Editing Tatra Mountains (section)

==Ownership and border disputes==
By the end of the [[First Polish Republic]], the border with the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] in the Tatras was not exactly defined. The Tatras became an unoccupied borderland. On 20 November 1770, under the guise of protection against the epidemic of [[Plague (disease)|plague]] in the [[Podolia]], an [[Habsburg monarchy|Austrian]] army entered into Polish land and formed a [[Cordon sanitaire (politics)|cordon sanitaire]], seizing [[Nowy Sącz|Sądecczyzna]], [[Spiš]] and [[Podhale]]. Two years later, the [[First Partition of Poland]] allocated the lands to [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]]. In 1824, [[Zakopane]] region and area around [[Morskie Oko]] were purchased from the authorities of the [[Austrian Empire]] by a Hungarian Emanuel Homolacs. When [[Austria-Hungary]] was formed in 1867, the Tatra Mountains have become a natural border between the two states of the dual monarchy, but the border itself still has not been exactly determined. In 1889, a Polish Count [[Władysław Zamoyski]] purchased at auction the Zakopane region along with the area around Morskie Oko. Due to numerous disputes over land ownership in the late 19th century, attempts were made at the [[Boundary delimitation|delimitation of the border]]. They were fruitless until 1897, and the case went to an international court which determined on 13 September 1902 the exact course of the Austro-Hungarian border in the disputed area.

A [[Polish-Czechoslovak border conflicts|new round of border disputes]] between [[Poland]] and [[Czechoslovakia]] started immediately after the end of the [[First World War]], when these two countries were established. Among other claims, Poland claimed ownership of a large part of the [[Spiš]] region. This claim also included additional parts of the Tatra Mountains. After several years of border conflicts, the first treaty (facilitated by the [[League of Nations]]) was signed in 1925, with Poland receiving a small northernmost part of the Spiš region, immediately outside (to the north-east of) the Tatra Mountains, thus not changing the border in the mountains themselves. During the [[Second World War]] there were multiple attempts by both sides of the conflict to occupy more land, but the final treaty signed in 1958 (valid until present day) preserved the border line agreed in 1925.

=== Borders and hiking ===

With the collapse of the [[Austrian Empire]] in 1918 and the creation of Poland and Czechoslovakia, the Tatra Mountains started to be divided by international border. This brought considerable difficulties to hikers, as it was illegal to cross the border without passing through an official border checkpoint, and for many decades there were no checkpoints for hikers anywhere on the border ridge. The nearest road border crossings were [[Tatranská Javorina]] - [[Łysa Polana]] and [[Podspády]] - [[Jurgów]] in the east, and [[Suchá Hora]] - [[Chochołów, Lesser Poland Voivodeship|Chocholów]] in the west. Indeed, those who did cross elsewhere were frequently fined or even detained by border police of both countries. On the other hand, the permeable border in the Tatra Mountains was also heavily used for cross-border smuggling of goods such as alcohol, tobacco, coffee, etc. between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Only in 1999, more than 80 years after the dissolution of the Austrian Empire, the governments of Poland and Slovakia signed an agreement designating several unstaffed border crossings (with only irregular spot checks by border police) for hikers and cyclists on the 444&nbsp;km-long Slovak-Polish border. One of these border crossings was created in the Tatra Mountains themselves, on the summit of the [[Rysy]] peak. However, there were still many other peaks and passes where hiking trails ran across the border, but where crossing remained illegal. This situation finally improved in 2007, with both countries accessing the [[Schengen Area]]. Since then, it is legal to cross the border at any point (i.e. no further official checkpoints were designated). Rules of the national parks on both sides of the border still apply and they restrict movement to official hiking trails and (especially on the Slovak side) mandate extensive seasonal closures in order to protect wildlife.