Agriculture in the Middle Ages

By Martin Bakers

In the Middle Ages agriculture underwent many changes. The nobles and the clergy were considered the most important members of the feudal society. However, they were never the majority: in the Middle Ages, almost all people were peasants. Not all farmers had the same category and social status. Many of them were free men. Among these, some were small landowners who lived on their own land, while others, the settlers, leased the feudal lord a small plot of land.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cambridge Stanford Books
• Release date: Nov 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463463338

Martin Bakers

Martin Bakers, is the pen name of a history and science author that aims to organize and collect technical, historical and scientific information.The student or the scientist, will be able to satisfy his needs of consultation and of study, by means of a work supported by abundant number of sources and bibliographical references.

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Medieval agriculture

Medieval agriculture describes farming practices, crops, technology, and European agricultural societies and economies, dating back to about 476 years to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Until 1500. The Middle Ages are sometimes called the Middle Ages or the Times. The Middle Ages were also divided into early, advanced and late medieval. The early modern era followed the Middle Ages.

Epidemics and climate warming in the 6th century led to a sharp decline in European population. Compared to the Roman era, medieval Western European agriculture tends to focus on self-sufficiency. The feudal period began around 1000 years. In Northern Europe, the agricultural population under the feudal system is usually organized into mansions, including hundreds of acres of land led by castle lords, as well as Roman Catholic churches and pastors. Most of the people living in the castle are farmers or serfs who grow their own crops, or I work for their owners and churches, or pay rent for their land. Barley and wheat are the most important crops in most parts of Europe. Oats and rye are grown along with a variety of vegetables and fruits. Cows and horses are used as cover animals. Sheep are raised in wool and pigs are kept in meat.

Harvest losses due to inclement weather are common in the Middle Ages and are often the cause of famine. Despite the difficulties, anthropometric evidence suggests that medieval European men are higher (and therefore better at nutrition) than the previous Roman Empire and later early modern men.

Fourteen medieval farming systems. As the lowland countries developed more intensive farming methods, it began to decompose in the 20th century. After the black death in 1347-1351, more land was available for reduced farmers. However, until the middle of the 19th century, medieval farming practices had hardly changed in the Slavic region and elsewhere.

Build a stage

In Europe, three events represent this stage and have affected agriculture for hundreds of years. The first time was the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the loss of some 400 barbaric invaders. The last Western Roman emperor left the road in 476. Subsequently, the land and people of the former Western Roman Empire were divided into different ethnic groups, and their rule was often short-lived and constantly changing. The unifying factor in Europe is that most Europeans gradually accept Christian faith. In Western Europe, Latin is used as a common language for international communication, academics and science. The Greeks have a similar status in the Eastern Roman Empire.

Second, the global cooling era began at 536 and C. It was completed in 660. Cooling is caused by volcanic eruptions 536, 540 and 547. Byzantine historian Procopius said: He gave him the light without the light of the sun. In Europe, the summer temperature reaches 2.5 ° C (4.5 ° F), the volcanic dust in the atmosphere makes the sky fade for 18 months, which is enough to cause crop failure and famine. For more than a hundred years, temperatures have been lower than in the last Roman period. The quaint Little Ice Age blocked and affected many disturbing events, including pandemics, human migration and political turmoil.

Third, the Justinian plague began in 541 throughout Europe and recurs regularly to 750 years. The plague may kill 25% of the population of East Rome or the Byzantine Empire and may kill a similar proportion of the population in Western Europe and Northern Europe; the climate change and the double impact of the plague on the population lead to a reduction in grain breakage. Janos Ephesus's description of rural transit is about the white and upright position of wheat plants, but no one can design and store wheat, and the vineyards where harvest time has come. There is no one to choose and choose. John also talked about the severe winter that may be caused by volcanic ash.

As a result of these factors, the population of 600 countries in Europe is significantly less than 500. A scientist estimates that the population of the Italian peninsula has dropped from 500 to 11 million, down to 600 million, and then to 8 million, a level that has lasted nearly 300 years. A similar decline is likely to occur in other parts of Europe.

Dark age

The prevailing view is that the decline of the Western Roman Empire created a dark age in Western Europe, where knowledge and courtesy, elegant art and many practical art were ignored or lost. In contrast, the situation in the post-Roman Empire may have improved the number of farmers who account for at least 80% of the total population. The fall of Rome meant a reduction in the tax burden, a weakening of the aristocracy and thus greater freedom for the peasants. The Roman Empire is decorated with Vilas or a manor, describing the older Pliny as the ruins of Italy. These properties are owned by wealthy aristocrats, some of whom are slaves. In England alone, there are more than 1,500 villas. With the fall of Rome, villas were abandoned or turned into utilitarian rather than elite uses. Therefore, in Western Europe, the Roman Empire market, military and fiscal pressures, and the return to agriculture based on local demand seem to have eased.

In the sixth century, the population shrank, so the labor shortage promoted the greater freedom of slavery or rural people bound by the Roman law on the land.

Eastern Roman Empire. In the early Middle Ages, the agricultural history of the Eastern Roman Empire was different from that of Western Europe. In the 5th and 6th centuries, market-oriented industrial agriculture was expanded, with particular emphasis on olive oil and wine, and the introduction of new technologies such as oil extraction and wine extraction. The settlement in the east is also different from the West. Farmers in the east live in villages that still exist and expand, not the western villas of the Roman Empire.

Iberian Peninsula. The Iberian Peninsula seems to have different experiences with Eastern Europe and Western Europe. There is evidence that farmland and reforestation have been abandoned due to population decline, but there is also evidence that horses, mu and grazing and market-oriented animal husbandry continue to expand. The economy of the Iberian Peninsula seems to have left the rest of Europe, but in the fifth century before Umayid was conquered in AD 711, it became one of North Africa's major trading partners.

Muslim agriculture in Iberia

When the historian Andrew Watson called for the Arab agricultural revolution, many Islamic rulers of Andalus (8th-15th centuries) introduced or promoted many new crops on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). New agricultural technology. ). Plants introduced by Arabs include sugar cane, rice, durum wheat, citrus fruits, cotton and figs. Many of these plants require complex irrigation, water management and agricultural techniques such as crop rotation, pest control and natural fertilization of plants. Some scientists question the uniqueness of the Arab (or Muslim) agricultural revolution and how much technology has been revived in the Middle East during Roman rule for centuries. Whether in the Roman Empire or during the arrival of the Arabs, the people of the Middle East enjoyed the most inspiration for invention and creation. In the eighth century, the Iberian landscape has undergone profound changes.

Feudalism

Gradually, the rural and farm systems of Rome used part of slavery and were replaced by managementism and serfdom. The historian Peter Sarris discovered the characteristics of feudal society in the 6th century in Italy, the Byzantine Empire and early Egypt. The difference between a villa and