo, Caucasus, Indian, Nepali, British, Tibetan, and Russian histories. It asks how empires have worked as a form of rule; the modes of resistance to and accommodation with imperial power in these peripheries; and the way that borderlands geographies have mattered for constituting political identities, both local and imperial. It concludes by considering the implications for the present day.