In 1608 they started with building dikes around the Beemster. On these dikes they build mills to reclaim the land. The man who was in charge of building the mills was Jan Adriaansz., nicknamed Leeghwater, millmaker from De Rijp. There were a lot of problems that had to be solved, before the Beemster was a polder. In 1609 fishermen from villages around the Beemster pierced the dikes, because they were scared that they would lose their jobs.
On twenty January 1610, when the lake was almost dry, a big storm destroyed the ring dike at some places, with the result that a lot of water overrunned the reclaimed land. But they wouldn't give up. New rich participants invested money in the Beemster. They repaired the dike and made it more stronger. They also build new windmills, so that there were now 41 of them. They build three windmills close to eachtother. The idea behind this was that the second mill grinded the water of the first mill to the third. The third mill grinded the water in a circular canal. This system trippled the raise of the water to 4.5 meter. In May 1612 the Beemster was now forever dry. They digged a lot of ditches and constructed roads and squares. On the fourth of July the princes Maurits and Frederik Hendrik came to the Beemster to admire the for that time unique performance. Typical for that time was that the later honored Leeghwater, the technical man who made the whole plan work, not was invited for the diner that was organized to celebrate the creation of the new land. He was just a servant at the diner, because he didn't belong to the rich and therefore important men.
|
This is a map of the Beemster of how the land was parcelled. |
The first years after the creation of the new land it was very fertile. New land is the first years always very fertile, but after a few years the land becomes less fertile. In 1621 the harvest was bad. The result was that the land that was used to harvest became land to let cattle graze. This raises more capital. In 1630 there were already 2000 people living in the polder. The people came from all parts of the Netherlands, but the most came from West-Friesland. There were also German laborer, who had worked with the Dutch to make the Beemster dry, who stayed in the Beemster when the work was done. The average age of the people living in the Beemster was pretty low, and the birth rate was high. In 1630 there was already a church and five schools.
The men who had invested in the Beemster became more rich then they already were. The city of Purmerend was growing because of the high standard of living in the Beemster. 30 years after the reclamation of the Beemster it reached a very high standard of living, which continued to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The economic depression of the eighteenth century in the Netherlands, had also impact on the Beemster. The cattle-plague had a lot of impact on the economic situation in the Beemster. In the years 1713-19, 1744-50 and 1769-88 more than the half of all the cattle died. Some farmers stopped breeding cattle and used their land to harvest crops.
The first half of the nineteenth century was a period of high prosperity for the agriculture. The prices of the crops were raising at that time, so that a lot of people invested their money in the agriculture, but the most inhabitants of the Beemster were still holding cattle as their income. At the end of the of nineteenth century the prices of cheese, butter and corn went down. This had an impact on the people that were living in the Beemster. The big farmers had to fire some of their servants, but it was not so bad that they had serious economic problems. At the beginning of the twentieth century the people living in the Beemster solved this problems.
But how come that they solved this economic problems? A good explanation is that they were very good educated. The alphabetism in the Beemster was the highest in the Netherlands. This was a result of a good school system. It is formerly known that in places with a high level of education mostly also economic prosperity is. Good educated people are mostly people whom undertake a lot and have enough ideas to overcome difficulties. Because of the highly educated people is the Beemster nowadays, one of the richest parts in the Netherlands. (only the Dunepart of Zuid-Holland and Het Gooi have an higher income per capita)
In 1960 there was a new plan to control the water. The machines which held the water out of the polder were to old. As other polders had no problems with a lot of rainfall, at the same time some parts of the Beemster were standing under water. It was not only the capacity but also the quality of the grind machines that wasn't sufficient enough. This resulted in the opening of two new grind machines and the possibility to drain every piece of land individually. Through this there was the possibility to make the land more wet on some parts if it was necessary for the crops.