The Expansion of Europe in the 18th Century summary and notes

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The Expansion of Europe in the 18th Century summary and notes

-Everyday existence for common people in the eighteenth century differed little from life for their counterparts in the Middle Ages due to limited production.

-However, eighteenth-century economic growth in agriculture, industry, trade, and population would lead to permanent change.

Agriculture and the Land

-The European economy was heavily dependent on agriculture, but until eighteenth-century farming innovations were introduced, output was so low that the population always lived on the brink of disaster.

The Open-Field System:

-Since the Middle Ages, European peasants had followed agricultural practices of an open-field, three-crop rotation, and common lands.

-The open field system divided the land to be cultivated by the peasants of a given village into several large open, unenclosed fields

-each family followed the same pattern of plowing, sowing, and harvesting

-Problem = soil exhaustion

-wheat depleted the nitrogen in the soil

-the only way for the land to recover was to lie fallow for a period of time

-Three year crop rotations were introduced to solve this problem

-in this system, a period of fallow was alternated with a year of cropping

-significant gains in agricultural production resulted

-Common lands (=open meadows for hay and natural pasture) were used by all peasants

-traditional village rights reinforced communal patterns of farming

-The state and the landlords continued to issue high taxes and high rents, taking most of peasants’ earnings

-the peasants in eastern Europe were worse off

-Social conditions were better in western Europe, where peasants were free from serfdom

-However, most peasants, even when free, lived in extreme poverty

The Agricultural Revolution:

-Peasants tried to take land from their landlords through revolts and protests, but were brutally crushed

-Technological progress allowed peasants to improve their conditions

-Fixed major problems

-fallow soil (caused the bare periods of time when crops couldn’t grow)

-famine

-population increase à scarcity of resources à high death rate

But now better technology led to more food which supported high population growth

-Led to the Industrial Revolution

1. Population growth

-less farmers à more factory workers

2. More capital

3. Inventive spirit

-Inventions:

A system of crop rotation developed, increasing production

-Plant that take away nutrients (like barley) were rotated with plants that added nutrients

-Plants full of nitrogen were grown to replenish the soil (like peas, beans, turnips, potatoes, clovers, and grasses)

Seed drill (invented by Jethro Tull)
Enclosures

-large farms with fences

-taking away common land

animal husbandry (aka selective breeding)

-William Bakewell- worked with lambs

-1700s= average lamb size = 18 pounds

-1800s= average lamb size = 50 pounds

-animals were triple the size that they used to be

Drainage

-started with the Dutch à passed to England

-New crops fed animals, so farmers could build up their livestock

-More livestock improved diets and provided more manure for fertilizer.

-Many reformers believed that such farming was only viable if peasants abandoned the open-field system and enclosed their land into compact, fenced in fields

-many peasants were reluctant to enclose their small, inadequate holdings

-some landowners were reluctant to enclose their lands because it required large investments and posed risks for them as well

-The new enclosure system coexisted with open-field into the eighteenth century.

-Only the Low Countries and England fully adopted this system

-France and Germany still used the open-field system

The Leadership of the Low Countries and England:

-The Agricultural revolution started in the Low Countries (aka Holland, the Dutch)

-Holland was already the most advanced country in Europe

-by the 17th century, intensive farming was already well established, and they used enclosed fields, crop rotations, heavy manuring, and a wide variety of crops

-Causes

They had a very dense populationà needed new farming methods to support it
The growth of cities and towns (caused by population growth)

-Dutch peasants had markets for everything they produced, allowing each region to specialize what it did best

-the Low Countries became the “Mecca of foreign agricultural experts”

-The English quickly adopted their methods so that, by 1870, the English had increased their yield 300 percent over 1700.

-Such methods:

Drainage and water control, which Holland had become an expert in because of their sea marshes

-Cornelius Vermuyden- the Dutch engineer who directed one large drainage project in Yorkshirt and Cambridgeshire

Seed driller

-invented by Jethro Tull

-he also preferred horses

Selective breeding of ordinary livestock

-By mid-eighteenth century English agriculture was in the process of a long but radical transformation

-The new agricultural production à more food production à support England’s growing urban population

-Land enclosures in England led to:

Support for a larger population
The rise of market-oriented estate agriculture
The emergence of a landless rural proletariat

-conditions were still unjust and awful for the poor

The Beginning of the Population Explosion

The eighteenth century saw the beginnings of the population explosion that would challenge the European economy.

Limitations on Population Growth:

-Until the eighteenth century, population growth in Europe was slow and followed cyclical patterns, with moderate growth periodically offset by years of disaster when famine, disease, and war produced high death rates.

-The later Middle Ages was an era of exceptional well-being for those who survived

-the Black Plague and famine caused population decrease

-The 16th century – widespread poverty

- huge population surge outstripped the growth of agricultural production

-food prices rose rapidly, there was less food per person

-decline of living standards throughout Europe

-Such disasters meant that population growth was nearly nonexistent in seventeenth-century Europe.

-population growth grew modestly in normal years at a rate of 0.5 to 1%

-In Russia and colonial New England, where there were lots of land to be settled, population growth might have been more

-In France, where the land was densely settled, population growth might have been less

-periods of modest growth made up for periods of drastic crises

-the main demographic crises were famine, disease, and war

-The Thirty Years war was the most devastating

England’s Population Growth

1348-1350 à went down

-Black Plague

1500s à growth

-improvements in agriculture

-less plague— people became more resistant

-need for labor –people had jobs – $$

1650s à stabilization

-boom of the people led to scarcity of resources

-inflation led to starvation and famine

1750s à growth

-agricultural revolution

-the plague disappeared:

-better sanitation

-vaccines

-black rats vs. brown rats

-Black rats carried black fleas, which spread the plague and were very aggressive

-Then brown rats emerged: they were bigger and they forced them out

-These rats still got fleas, but those fleas were less likely to have the plague and bite humans

The New Pattern of the Eighteenth Century:

-Eighteenth-century Europe witnessed rapid population growth, especially after 1750

-This growth was largely due to a fall in the death rate.

-Factors that contributed to the declining mortality rate include:

-the disappearance of the plague and other killer diseases (why is unknown)

-improved water supply, drainage, and sewerage à reduced disease and the large insect population

-better food distribution

-better transportation

-new foods such as the potato

-advances in medical knowledge did not contribute much to reducing the death rate in the 18th century

-the most important medical advance was inoculation against smallpox

Cottage Industry and Urban Guilds

-Population growth meant that many landless poor needed to supplement their agricultural income.

-Urban capitalists began to employ them using the putting-out system, even though guilds still dominated production in urban areas.

The Putting-Out System:

Cottage industry

-protoindustrialization= beginnings of industrialization

-people worked out of their homes to supplement their income

-this way people were able to work throughout the year, on their own time

The Putting-out System

-merchants supplied workers with raw materials, and in return, they produced the finished products

-outsourcing

-Production was broken into many stages

-Tools used:

-the loom/spinning jenny

-flying shuttle (invented by John Kay)

-The putting out system had competitive advantages

-With a surplus of labor, wages were low.

-Cottage industry became capable of producing many kinds of goods

-The skills of rural industry were good enough for every day articles

-the luxury goods for the rich demanded special training

-Because rigid guild standards did not have to be met in rural production, many common goods could be produced.

-Rural manufacturing developed the most successfully in England, particularly for the spinning and weaving of wooden cloth

-The putting out system was particularly popular in the English textile industry which was generally more rural than urbane

-The system developed later on the European continent in certain densely populated regions.

The Textile Industry:

-the industry that employed the most people = textile industry

-With a large number of people working in the English textile industry, the putting-out system constituted both an economic system and a way of life.

-The rural worker working and lived in a tiny space.

-Entire families participated in handloom weaving.

-operating the loom was considered a man’s job

-women and children worked at auxiliary (=secondary, assisting) tasks

-Many women worked as spinners to keep up with the weaver’s demands for thread.

-4 or 5 spinners were needed for one weaver

-many merchants asked wives and daughters of agricultural workers to spin in their free time

-many widows and single women also became “spinsters”

-The relationship between workers and employers was conflicted

-The workers and capitalists often disputed over materials and finished work.

-merchants accused workers of stealing materials

-capitalists resented their lack of control over the workers, who also had fields to tend.

-rural labor was cheap, scattered, and poorly organized

-the pace of work depended on the agricultural calendar

-they accused workers of laziness, intemperance, and immortality

-so merchants insisted on low wages and harsh punishments (including imprisonment and public whipping) for the “idle poor”

-Conditions were particularly hard for female workers

-women’s wages were really low

-a single or widowed spinner faced poverty

Urban Guilds:

-The European guild system peaked in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

-guilds grew in number and in cities and towns across Europe during this period

-ex: in France, Colbert revived guilds to help collect taxes

-Guilds maintained monopolies all their works

-The monarchs would give the guilds exclusive rights

-Any individual who violated these monopolies could be prosecuted

-Guilds also served social and religious functions and provided a common identity for middle classes

-Guilds restricted their membership to local men who were good Christians, had work experience and talent, and paid membership fees

-they favored family connections too

-most men and women worked in non-guild trades because membership was so restricted

-The guilds’ ability to enforce their rigid barriers varied across Europe

-England: national regulations decreased the importance of guilds

-France: monarchs were ambiguous, allowing both guilds and non-guilds to flourish

-Faubourg Saint-Antoine = suburb of Paris that maintained freedom from guild privileges

-Germany = guilds were the most powerful and conservative

-In spite of its contemporary critics, the guilds were flexible and stimulated economic vitality.

-Over the 18th century, some guilds grew more accessible to women

-especially in the dressmaking industry

-Colbert granted seamstresses a new all female guild in Paris, which soon spread in France, England, and the Netherlands

-more women were hired as skilled workers by male guilds and greater numbers of women entered the paid labor market

-Even so, by the mid-nineteenth century, guilds were declining in favor of economic liberalism.

The Industrial Revolution:

-This term refers to European social and economic changes around 1700

-It occurred when family members had less leisure time and spent more time working for wages

-As a result, families had greater purchasing power.

-Female laborers gained greater economic control in spite of their extremely low wages.

-their control over their income helped spur the rapid growth of textile industries

-These changes provided the foundation for the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century.

-all members of a family worked for wages

First Industrial Revolution (~1780-1870)

-starts in England

1. Sources of coal and steam (water)

-before: man/animal/wind power

2. Trains and steamboats

3. Textile industry = first factories

-located around coal and water sources

4. Iron = major source

Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914 àWorld War I ended it)

Sources of energy: goal and oil, electricity
Light bulbs, phonograph, cars, airplanes, telegraphs, telephones

-faster travel

Weapons: machine gun

-imperialism: Europeans had a huge advantage vs. the Native Americans

Steel

Building the World Economy

-European expansion depended on the growth of world trade.

-Great Britain , as the leading sea power, built an Atlantic economy while competing with France and the Netherlands for Asian trade.

Wars of Mercantilism

The 3 Mercantile Powers:

England
France
Dutch

Mercantilism= competition

-few imports, many exports

-achieved through tariffs

-goal = more gold and resources à centered around the idea that there’s a limited amount, so there’s competition for them

-leads to more state power

Colonization and Mercantilism

-more resources

-more trade

-led to expansion for more colonies

Decline of the Dutch

-The Dutch were far ahead of the English in shipping and foreign trade in the mid-17th century

-Both the navigation acts and 3 Anglo-Dutch wars damaged Dutch shipping and commerce

-By late 17th century, the Dutch were falling behind England in shipping, trade, and colonies

-Advantages:

-controlled Indian Ocean trade

-huge fleet (cheap costing boats)

-Dutch East India Trading Company

-Disadvantage: they were completely reliant on trade

-smaller country

-less agriculturally self-sufficient

-they got most of their money from trade à it was hard for them to thrive when trade was cut off

Navigation Acts

-England achieved this favorable trade balance of mercantilism through them

-passed by Oliver Cromwell and continued through Charles II

These laws regulated all shipping into England and Scotland

-most imported goods must be carried on British-owned ships with British crews

They established a monopoly on trade with British colonies.

-colonists were required to ship their products on British (or American) ships

-colonists had to buy all European goods from Britain only

-These acts were used as economic weapons in Britain’s numerous trade wars against their European competitors

-hurts Dutch trade, which Dutch economy is completely dependent on

-France also puts high tariffs on Dutch goods

-The Dutch reciprocated with high tariffs, but this just hurt them the most

The Three Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-1670s)

-The most famous was the Nutmeg Wars in Indonesia

-Dutch got the Nutmeg Islands, which weren’t that profitable though

-England got the Dutch’s biggest colony of New Amsterdam and renamed it New York

-English William of Orange and Mary ended the wars in 1688

-William was from the Netherlands

The Franco-Dutch Wars

-Louis XIV invaded the Netherlands and Holland

-The Dutch ended up flooding their own cities

The End Result:

-The Dutch lost

-England and France were on the rise

England vs. France

-The 2 countries were fighting for superiority to become the leading power and claim Europe’s overseas empire

-France, Europe’s leading military power, was already building a powerful fleet and a worldwide system of rigidly monopolized colonial trade

-From 1701-1763, Britain and France were locked in a series of wars

The War of Spanish Succession

-cause: Louis XIV accepted the inheritance of the Spanish crown to his grandson

-problems:

-balance of power issue

-a union of France and Spain threatened to destroy British colonies

-Defeated by the Great Alliance, France and Spain were forced to give England new world colonies and control of West African Slave trade

The War of Austrian Succession

-cause: Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Maria Theresa’s Austria (he wanted Silesia)

-Maria Theresa lost Silesia, but saved her empire

-England and France joined in on opposite sides and fought each other

-England = Austria

-France = Prussia

-the war ended with no change in the territorial situation of North America

-led to the 7 Years’ War

The Seven Years’ War

Prussia + England vs. France + Austria + Russia

-cause: Maria Theresa wants Silesia back

-France and England take opposite sides to try to destroy each other

-ends in a draw in Europe, but England wins in terms of the colonies

-France lost all their possessions in the New World and India to Spain

-verryyy important! à balance of power

-power shift = England on top

-also explains the American revolution à France supports the colonies because they’re still mad at the British

-their support of the American Revolution contributes to the French revolution (not a very smart decision)

-In the 18th century, London grew into the West’s largest and richest city

-The growing colonies promoted a market of English manufactured goods

-England’s trade within Europe declined, but their trade with their colonies rescued them

-English exports became more balanced and diversified

-foreign trade with America and Africa became important for industry

-the mercantilist system was successful for England in the 18th century

-Although they lost many possessions to England, France still profited from colonial trade, especially with Saint Domingue

-Saint Domingue = the most profitable plantation colony in the New World and the one that had the most slaves

Land and Labor in British America:

-American colonies provided an outlet for Britain’s surplus population

-American colonists had access to free and unlimited land and kept most of what they produced, unlike European peasants

-The abundance of land in the New World created a rapidly growing population and a high standard of living, but a shortage of labor.

-Increasingly, colonists exploited African slaves to produce the crops that proved valuable in the Atlantic trade market.

-The Spanish and the Portuguese first introduced slavery into the Americas, switching from Native Americans to Africans for slaves

-British colonies also establish sugar plantations and imported slaves from Africa

-large plantations were worked entirely by black slaves

-tobacco production increased a lot

-Black slaves became the overwhelming majority of the population

-Slavery was uncommon in New England the middle colonies—instead, they supplied slaves in other colonies with food

-in return, those colonies gave them supplies

-Europeans relied on African tribal leaders and merchants for slaves

-Most European traders waited at African ports instead of traveling inland

-African merchants and rulers captured Africans to be enslaved and then delivered them to the Europeans in exchange for gold, guns, and other goods

-As slave trade grew, some African rulers voiced their opposition to the practice

-However, slave trade grew and many African rulers continued to participate for profits

-African merchants developed new trade routes to avoid rulers who refused to cooperate

The Triangular Trade

-Africans transported to the Americas were a part of a transatlantic trading network known as the triangular trade

-The intense demand for labor in the Americas in the eighteenth century increased the demand for slavery

-6 million African slaves during the 18th century (according to the book)

-One trade route: Europe à goods to Africa à slaves to Americas à sugar, coffee, tobacco to Europe

-Europeans transported manufactured goods to Africa

-Africans were transported across the Atlantic and were sold in the Americas

-Merchants bought sugar, coffee, and tobacco in the Americas and brought them to Europe

-Another route: American colonies à rum and other goods to Africa à they exchanged Africans for the products à merchants sold Africans to the West Indies for sugar and molassesà sold these goods to Europe

-Merchants carried rum and other goods from the American colonies to Africa

-There they exchanged their products for Africans

-The merchants brought Africans to the West Indies and sold them for sugar and molasses

-They then sold these goods to rum producers in England

-England = got the largest profit

-this trade helped them get a lot of slaves for the colonies which increased colony production

Products exchanged in Triangular Trade:

	To Africa	To Americas	To Europe
From Africa	-------	Slaves, gold, molasses, sugar	Slaves, ivory, gum
From Americas	Tobacco, rum	------	Rum, cotton, tobacco, sugar, molasses
From Europe	Manufactures, guns	Manufactures	------

-slave labor allowed large-scale production of goods to be possible

-labor produced cheap goods which brought in cash to the Americas—cash that paid for manufactured goods, services, and slaves from Europe

-Slaves were shipped to America in brutal conditions after being captured by warring African tribes.

-12 million slaves were transported

-15% died on the boats – almost 2 million

-forced the captured slaves to exercise on the boats

-chained them down to avoid suicide attempts

-disease and unsanitary conditions killed a lot of Africans

-Increasing demand for labor resulted in rising prices for African slaves in the 18th century

-the kingdom of Dahomey—made the slave trade a royal monopoly, built up its army, attacked far into the interior of Africa, and profited greatly as a major slave supplier

-the kingdom of Congo—Portuguese search for slaves undermined the monarch, destroyed political unity, and led to constant disorder

-Africa’s population stagnated or possibly declined during the 18th century

-Shiploads of African slaves never landed in Europe, only the Americas

-Runaways merged into London’s growing population

-In the late eighteenth century, an abolitionist movement developed in Britain and in 1807, the British Parliament abolished the slave trade.

-it grew into the first peaceful mass political movement

-women played a critical road in this mass movement

Revival in Colonial Latin America: (just know this generally, we don’t really have to know this)

-Spain’s vast empire seemed destroyedà surprisingly, Spain revived

-The empire held together and even prospered, especially in its colonies

-Strong Bourbon leadership under Philip V led Spain to become stronger as a nation.

-He was Louis XIV’s grandson

-He brought fresh ideas with him from France and rallied the Spanish people during the long War of Spanish Succession

-When peace was restored, a series of reforming ministers reasserted royal authority

-Spanish colonies remained strong, defending themselves from British attacks and increasing in size

-In America, the Spanish gained control of Louisiana and exerted influence all the way to California, while still controlling their colonies in Central and South America.

-A renewal of the silver mines strengthened their economy because they forced the native peoples into debt peonage.

-under this system, a planter or rancher could keep his workers (Native Americans) in perpetual debt bondage by giving them food, shelter, and a little money

-it is a form of serfdom

-A new class system emerged

Creoles emerged as an aristocracy

-Creoles = people of Spanish blood born in America

-Creole estate owners controlled their land and used the defenseless Native Americans for fieldwork

Mestizos became the middle class

-mestizos= offspring of Spanish men and Indian women

-the most talented mestizos became part of the Creole class

Native Americans
African slaves

-in Portuguese Brazil, great numbers of slaves worked the enormous sugar plantations

Trade and Empire in Asia: (just know this generally, we don’t really have to know this)

-Europeans continued competing for dominance in Asian trade

-The Portuguese dominated Indian Ocean trade

-they eliminated Venice as Europe’s chief supplier of spices

-The Dutch gained control of the Indian Ocean trade, forcing the Portuguese out.

-they began with Indonesian spice trade

-The Dutch East India Company’s purpose was to capture spice trade from the Portuguese

-They assisted Indonesian princes in local conflicts with the Portuguese – in return, they gained control of Indonesian trade

-They seized the port of Jakarta and renamed in Batavia – it became the center of Dutch operations in the Indian Ocean

-The Dutch competed against the English East India Company for dominance in Asian trade

-Britain focused on India first

-the powerful Mughal emperor conceded empire-wide trading privileges with England

-The English intervened in local affairs and made alliances or waged war against Indian princes

-The British competed with France for control of Indian trade

-The British established their dominance by winning the Seven Years’ War—in the treaty of Paris, the French lost all of their Indian possessions

-The British then took over India and defeated the Mughal emperor

-Robert Clive—became the first British governor general of Bengal, in northeast India, with direct authority over the province

-By the early 1800s, the British had overcome Indian resistance and gained economic and political dominance of India

-India was the “jewel” in the British Empire in the 19th century

Adam Smith and Economic Liberalism:

-Critics spoke out against the controls of mercantilism, against “monopolies” and for “free trade”

-Adam Smith was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and an economist

-He developed the general idea of freedom of enterprise in foreign trade

-He wrote The Wealth of Nations whichlaid out the principles of economic liberalism (=the belief in free trade and competition)

-He supported capitalism

-He argued for laize faire = “let it be” or “hands off”

-he believed government shouldn’t get involved in businesses

-Smith argued that the invisible hand of free competition would benefit all individuals, rich and poor.

-by the government not getting involved and not doing anything, things will prosper

-He argued that individuals pursuing their own interests as the best means to prosperity.

-He called for a limited role for the government in the economy

-He argued that government should limit itself to only 3 duties:

1. Providing a defense against foreign invasion

2. Maintaining civil order with courts and police protection

3. Sponsoring certain public works and institutions

-He wasn’t 100% capitalist though

-he did believe in minimum wage and didn’t like the way workers were treated

Key Terms

Agricultural revolution: the period from the mid-seventeenth century on in Europe during which great agricultural progress was made and the fallow was gradually eliminated.

Atlantic slave trade: forced migration of millions of Africans to work in servitude during the eighteenth century. By the peak decade of the 1780s, shipments of black men and women averaged about 80,000 per year.

Common lands: the open meadows maintained by villages for public use.

Cottage industry: domestic industry, a stage of rural industrial development with wage workers and hand tools that necessarily preceded the emergence of large-scale factory industry.

Creoles: people of Spanish blood born in America .

Crop rotation: the system by which farmers would rotate the types of crops grown in each field as to not deplete the soil of its natural resources.

Debt peonage: a system which allowed a planter or rancher to keep his workers/slaves in perpetual debt bondage by periodically advancing food, shelter, and a little money; it is a form of serfdom.

Economic liberalism: based on the writings of Adam Smith, it is the belief in free trade and competition. Smith argued that the invisible hand of free competition would benefit all individuals, rich and poor.

Enclosure: the idea to enclose individual share of the pastures as a way of farming more effectively.

Guild system: found in most of Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and were used as a means to encourage high quality production and collect taxes.

Industrious revolution: a term used to describe the burst of major inventions and technical changes they had witnessed in certain industries.

Mercantilism: system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the state.

Mestizos: the offspring of Spanish men and Indian women.

Navigation Acts: the result of the English desire to increase both military power and private wealth, required that goods imported from Europe into England and Scotland be carried on British-owned ships with British crews or on ships of the country producing the article etc.

Open-field system: a system of village farming developed by peasants where the land was divided into several large fields which were in turn cut into strips. There were no divided fences or hedges and it was farmed as a community.

Proletarianization: the transformation of large number of small peasant farmers into landless rural wage earners.

Putting-out system: term used to describe the 18th century rural industry.

Treaty of Paris: ratified British victory on all colonial fronts in 1763.

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