Woodland and the Medieval Economic Expansion: a Comparative Perspective on North-West Europe

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• Nicolas Shroeder (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
• Thursday 20 November 2025, 17:15-18:45
• Lightfoot Room - St John's College.

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European medieval economic expansion has traditionally been associated with woodland clearance. Since Marc Bloch, the concept of grands défrichements designates a phase of deforestation between the 11th and 13th c., associated with agrarian, demographic, urban, and commercial growth. Over the last decades, this notion has been increasingly criticised. Contributions from forest history, archaeology and palaeoenvironmental studies have questioned the real importance and form of medieval deforestation processes. This paper presents these debates and attempts to reassess woodland use and dynamics within the contemporary territory of Belgium. It mobilizes and reinterprets archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and textual evidence, putting the ‘Belgian’ case within a broader north-west European comparative framework.

This talk is part of the Core Seminar in Economic and Social History series.

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• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• Core Seminar in Economic and Social History
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• History and Philosophy of Science long list
• Lightfoot Room - St John's College
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