Abstract

Abstract:

In the 1880s, a company was formed in France for the purpose of draining Lake Kopaïs—a large, natural lake in Central Greece. This was the largest water management project yet undertaken in the country, made possible by recent advances in engineering and technology, and it ushered in a century of similarly ambitious projects. Draining the lake fundamentally altered the environment of the region, but it did not create new agricultural land out of wasteland as the project's backers maintained; instead, it transformed one type of productive land into another type, and the resulting dislocations were felt in the region for years to come. As revealed in the records of the French company and the British company that succeeded it, as well as in contemporary news reports, legal documents, and government records, this transformation created conflicts between those who sought to protect their traditional land use rights and those who sought to use the land for capitalist agriculture. These conflicts lasted for decades, and they were fought in parliament, in the courtroom, and occasionally in the countryside with violence.

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