History of Schokland, Netherlands
Up until the 15th century, the Schokland area was a peninsula. Rising North Sea levels, while changing the configuration of the coastal relief, caused the sea to flood a significant portion of the peninsula and sever the connection to the mainland. This is how the island was created and in 1940 was re-annexed to the mainland.
The story of this part of the Netherlands is partly told in the Museum Schokland, and the rest of the story lies in the traditions of the people of this area, contemporaries, and future generations. The struggle of man and nature, but at the same time respecting the laws of nature, was recognized by UNESCO, having awarded this area the status of a protected World Heritage Site in 1995.
Signs of human civilization and permanent settlements date more than 6000 years ago. The sea covered many archeological sites (according to published records 152) and thus preserved them from devastation and decay. The fragments of dikes and dams from the prehistoric period testify the fact that the battle between humans and water from the Rhine and the North Sea begins from ancient times. . Drainage of the terrain and re-annexation of the island to the mainland made it easier to discover and access the archaeological material and its preservation.
Remains of peat dams and other loose materials, up to 70 cm in height, were found, dating from the period to the Late Iron Age. Later, these embankments were reinforced with stiffer materials. The aforementioned museum houses some of the remains of human, animal and plant life from the prehistoric period.
Between the 12th and 15th centuries, the coastal parts of the Netherlands experienced subsidence of the ground and a simultaneous rise in sea level. The consequence of this process is the leveling of the sea and land. The process also affects the area of Shokland where the connection to the mainland is disconnected and people were left to live on the island. They were making tremendous efforts to secure the coasts from further flooding and reeled wooden ramparts that protected the island from the unpredictable North Sea, strong tidal waves and sand and silt.
The population was mainly engaged in fishing because although the sea is dangerous and inhospitable, it still allowed people to secure their livelihoods and survive where they were. The richness of the sea world, the newly minted islanders, represented a chance for relatively safe earning and community prosperity. Schools, churches, settlements were being built and, most importantly, a serious fishing fleet was formed.
The 17th century was the golden age of the Dutch state. Technical and technological inventions, shipbuilding, cheap wind energy, geographical discoveries, the establishment of the First Bank 1609 (Bank of Amsterdam), trade, weapons and military skills, political and military alliances, separation of the Reformed Dutch Church (Protestantism) from the Catholic Church and victory over its patron powers, Spain and France, make the Netherlands reach an industrial, economic and cultural boom.
A very important role in this process was played by the Dutch East India Company, shortened VOC, which was founded in Amsterdam in 1602. It was the first multinational company in today’s sense of the word, and its foundation is tied to the start of the stock market in the world. Her possessions ranged from Japan, China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, North and South America to the Caribbean. Trade and military stations have been formed in almost all strategic places essential for smooth navigation, proximity to sources of raw materials, ores, spices, and slaves. The Netherlands had a trade monopoly on the sale of tea from China, a trade monopoly with Japan, which lasted for nearly 150 years. Dutch slave traders provided slaves to plantations in South and North America.
We are familiar with these facts in history lessons (or we are not) but what is of interest to this story is the question of what happens to this tiny point of land on a navigable waterway that connects the Netherlands Denmark, Germany and the Baltic coast to the world’s seas?
The island lived in relative peace. Wars, armies, and diseases that have nearly halved the population of some European cities somehow pass by these tireless fishermen seamlessly. The only thing that has succeeded in dividing the small human community on the island was the consequence of the reformation of the church and the people’s commitment to traditional Catholic religious teaching or new, reformatory or Protestant religious teaching. The division into religious communities was at first extremely sharp and strict. Almost any interpersonal contact was unacceptable, and marital relationships between islanders of different religious backgrounds were unacceptable. This period is witnessed by some literary works and operas whose entanglements are based on the forbidden love of two young people from families of different religious communities.
Over time, these sharp differences diminished and the spirit of religious tolerance expands. A religiously divided island, where each community had its traditions, customs, and costumes, gradually, under the onslaught of a difficult and painful life and impending natural disasters, entered a phase of religious tolerance and the way of dressing changed and transitioned, as the museum’s kind curator explained, work clothes without any religious connotation.
Suddenly, the islanders were left with terrible knowledge without a dilemma, there was no chance for further living on the island. The wooden dams, which were part of the defense embankments under the rush of the North Sea waves and winds, were destroyed part by part. Lives and property are endangered and the dams disappeared, the sea overflowed all over the island, people were on the verge of endurance. Houses, schools, cemeteries disappeared.
What was the cause of this collapse? Some people believe they knew. Justus Van Effen and Macheld Bouman both published in their works 1732 and 1734. Divorce, sodomy, Freemasonry, homosexuality, and ungodliness angered God, and he severely punished people in response to the decadence of the Golden Age sent natural disasters to them. Not delving deeper into religious-philosophical debates, another reason was discovered for the breakdown of the system of wooden dams and embankments. Worms.
The powerful fleet of the East India Company, during its long maritime voyages, from the warm Asian seas, in the run for spices and valuables, brought a species of sea worms that inhabit the tree and feed with the tree. Hooked on the wooden hull of the ships, they were traveling the oceans. Once they felt that living conditions were good, they were leaving the ships. One of such places was the island from this story but also a large number of wooden dams throughout the Netherlands. The unwanted worms from distant seas have expanded steadily from the seashore with river flows to the inland. Scientist Karol Lineus (Carolus Linnaeus, 1707-1778) gave to this animal the scientific name in 1758, Teredo navalus. This animal is a shell about 2 cm in size and a 10 cm worm-like body emerges from it. Some sources state that specimens of up to 60 cm in length have been observed. In an attempt to protect ships from these worms, wooden ships were coated with a thick layer of tar. According to some reports, the occurrence of worms again was observed in 2015 around Rotterdam.
History records the years 1680, 1731, 1830 and 1858 when the invasion of worms or destructive animals, as they were called, caused enormous damage to wooden dams. In the absence of timber to serve the restoration of damaged dams, residents began massively destroying prehistoric tombs and installing megalithic stone blocks from which tombs were made into dams and embankments. To prevent the massive destruction of historical remains, a law was passed on 21th July 1734 to protect the archaeological heritage in the Netherlands. Since then, the stone has been imported from Norway and Belgium.
Almost overnight, in 1825, in extremely severe weather, the sea destroyed columns pierced by the worms. The dams had relented and the residents had to be evacuated. Leaving the island took many years and not everyone was willing to leave their homes and fishing as a source of income. The alternative was to go to other, closer or further unknown places in the Netherlands or the New World, or North America. Numerous sculptures and remains of the vessels around the museum and the restored church testify to this exodus. Only the lighthouse crew had to stay on the island. Legend says that they were suffering very much. They were lonely and the corpses of dead people and dead animals floated around the lighthouse. The sea also destroyed the local cemeteries, leaving the earthly remains of long-retired people floating on the water, further contributing to the horror of the lighthouse workers. The evacuation order was fully implemented in 1859 and since then until 1940 the fight for land and seizure of what used to be the peninsula has continued.
The works were extremely demanding and hard, due to muddy terrain. Near to the construction sites, camps were set up for workers and their families, from which some of today’s cities were generated. The works were not interrupted during both World Wars. In the First World War, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was neutral, and during the Second World War, the German occupying force did not stop the works even, on the contrary, they ended irrigation works in 1940/42. And as the war thundered across the globe, record agricultural harvests were reached in 1943 on land just conquered from the sea. The well-knowing fact is that extremely high crops can be achieved on such land and with the application of certain agro-technical measures. Following the disembarkation of the Allies, during the fighting for liberation from the invaders, part of the embankment was damaged but was quickly rebuilt so that there was no danger of re-penetration of the sea.
Today’s residents of Schokland are nurturing a culture of memory through a variety of activities. From religious and state commemorations to cultural and educational activities. Much attention is also paid to the development of tourism, as this region has to show a lot and a special impulse was given by UNESCO. One of these activities was the twinning of the cities from the Norwegian Ringerika area and the Dutch Noordspolder area. The Norwegians sent several pieces of glacial rock to the Netherlands, and the Netherlands sent anchors weighing 2500 kg, found after irrigation works, to its fraternal municipality in Norway.
A rare combination of simultaneous natural disasters, 1953 brought the Netherlands great trouble. The North Sea, with tidal waves, extremely strong northwest winds and high water levels, flooded 1650 km2 of territory and claimed 1800 lives. Small-scale floods reoccurred in 1993 and 1995 when Parliament adopted the “River Space Act”, which envisages a new flood protection strategy.
Combating water disaster requires resources, perseverance, commitment, knowledge and serious planning. Fixing, maintaining and constructing new embankments, dams, dams, and reservoirs is as vital as educating the population. Considering climate change and the increasing frequency of flooding everywhere in the world, but also in our country, everything indicates that nature should be treated with great respect and that other nations’ experiences in dealing with natural disasters should be learned and taken over.
