From disaster to sustainability: Floods, changing property relations and water management in the south-western Netherlands, c. 1500-1800

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 -