A History of Western Society

Chapter 19

The Expansion of Europe in the Eighteenth

Century

Cover Slide

Agriculture and the land

• Life was uncertain – Population followed an irregular cycle of slow

growth

– Food production unchanged

– Procreation cyclical

– Birth / death rates uncertain

• Agriculture changed the balance of uncertainty – Led to / population surplus / gains in technology /

food / industry

Vernet, Building HighwayAn expanding system of all-weather roads improved French communications, promoted trade, and facilitated relief in time of famine. This majestic painting by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) captures the spirit of the Enlightenment's cautious optimism and its faith in hard-won progress. (Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library International)

Vernet, Building Highway

• The Open Field System – Greatest accomplishment of medieval

agriculture.– Common land worked by all for the

community – Common lands set aside for animals – Poor allowed to (Glean) pick up what was

left (single grains of crop) after harvest

Agriculture and the land

Selective breeding"Selective breeding" meant bigger livestock and more meat on English tables. This engraving depicts a gigantic champion, one of the new improved shorthorn breed, known as the Newbus Ox. Such great fat beasts were pictured in the press and praised by poets.

Selective breeding

agricultural revolution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that gave rise to the industrial

revolution.• An agricultural revolution occurred during the

late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.– The use of crop rotation (most popular use of land)

increased cultivation.– Grain crops were alternated with nitrogen-storing

crops.– “Enclosing” the fields ended the open field system.– The enclosure movement meant an end to common

land.– The success of the Agro revolution in England

depended on tenant farmers.

England and the Low Countries were the leaders in the agricultural movement.

• The Netherlands or Low Countries led the way in the Agricultural revolution– Due to a growing population.

• Cornelius Vermuyden directed drainage projects in England based on Dutch experience.

• Jethro Tull gained fame in experimental agricultural and animal husbandry.– Led empirical research to gain knowledge

Population increase and explosion

• There were limitations on population growth up to about the year 1700.– Famine, disease, and war were the usual checks on

growth.– Europe’s population growth was kept fairly low.– Famine Foods

• Grass / tree Bark / ate to keep from starving

– Increase in food supply in foods such as turnips / potatoes helped the population explosion

Caribbean Sugar MillThis painting, from William Clark's Ten Views in the Island of Antigua, 1823, depicts a Caribbean windmill crushing sugar cane whose juice is boiled down in the smoking building next door.

Caribbean Sugar Mill

• A new pattern of growth emerged in the eighteenth century.– Fewer deaths occurred primarily due to the

disappearance of the plague. (Brown rat takeover)– Advances in medicine did little to decrease the death

rate.– Improved sanitation promoted improving public

health.– An increase in food supply meant fewer famines and

epidemics.

Population increase and explosion

• The cottage industry grew during the age of the agricultural revolution.– The rural poor performed manufacturing work.– This cottage industry began to challenge the urban

craft industry.– The putting-out system involved merchant-capitalists

providing raw materials to the rural poor who, in turn, produced cloth in their homes.

– The textile industry in England was an example of the putting-out system.

Population increase role in Europe

Population and Manufacturing

• Cottage Industry– Russia had the largest population by 1800– The French encouraged cottage manufacturing (The

cottage industry) to improve the living standards of the rural poor.

– The putting out system employed rural families as family units.

– Holy Monday (Too drunk to work) was a day of relaxation for the poor

• Mercantilism continued to evolve during the period.– (M) = Regulations that increased the power of the

state by creating a favorable balance of trade– English mercantilism was characterized by

government regulations that served the interests of private individuals.

– The English mercantilist system benefited from England’s North American colonies.

– Designed to enrich the mother country.

The Atlantic Economy

English and French in

North America ca.

1700

• Mercantilism continued to evolve during the period.– The method of targeting the Dutch and strengthening

the English economy. – The Navigation Acts provided the British a monopoly

on trade with the colonies. – England became supreme in Europe after the Seven

Years War. – Won the war due to putting men and money into the

Americas (A better Strategy)

The Atlantic Economy

"Taking of Quebec City"The French successfully defended their capital from British attack in 1690 and again in 1711. But, as this anonymous color line engraving A View of the Taking of Quebec, September 13, 1759 shows, British troops landed, scaled the cliffs in the dead of the night, and defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham above Quebec. The battle gave Britain a decisive victory in the long struggle for empire in North America.

"Taking of Quebec City"

European Claims in North America Before and After the Seven Years' War

• Adam Smith did not support the idea of Mercantilism.

• He believed in the value of free markets and wrote a treatise on it called the “Wealth of Nations”

• Government had a role but regulation of trade was not one of the roles.

• Believed in (LF) or hands off

The Atlantic Economy

The Atlantic Slave trade

• Atlantic economic system based on the slave trade

• Engine of the economy / stopped European wars / focused on wealth

• 80% of goods produced by slaves.• Slavery intensified / Britain outlawed

slavery in 1807 (British Women pushed it)

Slave shipThis drawing from a parliamentary report on slavery shows that the revolting conditions on slave ships sailing to Caribbean and North American ports pale in barbarity beside conditions on the southern route to Brazil, where slaves were literally packed like sardines in a can.

Slave ship

Colonial Revival in the Americas

• Creoles –Spanish blood born in the Americas --- Noble class

• Mestizos – Spanish and Indian mixed parentage ----- Upper class

• African slaves did most of the work

Forming the Mexican PeopleThis painting by an unknown eighteenth-century artist presents a naive but sympathetic view of interracial unions and marriages in colonial Mexico. On the left, the union of a Spanish man and a Native American woman has produced a racially mixed mestizo. The handsome group on the right features a mestizo woman and a Spaniard with their little daughter. (Private Collection)

Forming the Mexican People

Map: The Atlantic

Economy