History 102: Peasants in Europe

Who were they and how did they live?

MAJOR CONSEQUENCES OF INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:

· Productivity Increased massively

· Life Expectancy Rose

· Europe’s World Domination: Guns and Money

· Urbanization: created new cities, new classes

Serfdom

· Land was power

· Serfs:

o tied to the land

o Few personal liberties

o No freedom of movement

· Western versus Eastern Europe

· Life as peasants and serfs

o From paternalism to the whip

o encouraged alcoholism

Nineteenth-Century Changes

· Emancipation

· Industrialization

· Improvements:

o Literacy

o some farming techniques

· Impoverishment: population growth

· Emigration