Book contents
- Natural Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age
- Studies in Environment and History
- Natural Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Rampjaar Reconsidered
- 2 “Disasters in the Year of Peace”
- 3 “The Fattened Land Turned to Salted Ground”
- 4 A Plague from the Sea
- 5 “Increasingly Numerous and Higher Floods”
- 6 “From a Love of Humanity and Comfort for the Fatherland”
- 7 The Twin Faces of Calamity
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - “From a Love of Humanity and Comfort for the Fatherland”
The Second Cattle Plague, 1744–1764
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2022
- Natural Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age
- Studies in Environment and History
- Natural Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Rampjaar Reconsidered
- 2 “Disasters in the Year of Peace”
- 3 “The Fattened Land Turned to Salted Ground”
- 4 A Plague from the Sea
- 5 “Increasingly Numerous and Higher Floods”
- 6 “From a Love of Humanity and Comfort for the Fatherland”
- 7 The Twin Faces of Calamity
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The return of rinderpest to the Netherlands in 1744 was the nadir of the eighteenth-century era of disaster. Hardly a generation removed from the first outbreak, cattle plague returned to the Republic with far greater intensity. It lasted over twice as long and resulted in over a million cattle deaths. Chapter 6 compares the second outbreak of cattle plague to the first, assessing changing response. Like the first outbreak, cattle plague emerged in the context of conflict and extreme weather. Unlike the previous episode, it interacted with an ongoing disaster cascade that amplified and prolonged its consequences. Popular and state response showed remarkable continuity. Rinderpest was not novel, and prior experience proved beneficial as provinces tapped the cultural memory of the previous outbreak. Provincial decrees quickly reinstituted bans on cattle importation, enacted quarantines, and issued certificates of health. Pamphlet literature again highlighted the human tragedy of the animal disease and bemoaned its moral implications. The extensive scope and duration of this outbreak attracted new attention from an international network of medical practitioners. Its increased severity prompted novel medical responses, including the first inoculation trials. These trials reveal the diffusion of declensionist fears into the economic and social program of the Dutch Enlightenment.
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- Natural Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age , pp. 212 - 250Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022