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In classical times there was already a body of water in this location, called the Flevo Lake by Roman authors. It was, however, much smaller in size than its later forms and its connection to the main sea was much narrower. During the early Middle Ages this began to change as increasing sea levels and storms started to eat away at the coastal areas which consisted mainly of peatlands. In this period the inlet was referred to as the Almere indicating it was still more of a lake, but when the mouth and size of the inlet were significantly widened in the 12th and 13th century by several major storms, the name Zuiderzee came into general usage. The size of this inland sea remained largely stable from the 15th century onwards due to improvements in dikes, but when a storm would push North Sea water into the inlet, the Zuiderzee would become a volatile cauldron of water, frequently resulting in flooding and the loss of ships. For example, on November 18, 1421Events March 21 Battle of Bauge. A small French force surprises and defeats an English force under Thomas, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Henry V of England, in Normandy. May 26 Mehmed I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his son Murad a seawall at the Zuider Zee dike broke, which flooded 72 villages and killed about 10,000 people.
Around the Zuiderzee many fishing villages grew up and several developed into walled towns with extensive trade connections, at first with the Baltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is in northeastern Europe, bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of east and central Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat and the North Sea by way of the Oresund, the Great Belt and the Small Belt. It is, EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England and the Hanseatic LeagueThe foundations of the Hanseatic League an alliance of trading cities that for a time in the later Middle Ages and the Early Modern period maintained a trade monopoly over most of Northern Europe and the Baltic, can be seen as early as the 12th century., but later also with the rest of the world when the Netherlands established its colonial connections, in particular towns in HollandThis article is about the region in the Netherlands. For other uses, see Holland (disambiguation). Holland is the name of a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. Holland is a former county of the Holy Roman Empire and later the leading me such as AmsterdamMunicipality of Amsterdam St Andrew's crosses are taken to represent these (though the crosses are even older than the motto). A popular tradition links the X's to the three threats to the city: Water, Fire and Pestilence. Alternate meanings: See Amsterda, HoornHoorn (population: 66,460) is a municipality and a town in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The municipality covers an area of 52. 49 kmē (of which 32. 62 kmē is water). The municipality of Hoorn also includes the following and EnkhuizenEnkhuizen (population: 17,069) is a town in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The municipality covers an area of 14. 31 kmē (of which 1. 78 kmē water). The municipality of Enkhuizen also includes the following towns, village. When that lucrative trade diminished, most of the towns were left with fishery and some industry until the 20th century when tourism became the major source of income. Contained within the Zuiderzee were four small islands, the remains of what were once larger islands or peninsulas connected to the mainland. These were Wieringen, Urk, Schokland and Marken. The inhabitants of these islands also subsisted mainly on fishery and related industries and still do in the case of Urk and Wieringen. All islands are now part of the mainland or connected to it.
The 20th century saw the taming of the Zuiderzee as a large closing dam (the Afsluitdijk) was constructed. Completed in 1932, the Zuiderzee became the IJsselmeer and large areas of water could be reclaimed for farming and housing. This enormous project, called the Zuiderzeeworks, ran from 1919 to 1986, culminating in the creation of the new province of Flevoland.