Engineering the Lower Danube - Luminita Gatejel

Engineering the Lower Danube

Technology and Territoriality in an Imperial Borderland, Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Buch | Hardcover
348 Seiten
2023
Central European University Press (Verlag)
978-963-386-579-8 (ISBN)
95,95 inkl. MwSt
The Lower Danube—the stretch of Europe’s second longest river between the Romanian-Serbian border and the confluence to the Black Sea—was effectively transformed during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In describing this lengthy undertaking, Luminita Gatejel proposes that remaking two key stretches—the Iron Gates and the delta—not only physically altered the river but also redefined it in a legal and political sense. 


Since the late eighteenth century, military conflicts and peace treaties changed the nature of sovereignty over the area, as the expansionist tendencies of the Habsburg and British Empires encountered rival Ottoman and Russian imperial plans. The inconvenience that the river’s physical shape obstructed free navigation and the growth of commercial traffic, was an increasing concern to all parties. This book shows that alongside imperial aspirations, transnational actors like engineers, commissioners and entrepreneurs were the driving force behind the river regulation. In this highly original, deeply researched, and carefully crafted study, Gatejel explores the formation of international cooperation, the emergence of technical expertise and the emergence of engineering as a profession. This constellation turned the Lower Danube into a laboratory for experimenting with new forms of international cooperation, economic integration, and nature transformation.

Luminita Gatejel is a senior researcher at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg. 

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations


Introduction

Engineering International Cooperation on the Lower Danube

Building Infrastructure along the Lower Danube

Sources and Outline


Chapter 1. Exploring the Danube

Knowledge and the Imperial Appropriation of the Lower Danube

Luigi Marsigli and Austrian Expansionism on the Lower Danube

The First Habsburg Economic Enterprises on the Lower Danube

State Support and Renewed Attempts to Upgrade the Danube Route

New Habsburg Assessments at the Turn of the Century

Why Did the Shipping Connection on the Danube Fail?

Russia’s Steady Advance to the Lower Danube

Russia’s “Enlightened” Projects Along the Lower Danube

Conclusion


Chapter 2. Connecting the Danube with the Sea

Physical and Symbolic Boundaries at the Iron Gates

Military Surveys at the Iron Gates

Technical Assessments of the Iron Gates

Negotiating the Passage to the Lower Danube

First Engineering Breakthrough at the Iron Gates

Traveling through the Iron Gates

Delays and Damage to the Sulina Channel

Circumventing the Danube Delta

Conclusion


3. From Confrontation to Cooperation: the Crimean War and Its Aftermath

War as an opportunity at the Iron Gates

The Danube Delta During the Crimean War

The Failed Riverine Commission

Engineering Breakthrough at the Mouth of the Danube

Hartley’s Provisional Project at the Sulina Bar

The Inauguration of Hartley’s Piers

Conclusion


4. The Danube Delta: A Success in International Ruling

Provisional Regulations for the Delta

The Public Act on Navigation

Budget Constraints

On the Way to Permanency

Consolidation Works at Sulina

Straightening the Sulina Channel

Conclusion


5. The Iron Gates Torn Between Imperial, International and National Interests

The Engineer Versus the Entrepreneur

The Limited Influence of the International Commission

A New Commission of Foreign Experts

Public Engineering Debates in Vienna

The Regulation of the Iron Gates as a Hungarian State-Building Measure

Impact and Consequences of the Regulation Project

Conclusion


Conclusions


Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie Historical Studies in Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Zusatzinfo 15 Illustrations
Verlagsort Budapest
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Gewicht 635 g
Themenwelt Geschichte Allgemeine Geschichte Neuzeit (bis 1918)
Geisteswissenschaften Geschichte Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Geschichte Teilgebiete der Geschichte Wirtschaftsgeschichte
ISBN-10 963-386-579-4 / 9633865794
ISBN-13 978-963-386-579-8 / 9789633865798
Zustand Neuware
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