The aim of this study is to examine the formative influences on the evolution of international law. One particular aspect of international law - the breadth of territorial waters (that is, the belt of sea adjacent to the coast) - has been selected, and the creation and development of the international legal rules pertaining to it will be traced and set in the context of political, cultural and other influences which may have had some bearing on that process. Through this contextual/historical analysis, an account will emerge of the extent to which international law is moulded by factors which might be supposed prima facie to have very little influence. This will then go towards an understanding of how international law was, and is, formed.