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On New Land a New Society: Internal Colonisation in the Netherlands, 1918–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2013

LIESBETH VAN DE GRIFT
LIESBETH VAN DE GRIFT*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Radboud University Nijmegen, Erasmusplein 1, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; [email protected]
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Abstract

State projects aimed at technological innovation and social renewal were a widespread phenomenon in inter-war Europe. This is exemplified by the practice of internal colonisation – the construction of new settlements within state territories – in the Netherlands. This article examines one such case, the reclamation and colonisation of the Wieringermeer in the 1930s, in detail. In doing so, it reveals that the principle of state abstention, which prevailed throughout the inter-war period, was abandoned on reclaimed land. Politicians and experts perceived these territories as a clean slate on which they could experiment with new forms of government intervention. This article focuses on state policies of social planning and the technocratic governance of reclaimed land, and examines whether these could be reconciled with democratic notions of sovereignty and citizenship in the minds of the planners, the politicians and, last but not least, the pioneers themselves.

Une nouvelle société sur des terres nouvelles: la colonisation interne aux pays-bas, 1918–1940

Les projets nationaux d’innovation technologique et de renouveau social étaient nombreux dans l’Europe de l’entre-deux-guerres. Aux Pays-Bas, on en trouve un exemple dans la pratique de la colonisation interne: la construction de nouveaux villages à l’intérieur du territoire national. Cet article examine en détail le cas de l’assèchement et de la colonisation du polder de Wieringermeer dans les années trente. Il montre notamment que le principe de l’abstention de l’État, qui avait prévalu pendant toute la période de l’entre-deux-guerres, fut abandonné dans le cas des polders. Pour les politiques et les experts, ces territoires constituaient une page blanche où tester de nouvelles formes d’intervention gouvernementale. Cet article porte tout particulièrement sur les politiques officielles de planification sociale et sur la gouvernance technocratique des terres asséchées et pose la question de savoir si, dans l’esprit des urbanistes, des politiques et, surtout, des colons eux-mêmes, ces politiques et cette gouvernance étaient conciliables avec les notions démocratiques de souveraineté et de citoyenneté.

Eine neue gesellschaft auf neu gewonnenem land: die interne kolonisierung der niederlande von 1918–1940

Staatliche Projekte zur Förderung der technologischen Innovation und der sozialen Erneuerung waren in der europäischen Zwischenkriegszeit ein viel verbreitetes Phänomen. Hierzu zählt auch die Praxis der internen Kolonisierung in den Niederlanden durch die Schaffung neuer Siedlungen innerhalb des Staatsgebiets. In diesem Beitrag wird ein solcher Fall exemplarisch beleuchtet: die Gewinnung und Besiedelung des Wieringermeers in den dreißiger Jahren. An diesem Fallbeispiel wird deutlich, dass bei der Erschließung von Neuland das in der Zwischenkriegszeit übliche Prinzip der staatlichen Nichteinmischung aufgegeben wurde. Politiker und Experten verstanden diese Gebiete als ‘unbeschriebene Blätter’, auf denen sie mit neuen Formen staatlicher Intervention experimentieren konnten. Im Mittelpunkt des Beitrags stehen die staatlichen Sozialplanungsmaßnahmen und die technokratische Verwaltung für das neu erschlossene Land. Dabei wird untersucht, inwieweit diese sich in den Köpfen der Planer, Politiker und auch der Pioniere selbst mit demokratischen Vorstellungen von Souveränität und Staatsbürgerschaft vereinbaren ließen.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , November 2013 , pp. 609 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

1 The farmer in question was Sicco Mansholt, representative of the Social Democratic Workers Party and future president of the European Commission. Letter to Sikke Smeding from someone present at the political party meeting, 9 Dec. 1938. Nieuw Land Erfgoedcentrum (RAFL), Archive of the Directorate of the Public Body De Wieringermeer (Directorate De Wieringermeer), file 598.

2 It is important to note the difference between the concept of ‘internal colonisation’ as understood by contemporaries and the concept of ‘internal colonialism’, first coined by Lenin to describe the Russian metropole's economic exploitation of the periphery. This concept was later adopted by scholars to describe the rule of the centre and its dominant ethnicity over people in remote areas and often of other ethnic origins. Moses, A. Dirk, ‘Empire, Colony, Genocide: Key Words and the Philosophy of History’, in Moses, A. Dirk, ed., Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History (Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2008Google Scholar; citations from pb edn, 2010), 3–54, 23.

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18 This general political concern is illustrated by the installment of two state commissions on agriculture and tenure in 1906 and 1919 respectively: Staatscommissie voor den landbouw, Rapporten en voorstellen betreffende den oeconomischen toestand der landarbeiders in Nederland (’s-Gravenhage: Gebrs. J. and H. van Langenhuysen, 1909); Staatscommissie voor het Pachtvraagstuk, Verslag van de Staatscommissie voor het pachtvraagstuk (Rotterdam: Libertas, 1920).

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