The Early Modern City Facing Natural Hazards and Scarce Resources: Braunschweig, Utrecht, Würzburg in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Final Report Abstract
The Early Modern City Facing Natural Hazards and Scarce Resources: Braunschweig, Utrecht, Würzburg in the 17th and 18th Centuries Life in premodern cites was dangerous. Political conflicts could lead to devastation, billeting and forced payments. Epidemics and illnesses spread rapidly in the densely-populated and often unclean settlements. At the same time, many of the inhabitants just lived on the breadline, even without wars and epidemics. The project took a closer look at further aspects of daily urban life with major influence on inhabitants, featuring Braunschweig, Würzburg and Utrecht as case studies. These aspects were part of the interaction between human culture and nature. The analysis covers the years between 1650 and c. 1800 and thus extends from the end of the Thirty Years’ War to the beginning of the widespread use of fossil resources. In the project I first investigated perceptions and reactions to the scarcity of natural resources, which included aspects of city/hinterland interactions but also the concept of environmental justice. Important topics comprised the urban water supply, the import of grain and livestock but also the often underestimated local production of fruit and vegetables. In all these fields individuals and authorities used different strategies to tap and secure resources. Conflicts between the protagonists showcased the difficulties but also the practices of the supply with resources. The reconstruction of urban practices was simultaneously connected to the discourses of experts and scholars. Second, I investigated the perception of natural hazards, together with reactions and resilience in the urban context. Important topics included fire in the city, floods, earthquakes as well as dangerous animals. The analysis led to the construction of a graduation of natural hazards. Starting at the top from the classical concept of the “natural disaster”, it also integrated everyday nuisances and disturbances as well as remote disasters. The focus on three cities offered various possibilities of comparison. These included for example similarities with regard to urban horticulture and differences when it came to fire protection, which were linked to the cities’ denominational structure. By including research results from many other European cities, a broad panorama of the early modern city and its environmental history was created.
Publications
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Kleine Schritte. Praktiken des Umgangs mit Nahrungskrisen in Osnabrück im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, in: Westfälische Forschungen 71 (2021), S. 105- 121.
Ansgar Schanbacher
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„eine der nöthigsten und wichtigsten Policey-Anstalten“. Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, 48(3), 437-473.
Schanbacher, Ansgar
