{"title":"Invisible Mountains? The Eastern and Southern Carpathians and their Environmental History (Fourteenth–Seventeenth Centuries)","authors":"Kata Tóth","doi":"10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903578","url":null,"abstract":"The environmental history of the pre-modern Eastern and Southern Carpathians is largely understudied, primarily due to the scarcity of sources. Also, since these mountains divided Moldavia and Wallachia from Transylvania, historians have regarded them as a political frontier. This article shows the possibilities of studying the Carpathians’ past environment while demonstrating short and long-term anthropogenic changes from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. It also offers a detailed overview of the extant sources that complement and confirm the results from palaeobotanical and dendrochronological studies. The Ottoman fiscal and commercial pressure on Moldavia and Wallachia as well as the emergence of Transylvania as an independent principality in the sixteenth century increased demand for grassland, fuelwood and timber, affecting the environment in the long run. The article shows that the Southern and Eastern Carpathians were well-integrated into the regional and superregional economy and the importance of their resources was not marginal.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139782892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Briony McDonagh, Hannah Worthen, Stewart Mottram, Stormm BUXTON-HILL
{"title":"Living With Water and Flood in Medieval and Early Modern Hull","authors":"Briony McDonagh, Hannah Worthen, Stewart Mottram, Stormm BUXTON-HILL","doi":"10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903577","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores Hull’s histories of living with water and flood in the period between the foundation of the town in the 1260s and c. 1700, examining how the inhabitants, Corporation and Commissioners of Sewers managed and governed water in order to survive and thrive in a risky yet resilient estuarine environment. It does that as part of a bigger project utilising ‘learning histories’ drawing on Hull’s 800-year experience of living with water and flood to drive climate awareness and flood resilience in a city which has experienced major flooding in recent years and is increasingly vulnerable in the face of future climate change. Here, we use civic and other records to reconstruct a flood timeline for medieval and early modern Kingston-Upon-Hull, revealing a history of repeated flood events impacting the town and surrounding area in the centuries after its foundation in c. 1260. We explore who managed and governed water and flood risk, and how this was achieved, arguing that water management was a pervasive concern as well as a collective and shared responsibility which ultimately generated a ‘living with water mentality’.\u0000 \u0000 This article was published open access under a CC BY licence:\u0000 https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0\u0000 .\u0000","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139843171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Invisible Mountains? The Eastern and Southern Carpathians and their Environmental History (Fourteenth–Seventeenth Centuries)","authors":"Kata Tóth","doi":"10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903578","url":null,"abstract":"The environmental history of the pre-modern Eastern and Southern Carpathians is largely understudied, primarily due to the scarcity of sources. Also, since these mountains divided Moldavia and Wallachia from Transylvania, historians have regarded them as a political frontier. This article shows the possibilities of studying the Carpathians’ past environment while demonstrating short and long-term anthropogenic changes from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. It also offers a detailed overview of the extant sources that complement and confirm the results from palaeobotanical and dendrochronological studies. The Ottoman fiscal and commercial pressure on Moldavia and Wallachia as well as the emergence of Transylvania as an independent principality in the sixteenth century increased demand for grassland, fuelwood and timber, affecting the environment in the long run. The article shows that the Southern and Eastern Carpathians were well-integrated into the regional and superregional economy and the importance of their resources was not marginal.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139842752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A British Military Engineer, the Ganga and the Spectre of Control in Colonial Northern India (1839–1854)","authors":"Rahul Ranjan","doi":"10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903575","url":null,"abstract":"Much has been written about environmental and agrarian history in South Asia. These documented histories provide a fascinating overview of structural changes brought about through infrastructural development and modes of colonial governance. However, specific and advanced forms of intervention were introduced in the nineteenth century, which was defined by the accelerated scale of exploitation of the environment. This article offers an account of the Ganga Canal, constructed in mid-nineteenth century colonial India, under British engineer Proby Cautley, by drawing water from the river Ganga. The paper revisits his motivations and challenges and the scope of his plan to make two arguments. First, it argues that the engineering model of Cautley reflects his deeper entanglement with the ideals of colonial modernity, such as controlling the natural world. Second, the colossal scale of hydrological experimentation through the processes of canal construction, in turn, transformed the imagination of the river into an object.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139865118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A British Military Engineer, the Ganga and the Spectre of Control in Colonial Northern India (1839–1854)","authors":"Rahul Ranjan","doi":"10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903575","url":null,"abstract":"Much has been written about environmental and agrarian history in South Asia. These documented histories provide a fascinating overview of structural changes brought about through infrastructural development and modes of colonial governance. However, specific and advanced forms of intervention were introduced in the nineteenth century, which was defined by the accelerated scale of exploitation of the environment. This article offers an account of the Ganga Canal, constructed in mid-nineteenth century colonial India, under British engineer Proby Cautley, by drawing water from the river Ganga. The paper revisits his motivations and challenges and the scope of his plan to make two arguments. First, it argues that the engineering model of Cautley reflects his deeper entanglement with the ideals of colonial modernity, such as controlling the natural world. Second, the colossal scale of hydrological experimentation through the processes of canal construction, in turn, transformed the imagination of the river into an object.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139805310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hujog:\u0000 The Disaster Years in Pre- and Post-1971 Chilmari, Bangladesh","authors":"Saad Quaseem","doi":"10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/whp.eh.63830915903568","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139686121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}