Agricultural Revolution in Medieval Europe

The increased stability created by all these factors helped provide the conditions needed for population growth and economic revival. This brings us to new farming techniques that would greatly expand food supplies and lead to the rise of towns.

The first of these techniques was the three-field system. Originally, the spread of civilization to Northern Europe brought with it the two-field system. However, planting two crops a year would exhaust the soil if peasants used that system.

The solution was to divide their farmland into three fields, one for winter crops, one for summer crops, and one to remain fallow. The use of the fields was rotated each year. To prevent soil exhaustion, different crops were used that took different nutrients from the soil. The greater variety of crops provided people with a more balanced diet.

While producing more food, the peasants were plowing considerably less, especially considering what hard work plowing was back then. The extra time saved could be used for clearing new farmland from the surrounding wilderness, which, of course, meant even more food. Likewise, the extra food meant more people from population growth, who would also clear new lands to produce more food, and so on. Eventually, enough new land would be cleared and surplus food produced to support population in towns.

Another major development in farming was the heavy plow that could cut through the deep, wet, and heavy soils.

Advantages to Heavy Plow:

1. It cut the soil so violently that there was no need for cross plowing as there was with the scratch plow.

2. It created furrows, little ridges and valleys in each plowed row. In times of drought, water would drain into the valleys and ensure some crops would survive. In times of heavy rains, the crops on top of the ridges would not get flooded out.

As a result, peasants could usually look forward to at least some crops to harvest even in bad years.

The last major development in farming was a new source of power, the plow horse. Several factors allowed the use of the horse in Western Europe. The invention of the horseshoe (c.900 C.E.) prevented the hooves of the horse from cracking in the cold wet soil. The horse collar let the horse pull from the chest rather than the neck. Finally, cross breeding to make larger warhorses also provided the peasants with larger plow horses. It could pull up to fifty percent faster than the ox, and it could work longer per day.

Being fifty percent faster than oxen, horses could bring food into a town from outlying villages farther away without taking any more time than before with an ox team. Increasing the radius of the surrounding farmland supplying a town more than doubled the area of farmland and amount of agricultural produce available to support that town, and, subsequently, the potential size of the town itself.

Along with the greater stability brought by feudalism, the increased food production brought on by the agricultural revolution of the Middle Ages was essential for the growth of towns and revival of trade.

Works Cited:

http://www.londonderrynh.net/tag/serfs-of-londonderry

http://history.parkfieldict.co.uk/medieval/medieval-villages

http://cshscougarhistory2.blogspot.com/2010/11/agriculture-in-medieval-times.html

http://mahan.wonkwang.ac.kr/lecture/med/agrirevol.htmhttp://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/10/FC63 http://historyworld.org/midtowns.htmhttp://www.britainexpress.com/History/Townlife.htm

http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/lecture_mid_civ.htm

http://www.bronze-statues.biz/index.php?cPath=2&main_page=index

http://www.irisyorku.ca/2008/05/why-should-science-students-attend-history-lectures/

Before discussing the rise of the agricultural revolution, we should refresh ourselves on Medieval life and farming in the Early Middle Ages.

The vast majority of peasants were serfs, who were bound to the land and service of a lord who owed them protection in return for work in his fields. These serfs lived in villages, with several acres of cultivated fields, a wooden castle or manor house for the lord, a peasant village, a parish church, and a mill.

Conclusion

Pre-Revolution:

Europe (c.1000 C.E.)

The village had to be self-sufficient because it was virtually cut off from the outside world. Roads were poor and brigands (outlaws), or local lords constantly threatened travel. Raids from neighboring nobles and Barbarian invaders kept most people within the safety of their lord's castle walls. As a result, the flow of trade and commerce was reduced to a fraction of what it had been during the Pax Romana.

The plow used then was still the scratch plow that worked fine in the thin dry soils of the Mediterranean, but was not very suitable for the wetter, deeper soils of Northern Europe. The main source of power for pulling the plow was the ox hooked up by a yoke harness that pulled at the neck. Finally, the peasants used the two-field system, where one field lay fallow to reclaim the soil's nutrients while the other field was being cultivated. Given these limits, population remained low and grew at a very slow rate, if at all.

Agricultural Revolution in Medieval Europe

Signs of Revival

• The warmer climate meant longer growing seasons, better harvests, and thus a healthier and growing population.
• Major plagues that had hit from time to time also ceased after 743 C.E. This might be a result of the better-fed population having more resistance to disease.
• A certain amount of political stability had returned to Western Europe by 1000 C.E. The feudal system, whatever its faults, was providing at least a minimal amount of security to Europe.
• Invasions of Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims were letting up by this date.

Agricultural Revolution