On the eve of World War I, borders existed mostly as lines on paper. Passports were rare and the countries that did issue them (like Russia and the Ottoman Empire) were seen as uncivilized. Besides, that wonder of nineteenth-century technology, the train, was poised to erase borders for good. And then the war broke out. Suddenly, borders were sealed to keep spies out and everybody needed for the war effort in. At a 1920 conference in Paris, the international community came to the first ever agreements on the use of passports.
