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From the Margins to the Mainstream: Dutch History to 1384 - New States, New Lands, New Cities - New Economic Initiatives

10 important questions on From the Margins to the Mainstream: Dutch History to 1384 - New States, New Lands, New Cities - New Economic Initiatives

Who was the most successful trader at the turn of the second millennium?

Frisia remained, as in the old days, relatively well populated, its people the chief traders of the region and, as in the days of the Romans, fisherfolk and breeders of cattle.
It was they who for the next few centuries arguably remained the most successful traders, with their extensive North Sea networks.

Where did trade revive in the tenth century?

Trade began to revive in the tenth century, chiefly along the great rivers, where fortresses erected against the Vikings, such as Zutphen along the IJssel River, served as secure bases for the recovering river trade that increasingly linked England with the Rhineland and with northern France.

Which European innovations did the Netherlands take part in regarding agriculture?

The Netherlands took part in a series of European innovations that transformed agriculture by making it more efficient and sustainable: the introduction of the heavy plough ideal for the clay soil; the halter for the deployment of horses instead of oxen in tilling; and the three-field system, which rotated crops and thus spared the land from exhaustion.
It also helped that the climate again became warmer, enhancing agricultural production until the early fourteenth century.

What were important factors for further intensification of agriculture?

The take-off of the wool industry, as well as the sharp rise of a population who enjoyed a better economic basis for existence but who also required more food, was an important factor in the further intensification of agriculture.

What were the most fertile lands?

The most fertile of these lands - and therefore the next to be exploited - were the extensive fens dominating large portions of Flanders, Zeeland, Holland and Friesland that lay behind the sea dunes.

How is reclaiming land characterized?

In the eleventh century, too, systematic efforts to reclaim land began in Utrecht. It was a process that was at once more extensive - involving more land - and more intensive - requiring more human and capital investment in a more demanding geography - than had been the case in Flanders.

How did reclaiming land go in the fenlands between Utrecht and Holland?

In the fenlands between the city of Utrecht and the dunes of Holland, the drive for new agricultural land would prove particularly and permanently transformative, turning what had been mostly wilderness into an extensive landscape of fields, dikes and canals.

What limits were there for water management?

Despite very significant successes, the available water management techniques ran against their limits in the course of the twelfth century. Reliably dry land was in limited supply, prompting many settlers to up stakes and accept invitations to start colonies in more promising, still empty regions of Germany.

What problems were there in water supply?

Part of the problem - one that continued to plague the Dutch for centuries thereafter - was that land that had been drained tended to shrink and sink at a rate of about a centimeter a year, causing already low-lying lands to sink below sea level.
The problems, though, were not only artificial; Dutch dikes and dams, and the quality of their water management, were simply not sufficient to resist powerful storm surges, likely made more powerful by warmer weather and higher sea levels.

What happened because of these storms?

None of these disasters, which would recur in subsequent decades, seems to have deterred local residents from again reclaiming land when it was lost.
This would, however, require future generations to invent ever more ingenious techniques - and ever closer cooperation - to defend their gains or take new ground.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

A Concise History of the Netherlands | 9780521699174 | James C Kennedy

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From the Margins to the Mainstream: Dutch History to 1384 - New States, New Lands, New Cities - New Economic Initiatives

10 important questions on From the Margins to the Mainstream: Dutch History to 1384 - New States, New Lands, New Cities - New Economic Initiatives

Who was the most successful trader at the turn of the second millennium?

Where did trade revive in the tenth century?

Which European innovations did the Netherlands take part in regarding agriculture?

What were important factors for further intensification of agriculture?

What were the most fertile lands?

How is reclaiming land characterized?

How did reclaiming land go in the fenlands between Utrecht and Holland?

What limits were there for water management?

What problems were there in water supply?

What happened because of these storms?

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