Armies and Ecosystems in Premodern Europe, The Meuse Region; 1250-1850

Author

Govaerts; Sander

Year

2021

Publisher

Arc Humanities Press

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-1-64189-398-5

Link

Last Update

02-Apr-2026

Keywords

Military Studies ; History ; European Studies ; Ecology & Evolutionary Biology ; General Science ; Geography

Description

AT A HILL named SintPietersberg, just outside Maastricht, around the year 1780 labourers digging out limestone found the skull of a large creature resembling a whale or giant crocodile. It belonged to an animal that measured fifteen to seventeen metres in length. This remarkable specimen, the “Grand Animal de Maastricht,” had reached such fame by 1794 that the Commissaires des Sciences et des Arts present with the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, which had invaded the Austrian Netherlands to spread the ideas of the French Revolution, ordered soldiers to search and confiscate it from its right ful owner. They...