10
The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement Mr. Regan

The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

  • Upload
    felix

  • View
    186

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Mr. Regan. The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement. Other Agricultural Revolutions. Neolithic Agricultural Revolution (10,000 B.C. – 3, 000 B.C.). Other Agricultural Revolutions. The Agricultural Revolution of the Middle Ages - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Citation preview

Page 1: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

Mr. Regan

Page 2: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

Other Agricultural Revolutions

Neolithic Agricultural Revolution (10,000 B.C. – 3, 000 B.C.)

Page 3: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

Other Agricultural Revolutions

• The Agricultural Revolution of the Middle Ages

• Two field system to a three field system (1/3 of the land remains fallow each year)• Use horses rather than oxen to pull plows• Iron plow replaces wooden plow

Page 4: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

The Agricultural Revolution – 1700’s• Three field system still highly inefficient and acted as

a brake on European population growth.• Primitive agricultural techniques left little margin for

error, often plunging regions into famine (1690’s --“The Famine Decade”)• Begins in the Netherlands and England (as most

trends do) and involved the introduction of new crops and the application of new farming techniques.• “scientific agriculture” describes the bundle of

changes in crop and livestock farming.

Page 5: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

Charles “Turnip” Townshend (1674 – 1738)

• Supports the use of nitrogen replenishing crops such as turnips, clover, and alfalfa.• These “fodder” crops proved useful

as feed for livestock, whose manure was in turn used to further increase the output of fields.

Page 6: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

The Potato• Introduced from the

Americas• Easy to grow, rich in

vitamins and versatile• Became the staple of

the peasant diet in Ireland, Prussia, and Russia• A large family could

subsist on as little as one acre of potatoes

Page 7: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

More Land Cleared for Use• Terracing allows the Dutch and the English to reclaim

swamps and bogs for crop growing.• Jethro Tull -- advocated the use of soil aeration

through the use of the hoe.• Also invented the seed drill, which pushed the seed safely

beneath the soil

Page 8: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

Selective Breeding of Livestock

• Breed the healthiest animals of each gender with each other to produce healthier, larger animals.• English government

granted awards to those who could produce the fattest, meatiest cattle.

Page 9: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

Agriculture• Scattered, open strips of land for farming are gradually

abandoned• Had been under way in England since the 16th century• 1700’s -- Parliament passes the Enclosure Acts• Allows wealthy landlords to buy up “common land” and enclose it

within larger manors which they controlled.• The destruction of the common lands produced an unequal system

of landholding in England• A few,. large landholders at the top, some independent yeoman farmers in

the middle and a mass of landless laborers at the bottom.• The loss of their common lands left the last group dependent on earning wages

and drove many of them eventually into new urban, industrial areas as an unskilled labor force

Page 10: The Agricultural Revolution of the 1700’s and the Enclosure Movement

Agricultural Revolution to Industrial Revolution

• Britain’s advances in scientific agriculture represents an important cause of the Industrial Revolution, which we will discuss later.• Increased productivity “liberated” small farmers from

the land• Many of these small farmers saw themselves as victims of

the enclosure movement, “thrown from their land” into “hellish factories.”