Hydraulic Experts and the Challenges of Water in Early Modern Times

Abstract

To what extent were ‘homegrown’ models of urban hydraulic technologies and water management transplanted overseas in early modern times? How and why were they adapted (or not) to new environments and how and in what respects was local knowledge taken into account in this process? These questions are the subject of this chapter. The chapter concentrates on the role and background of hydraulic experts and the contexts in which they worked. The key questions are approached in a comparative manner, analyzing a variety of urban cases in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The first section of the chapter looks at European cities, the next three sections examine colonial towns in different parts of the world and different politico-institutional settings: Mexico City, Batavia and Philadelphia. The chapter concludes with comparisons between the three colonial cases and between European cities and colonial towns.