The contribution lies in the description of the estrecho program, funded by the Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (anr) from 2011 to 2015, which was coordinated by the Casa de Velázquez. That work makes it possible to analyze the program’s objectives, its thematic approaches, and its published or soon-to-be-published achievements. The primary goal of the project was to facilitate communication between historians specializing in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, in order to create a comprehensive picture of the Mediterranean Far West from the Second Punic War until the fall of the Nasrid kingdom. Recent contributions from historiography –from social sciences and geography– have been crucial in clarifying concepts and allowing a comprehensive historical analysis (economic, cultural and political history) of the enduring frontiers of the world which have witnessed both economic globalization and the emergence of universalist empires.
anr Strait, historical exchanges, historical geography, globalization, empires.