Pinnable

Holland, i.e. the western part of the Netherlands that is mostly below sea level, used to be scattered with lakes, which came into existence as a result of the excavation of peat bogs — especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, when peat was increasingly used as fuel for households in the expanding cities. A new way of cutting peat developed around 1530, known as slagturven, allowed for the extraction of peat well below ground-water level, and wind & rain finished the job of turning the unstable and depleted marshlands into sizable lakes large enough to accommodate naval battles. The 17th century saw various land-reclamation initiatives, the most significant being the project to drain the Beemster lake (72 km²), which required 43 windmills and which brought great profit to the investors after completion in 1612.

Although plans were made in the 17th century to also drain the Haarlemmermeer, a 179-km² lake between Amsterdam, Haarlem and Leiden, it took until 1837 for King Willem I to decide to get on with it. But instead of the some 160 windmills deemed necessary two centuries earlier, it now required only three steam-powered pumping stations to get the job done. Less than half an hour by bicycle from Haarlem, the Cruquius Museum is the only one of these three pumping stations that survived in its almost-original 1849 state. The museum tells the story of the age-old Dutch battle against the water, and how the reclamation of what became the Haarlemmermeer polder by means of steam power marked the breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution in the Netherlands — which, compared to the rest of Europe, started rather late.

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