par Martino, Davide 
Référence Plant Histories, Plantation Architectures (25-27/03/2026: Istituto Svizzero, Roma, Italy)
Publication Non publié, 2026-03-26
Référence Plant Histories, Plantation Architectures (25-27/03/2026: Istituto Svizzero, Roma, Italy)
Publication Non publié, 2026-03-26
Communication à un colloque
| Résumé : | Tobacco, sugarcane, and coffee are thirsty crops. Plentiful water is essential to regular harvests, the aim of any plantation. In tropical colonies, waterways were also the means by which everyone and everything travelled, for few overland routes existed. This paper accordingly centres water as a key element of plant and plantation histories. I argue that water was essential to architecture, for building materials were shipped and floated, and architecture was essential to water, which needed to be channeled, dammed, and evacuated. My examples come from the Dutch colonial world, whose plantations spanned the eastern and western hemispheres. In particular, I focus on two places with the same, telling name: Waterland. On the banks of the river Suriname, on the northern seaboard of South America, Waterland was a sugar plantation. On the shores of the Wijkermeer, east of the dunes lining the North Sea coast, Waterland was a country estate. Connecting the histories of these Waterland(s) shows that plantation and colonisation could also be European phenomena. In the Low Countries, wetlands were sacrificed to the needs of dairy and arable farming using the same hydraulic techniques which enabled the replacement of the rainforest with sugarcane in the Caribbean. Control of water was key to reducing biodiversity in both cases. Architects, engineers, and surveyors trained in the metropole were not alone in devising these water architectures: my research seeks to recover the voices of indigenous communities and enslaved labourers, whose agency has been written out of histories of Suriname and the Low Countries. |
