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oa Noodhulpbeleid bij stads- en dorpsrampen in de Republiek
Bovenregionale solidariteit in de achttiende eeuw
- Source: De Moderne Tijd, Volume 4, Issue 3-4, Jan 2020, p. 187 - 206
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Abstract
The historiography of disasters is quite unanimous that the higher authorities in the Dutch Republic had little interest in alleviating local distress. The explanation for this lack of supra-regional solidarity is usually found in the institutional inability of the administratively fragmented Dutch Republic: only after the emergence of a central (nation)state in 1795 did disaster relief become modernized. Most disaster research concerned floods; this article examines city and village di-sasters. Analysing the policies of the higher authorities on the structural aid to victims, it will show that supra-regional solidarity and aid was not only possible but also frequent in the Dutch Republic. Based on urban disaster policies, this ar-ticle will suggest some alternative explanations for the lack of supra-regional support in flood disasters.