The Watery ally: military inundations in Dutch history

For centuries, the Dutch have fought against their arch-enemy:
water. But, during the Dutch War of Independence in the 16th and
17th centuries, the Dutch found an ally in their arch enemy.
Their struggle against Spain seemed almost hopeless because the
rebels were facing the best trained, supplied and funded European
army of that era. As the underdog, they turned to water and used
it as a weapon against the Spanish by planning and carrying out a
number military inundations, intentionally flooding enormous
swaths of land to stop or even defeat the enemy.


However, it is possible that during the Dutch Wars of
Independence the province of Holland could have been permanently
flooded and lost to the North Sea. The Spanish, hurt by the
military inundations, hatched a secret plan that aimed at
defeating the Dutch by turning their watery ally against them.
Luckily, this plan was never carried out. While Holland survived,
the Dutch constructed a line of fortifications and waterworks to
facilitate military inundations, which became known as the Dutch
Water Line. This militarization of the Dutch landscape had
profound long term political, social and environmental
consequences for the province and the region.


Episode 77 of the Exploring Environmental History podcast
explores these social, political and environmental issues with
Robert Tiegs, Adjunct Professor at Sheridan College in Ontario,
Canada.


Music credits


"Fear and Hope" by reusenoise


"Our Lives" by @nop
"Death of a Music Box" by Hans Atom


All tracks available from ccMixter