Corridors in disappearing peripheries. The Austrian Netherlands' Transit Policy and the Integration of Peripheries and Core Areas in the Eighteenth Century

Description

In the eighteenth century, Belgium - or the Austrian Netherlands as it was known then - witnessed the unprecedented growth of its road network. This expansion policy was fuelled by the central government in Brussels and is traditionally called the transit policy in historiography. Not only did the transit policy contribute to Belgium's early industrialisation (in Great-Britain's wake), it also played an all-important role in creating a new urban network.

The new Austrian Netherlands' transport and communication infrastructure focussed mainly on building links between the country's formerly unconnected urban cores or centres (North Sea coast, Scheldt valley, Meuse valley and Moselle valley). As such, these new roads bridged the 'empty' spaces - or peripheries - that separated these densely populated and well integrated urban areas. The result was the merging of the peripheries and the centre areas into, what can be viewed as, a single interrelated urban system.

In this paper's general introduction, this process will be geared into a broader theoretical framework, which includes well established and ingrained notions, such as Foreland and Hinterland (e.g. Guido Weigend, Jan de Vries, Lynn Lees, Paul Hohenberg, Clé Lesger, etc.). But new concepts, like the Rearland, will be introduced. This will not only explain the requirements that were needed for the transport and communication infrastructure to link up periphery and centre, but also how to understand the process in which these two concepts coagulated and became one.

This theoretical introduction makes it possible to go much deeper into the merging process between periphery and core areas. It shows, amongst others, that both periphery and core actively participated in influencing and steering this process. These - sometimes vigorous - actions undertaken by both periphery and core did however not follow a prefixed and established pattern. Core areas have always been given a preponderant role in these actions, as they either actively tried to connect themselves with the periphery in order to integrate it into their system, or as they remained wary of creating any additional link with these outlying regions. But these lines of conduct were not only limited to the centres, peripheries were equally very active in their search for a more profound integration with the centre regions. Some of these areas at the fringe were however perfectly satisfied with their situation, and thus actively sought - and fought - to remain on the edge.

The Austrian Netherlands' transit policy is rich in varying examples of this active participation by peripheries (and centres). By analysing a three case-studies throughout the eighteenth century, it is possible to discern several patterns in the way peripheries tried to interfere in the periphery-centre merging process. The three proposed case-studies are: 1). North Sea port of Ostend: centre opposing the integration of the periphery; 2). Ardennes highlands: periphery opposing the integration by the centre; and 3). Campine plateaux: indifferent centre with a divided periphery seeking integration with the centre.

Period	Oct 2011
Event title	8th International Conference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association
Event type	Conference
Location	Belfast, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International