Modernization and decline: an eco-historical perspective on regulation of the Tisza Valley, Hungary

This paper surveys the biggest river regulation of nineteenth-century Europe from new perspectives, examines its social and economic justification and tests the validity of the arguments buttressing the heroizing historical picture of the megaproject. By taking economic, enviro-historical and geopolitical perspectives it broadens the geo-historical picture attached to the symbol of nineteenth-century Hungarian modernization. I argue that the planning and decision making levels of river regulations were dominated by a narrow stratum of landowners who possessed a decisive proportion of floodplains and who became interested in extending cropland farming. The paper illuminates certain covert details of the Tisza regulation by presenting unpublished documents on levying floodplain tax. As a result of one-sided plans reflecting only the interests of the privileged stratum the Tisza regulation proved to be a delayed and mistimed venture, since the European markets of reclaimed Tisza Valley wetlands producing grain for export collapsed right in the second phase of regulation because of the 'overseas transport-induced price shock'.