Peuplication

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Peuplication refers to the planned settlement of an unpopulated or comparatively sparsely populated area; it is therefore a measure of population policy . In a narrower sense, the politics of population means a method practiced in the 17th to 18th centuries for the settlement of areas depopulated, for example through war or epidemics. The term is derived from Latin populus = people or from French. peuple = people.

reasons

Practically all of the peuplication measures in history can be attributed to four reasons:

  • Military: The newly settled population should act as a potential armed force to prevent the area from being occupied or crossed by enemy forces; the Peuplierung then usually goes hand in hand with the creation of military structures (settlers are armed and military trained).
  • Economical: utilization of agricultural land, mineral resources or energy sources.
  • Transport- related : Land transport connections require a minimum of staff, for example to operate hostels or railways. In order not to have to take care of this staff “remotely” in the long term, the existing settlements need a certain minimum size for economic self-sufficiency .
  • In terms of population policy: Avoid extreme population concentrations (and possibly social tensions) if sufficient land is available elsewhere (example: pioneering days in the USA).

Often a combination of several purposes provided the impetus. One example is the establishment of the State of Israel . On the one hand, people were looking for a new home here, on the other hand, the national territory was to be militarily secured and economically developed (see: Israeli settlement ).

Motivation and measures

Ever since the establishment of the state, the government has often decided on Peuplication. Depending on the political system and external conditions, those affected were resettled in different ways:

  • Coercion: Relocation to the areas to be settled is ordered or people are forcibly transported there, sometimes as a punishment. Examples: settlement of the region of Siberia or the penal colony of Australia .
  • Granting of rights: Foreign refugees or convicts receive civil rights when they settle in the assigned area. Example: Immigration of Jews and Huguenots to the eastern regions of Prussia , settlement of the military border of the Habsburg Empire.
  • Social and economic incentives: The residents of the area to be populated receive bonuses, tax breaks or special social benefits to encourage voluntary removals. Example: In Scandinavia, a particularly large amount of money is made available for social benefits in the sparsely populated but resource-rich northern regions.

Historic occasions

Peuplications were seldom the exclusive result of political planning; they were typically stimulated by outside influences:

  • Military or peaceful gain of territories that should be secured and used (such as colonies)
  • Discovery of new areas (example: America)
  • Discovery of raw materials or increasing demand
  • local overpopulation
  • Depopulation through epidemics or war

Historical examples

In the age of absolutism , measures of the Peuplierungspolitik also served a policy in the sense of mercantilism .

The influx of skilled workers from abroad, most of whom were recruited from religious refugees, also served such goals. Under the Great Elector (1620–1688), many immigrants came from the Netherlands and Switzerland; later, Huguenots from France in particular found refuge in Brandenburg and Prussia. The following quote is attributed to Frederick the Great (1712–1786): “All religions are equal and good, and more people, if they profess, are honest people, and if Turks and Heihden come and want to poop the country, they want mosques and build churches ”.

literature

  • Klaus-Peter Decker: Freedom of Conscience and Peuplication. Attitude of tolerance and economic policy in the Ysenburg counties in the 18th century . History workshop Büdingen, Büdingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-939454-94-6 .
  • Charlotte Haver: The King's Experiment. European Migration and the Peuplication of Prussia using the example of the Salzburg emigrants . In: Mathias Beer, Dittmar Dahlmann (ed.): Over the dry border and over the open sea. Inland European and Transatlantic Migrations in the 18th and 19th Centuries . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2004, ISBN 3-89861-365-8 , pp. 67-89.
  • Hans-Christof Kraus : Dealing with the Consequences of the War and "Peuplierung" in the thinking of German cameraists of the 17th and 18th centuries . In: Matthias Asche, Michael Herrmann, Ulrike Ludwig, Anton Schindling (eds.): War, the military and migration in the early modern period . Lit, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-8258-9863-6 , pp. 265-279.
  • Ulrich Niggemann: "Peuplication" as a mercantile instrument. Privilege for immigrants and state-controlled settlements . In: Jochen Oltmer (ed.): Handbook State and Migration in Germany since the 17th Century . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-034528-5 , pp. 171-218.
  • Peter Rauscher : "Impopulation" and "Peuplierung". The beginning of state population policy from the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century. The Habsburg Monarchy and Brandenburg-Prussia in comparison . In: Joseph S. Freedman (ed.): The time around 1670. A turning point in European history and culture? (= Wolfenbütteler Research. Vol. 142). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-447-10389-3 , pp. 135-162.
  • Stefan Volk: Peuplication and religious tolerance. Neuwied from the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century . In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter , vol. 55 (1991), pp. 205-231.
  • René Wiese: Peuplication in Mecklenburg. Achievements and limits of the Büdner settlement in the 18th century. In: Matthias Manke , Ernst Münch (ed.): Constitution and reality of life. The regional constitutional inheritance comparison of 1755 in its time (= publications of the Historical Commission for Mecklenburg, NF, vol. 1). Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2006, ISBN 3-7950-3742-5 , pp. 261-278.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Christof Kraus: Coping with the consequences of the war and “peuplication” in the thinking of German cameraists of the 17th and 18th centuries . In: Matthias Asche, Michael Herrmann, Ulrike Ludwig, Anton Schindling (eds.): War, the military and migration in the early modern period . Lit, Berlin 2008, pp. 265-279.
  2. ↑ Brockhaus, FA: The large foreign dictionary. Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-7653-1270-3 , p. 1025.
  3. ↑ Peter Rauscher: "Impopulation" and "Peuplierung". The beginning of state population policy from the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century. The Habsburg Monarchy and Brandenburg-Prussia in comparison . In: Joseph S. Freedman (ed.): The time around 1670. A turning point in European history and culture? . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 135–162.
  4. ↑ Stefan Volk: Peuplication and religious tolerance. Neuwied from the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century . In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter , vol. 55 (1991), pp. 205-231.
  5. ^ Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre . On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry. (1969) Fischer Taschenbuch, Bücher des Wissens, Frankfurt / Main 1975, ISBN 3-436-02101-6 ; Political goals in the 18th century: pp. 190–195.