Modern passport standards were largely formalized by the League of Nations in 1920 following the chaotic border controls established during World War I, permanently transforming…

A closer look

Modern passport standards were largely formalized by the League of Nations in 1920 following the chaotic border controls established during World War I, permanently transforming global travel from a relatively free enterprise into a strictly documented bureaucratic nightmare. Before this era, border controls were incredibly lax or non-existent in many parts of the world, meaning our current obsession with border security and biometric scanning is a relatively recent historical development. Now, you must pay the government a hefty fee for a booklet containing an extremely unflattering photograph of your face, just so another government can aggressively stamp it to prove you visited an airport gift shop in their specific jurisdiction