Floods, Worms, and Cattle Plague: Nature-Induced Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age, 1672-1764
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Floods, Worms, and Cattle Plague: Nature-induced Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age, 1672-1764 By Adam D. Sundberg Submitted to the graduate degree program in History and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson Gregory T. Cushman ________________________________ Petra J.E.M. van Dam ________________________________ Steven A. Epstein ________________________________ Johannes Feddema ________________________________ Edmund P. Russell ________________________________ Donald E. Worster ________________________________ Toon Bosch Date Defended: 11 March 2015 ii The Dissertation Committee for Adam D. Sundberg certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Floods, Worms, and Cattle Plague: Nature-induced Disasters at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age, 1672-1764 ________________________________ Chairperson, Gregory T. Cushman Date approved: 3/11/2015 iii Abstract The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic was waning by the end of the seventeenth century. The dramatic economic growth and cultural efflorescence that had defined this era was stagnant. The catastrophic “disaster year” of 1672 was a watershed event that revealed the Republic’s increasing fragility. It also signaled the beginning of an era of nature-induced disaster. Between 1672 and 1764, environmental catastrophes repeatedly tested Dutch cultural, technological, and economic resiliency. The four most dramatic nature-induced disasters included a massive coastal flood in 1717 that devastated communities across the North Sea coastal region, an infestation of invasive mollusks (shipworms) into the wooden components of sea dikes in the 1730s, and two outbreaks of cattle plague (1713-20; 1744-1764) that decimated herds in the Netherlands and across Europe. Dutch religious figures, government officials, technocrats, and the public wrestled with the meaning and consequences of these disasters in the context of Dutch decline. This dissertation argues that nature-induced disaster was a central element in the decline of the Dutch Republic. For contemporaries, disastrous events reflected increasing cultural and moral anxieties about the decay of this once-dominant European power. Disaster events also created social and economic instability that amplified the cultural resonance of these traumas. The repeated disasters of the period between 1672 and 1764 compounded these effects. Decline was far from homogenous, however. Disasters tested Dutch resiliency, but they also sparked introspection and innovation. Nature-induced disaster prompted reappraisal and redesign of institutional, technological, and medical strategies to manage and control environmental vulnerabilities. They also prompted providential reassessments of the ultimate cause and meaning of these events. Four case studies evaluate catastrophic disaster events that iv occurred between 1672 and 1764, highlighting the contingencies and continuities that shaped Dutch interpretation and response. Ideas about natural change mirrored shifting environmental realities as the seemingly novel, or uniquely devastating condition of disasters during this era conditioned Dutch moral, technological, and medical reactions. Disasters were also long-term processes. They were the cumulative outcome of long- standing natural and cultural relationships. Disasters often underscored increasing disequilibria in Dutch relationships between a changing environment and their cultural and social systems of control. Contemporaries conceptually integrated multiple disaster episodes into a longer period of disaster that lasted from 1672-1764. The repeated nature-induced catastrophes during this post-Golden Age era of disaster entered into a conjuncture of economic, cultural, and climatic disasters that created a devastating and deadly synergy. The cumulative and compounding nature of this synergy was a significant factor in Dutch Golden Age decline. Keywords: Natural disaster, environmental history, Netherlands, Dutch Republic, Golden Age, eighteenth century, seventeenth century, Teredo navalis, coastal flood, rinderpest, Dutch decline v Acknowledgements A dissertation is too great a work to be considered an individual accomplishment. This project was the product of considerable time, effort, resources, and support offered by a number of people and institutions over the past seven years. Among the most important of my thanks should go to the environmental history community at the University of Kansas. It is difficult to overstate the significance of this group to my development as a scholar. Arriving in Lawrence in the fall of 2008, I was immediately welcomed into a vibrant intellectual milieu that nurtured my interest in environmental history. Don Worster, perhaps more than anyone during that first year, oriented and introduced me to the field of environmental history. Don was (and is) a model for graduate students in his mastery of the historical craft. I am also indebted to Karl Brooks, Ed Russell, and Sara Gregg for their invaluable contributions to the program, their thoughtful advice, and support. Environmental history at KU is a cooperative endeavor with graduate students contributing significantly to its vibrancy, strength, and welcoming character. I would like to thank all members of EH at KU, but in particular the friendship and support of Al Boynton, Nick Cunigan, Brandon Luedtke, Neil Oatsvall, Josh Nygren, Brian Rumsey, and Vaughn Scribner. Whether commenting on my chapters, commiserating over shared troubles, or testing out new ideas, no group was more influential during my time in Lawrence. The importance of the graduate student community at KU extended beyond environmental history into the larger university as well and I would be remiss if I did not thank my friends and colleagues Rebecca Crosthwait and Andres Lira. I have enjoyed the tireless (moral, scholarly, financial) support of KU’s IGERT C-CHANGE program over the past six years without which I would undoubtedly still be working on a far inferior product. I want to thank in particular our peerless PI Joane Nagel, who shepherded the early stages of this project and cheered its completion. I also want to thank Leslie Tuttle, Steven Epstein, and Toon Bosch for introducing me to the wider world of European history and Harm Pieters for his friendship and support during my Fulbright year and beyond. vi I want to reserve a special thank you to Petra van Dam who met an excited, naïve undergraduate exchange student from Kansas and encouraged him over the next eight years. Petra introduced me to environmental history, to Dutch history, and to the academic world of the Netherlands. Naturally, I want to thank Greg Cushman, my advisor and mentor, for his contribution and attention to this work and my development during my time at KU. Under Greg’s guidance, this project grew from a seminar paper to a dissertation. Few graduate students can boast an advisor with his level of precision and wide ranging expertise. Dissertations are not written in a scholarly bubble and personal support is at least as important as professional. I would (and could) not have written this dissertation, for instance, had I not enjoyed the friendships of Erol Ertugruloglu, Dave Horvath, Kevin Mulder, and Paul Troost. This dissertation considers the Dutch past, but they define the Netherlands best for me. Annie van den Oever and Pieter Troost deserve copious thanks for their friendship and their willingness to share their home during months of research in Amsterdam. Importantly, I want to thank my parents Marsh and Sara who showed me the best way to balance dedication to work and family. Finally, I want to thank my partner Jess Scott who (even during months abroad) encouraged this work. If a dissertation is a journey, she walked every bit of it with me. vii Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. v List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1. ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Decline Reconsidered: An Environmental History of Dutch Disaster ......................................... 1 Sources and Method ............................................................................................................................... 14 “Disaster” in the Early Modern Netherlands .......................................................................................... 17 Disasters: Event and Process .................................................................................................................. 26 From Disaster to Decline ......................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 2. Spiritual and Secular Therapies: Combatting Cattle Plague between 1713-1720 ...................................................................................................................................................................