The experience of state formation. Chronicling and petitioning on the Dutch island of Ameland (c. 1780–1815)

Abstract

In this article I examine how state formation in the revolutionary and Napoleonic period was experienced by inhabitants of the Dutch island of Ameland. I focus on chronicling and petitioning, two activities that were performed by ordinary people. The microhistorical perspective adopted in this article reveals more continuity in the way political transformations were experienced than an institutional outlook might suggest. Between 1780 and 1815 the Netherlands developed from an oligarchic confederacy of local administrative units into an autocratic and centralized monarchy. Yet the people of Ameland continued to understand political authority and political representation very much in oldregime terms.