Bressan, Thierry <br/><br/>
An agrarian peculiarity: late serfdom in Westphalia. Late 18th - early 19th century 

 -  2024.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Between Rhine and Weser, 18th-century Westphalia was divided into a number of sovereignties, and seemed left behind by the broad European movement of the Enlightenment, especially since it had maintained among its rural population a form of serfdom that was both original and significant, the Eigenbehörigkeit. With the Munster area as its center, this phenomenon was significant both because of the area, the population, and the legal regimes it concerned, but also because of the rigor that characterized some of its traits, particularly its right of mortmain. Moreover, when compared to other regions of western Germany, Westphalia did not witness any serious emancipatory movement until very late. Indeed while a process of this kind had been hinted at in previous debates and through a handful of local initiatives, especially on Prussian land, it really only began with the French occupation of 1806-1813 and it was completed only a generation later, in the aftermath of the revolutions of 1830.