TY - JOUR
T1 - From disaster to sustainability
T2 - Floods, changing property relations and water management in the south-western Netherlands, c. 1500-1800
AU - van Cruijningen, P.J.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Insufficient maintenance was the main cause of flooding of a large part of the South-Western Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Re-embankment resulted in changes in soil conditions and property relations. Church and peasants lost land and urban bourgeois became the most important landowners in the area. Contrary to their risk-averse predecessors, these capitalist landlords were prepared to invest in drainage. They were also able to organize state support for imperilled polders. Equally important was the role of tenant and yeomen farmers, who maintained soil fertility and continued to invest in maintenance of the flood defences.
AB - Insufficient maintenance was the main cause of flooding of a large part of the South-Western Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Re-embankment resulted in changes in soil conditions and property relations. Church and peasants lost land and urban bourgeois became the most important landowners in the area. Contrary to their risk-averse predecessors, these capitalist landlords were prepared to invest in drainage. They were also able to organize state support for imperilled polders. Equally important was the role of tenant and yeomen farmers, who maintained soil fertility and continued to invest in maintenance of the flood defences.
KW - water management, Netherlands, property relations
U2 - 10.1017/S0268416014000149
DO - 10.1017/S0268416014000149
M3 - Article
SN - 0268-4160
VL - 29
SP - 241
JO - Continuity and Change
JF - Continuity and Change
IS - 2
ER -