De karos van Tilly. Een lokaal onderzoek naar staatsvorming in de achttiende eeuw

Samenvatting

Tilly in Woensel: A Local Investigation into Eighteenth-Century State Formation. Charles Tilly's Coercion, Capital and European States, AD 990-1990 (1990) emphasized the high cost of state formation in terms of population loss. Here, this claim is tested in a case study of the southern Dutch village of Woensel during the eighteenth century. The aggregate costs of warfare and taxation represented 25%-33% of the annual household budget. There is no record of riots or violence against local administrators, who, though they often beseeched the national government to reduce taxes, enjoyed many political advantages. In the long run, local solidarity proved stronger than national loyalty; only the imposition of direct rule, 1795-1815, succeeded in overcoming local unity. Thus, Tilly's thesis is only partially confirmed. 5 Tables. Adapted from the source document.