92 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
92 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
**Free Frisia** or **Frisian Freedom** (or **Friesische Freiheit** or
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**Fryske frijheid**) refers to a period where the state and feudalism
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were absent from a significant portion of Frisia (Now claimed by the
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[Nederlands](Kingdom_of_the_Nederlands "wikilink")) from [993 to the
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early 1500s](Timeline_of_Libertarian_Socialism "wikilink"). Society was
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run via a [confederation](confederation "wikilink") of democratic towns,
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villages and farming communities, allowing a sort of semi
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[proto-libertarian socialism](Libertarian_Socialism "wikilink") to be
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[experimented](List_of_Libertarian_Socialist_Societies "wikilink") with
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in Medieval Europe.
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## Decision-Making
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Friesland had no Knighthood or Ridderschap. In Friesland, the feudal
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idea of nobility, which gave the right of control in the country, was
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deemed incompatible with the "Frisian freedom". The region also had no
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forced labour. Some "nobles" still had a major influence in the region
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due to their great land ownership. The right to vote in local matters
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was based on the ownership of land, in which a person owning one unit of
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land received the right to have one vote. This meant that men owning
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large areas of land could cast more votes. Voting men used their
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influence to choose a mayor from one of the thirty municipalities, who
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in turn represented all of Friesland. Each city had eleven votes.\[1\]
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## Environmental Protection
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According to [Peter Gelderloos](Peter_Gelderloos "wikilink"), the
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decentralized nature of Frisia at the time allowed it to practice some
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of the most advanced engineering and environmental protection
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experiments in the world at the time:
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> Water management in that lowland northern country in the
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> 12<sup>th</sup> and 13<sup>th</sup> centuries provides another example
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> of bottom-up solutions to environmental problems. Since much of the
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> Netherlands is below sea level and nearly all of it is in danger of
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> flooding, farmers had to work constantly to maintain and improve the
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> water management system. The protections against flooding were a
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> [common infrastructure that benefited everybody](Commons "wikilink"),
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> yet they also required everyone to invest in the good of the
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> collective to maintain them: an individual farmer stood to gain by
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> shirking water management duties, but the entire society would lose if
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> there were a flood. This example is especially significant because
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> Dutch society lacked the anarchistic values common in indigenous
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> societies. The area had long been converted to
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> [Christianity](Christianity "wikilink") and indoctrinated in its
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> [ecocidal](Ecocide "wikilink"),
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> [hierarchical](Social_Hierarchy "wikilink") values; for hundreds of
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> years it had been under the control of a state, though the empire had
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> fallen apart and in the 12<sup>th</sup> and 13<sup>th</sup> centuries
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> the Netherlands were effectively stateless. Central authority in the
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> form of church officials, feudal lords, and [guilds](Guild "wikilink")
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> remained strong in Holland and Zeeland, where
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> [capitalism](capitalism "wikilink") would eventually originate, but in
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> northern regions such as Friesland society was largely decentralized
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> and horizontal.
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> At that time, contact between towns dozens of miles apart — several
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> days’ travel — could be more challenging than global communication in
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> the present day. Despite this difficulty, farming communities, towns,
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> and villages managed to build and maintain extensive infrastructure to
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> reclaim land from the sea and protect against flooding amid
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> fluctuating sea levels. [Neighborhood
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> councils](Democratic_Assembly "wikilink"), by organizing cooperative
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> work bands or dividing duties between communities, built and
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> maintained the dykes, canals, sluices, and drainage systems necessary
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> to protect the entire society; it was “a joint approach from the
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> bottom-up, from the local communities, that found their protection
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> through organizing themselves in such a way.” Spontaneous horizontal
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> organizing even played a major role in the feudal areas such as
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> Holland and Zeeland, and it is doubtful that the weak authorities who
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> did exist in those parts could have managed the necessary water works
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> by themselves, given their limited power. Though the authorities
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> always take credit for the creativity of the masses, spontaneous
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> self-organization persists even in the shadow of the state.\[2\]
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## Decline
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The decline and end of Free Frisia was rooted in foreign nobles
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asserting their own power and retaking territory. The region was
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surrounded by hostile feudal communities from all sides and could not
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withstand hundreds of years of constant attack.\[3\]
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## References
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<references />
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1. [Wikipedia](Wikipedia "wikilink") -
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<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_freedom#Content>
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2. [Peter Gelderloos](Peter_Gelderloos "wikilink") (2010) [Anarchy
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Works](Anarchy_Works "wikilink")
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3. [Wikipedia](Wikipedia "wikilink") -
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<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_freedom#End> |