Class Notes: Agrarian

Revolution Lesson #1
Date: September 2022

Background
● Revolutions

○ A revolution is a sudden, extreme, or complete change. (from the Latin revolutio,

"a turn around"). It is a fundamental change in political power or organizational
structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.

● Characteristics of Revolutions

○ It must be sudden and unexpected

○ The change takes place quickly and without delay

○ There must be a need for things to change

○ Changes are long term

Some Types of Revolutions

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Many different social and political changes can be called "revolutions," and there is no single
correct way to categorize them. However, it is still important to have a general idea of what kinds
of revolutions have occurred in history.

Economic- a rapid change in the commercial system of a society. Eg Agrarian Revolution.

Political- is an upheaval in which the government is replaced, or the form of government altered,
but in which property relations are predominantly left intact eg Cuban Revolution

Social - revolution aiming to reorganize all of society eg. Civil Rights Movement

Characteristics of Economic Revolutions

Economic Revolutions

Revolutionary changes can also affect the economic systems in a society. The most famous
example is the Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the late 1700s. As traditional
methods of producing goods by hand and through direct human labor were replaced by factories
and machines, the economies of England, Europe and later the whole world were radically
transformed. Another example is the "Green Revolution" of the 20th century, when technological
advances brought huge increases to the world's agricultural production, making food cheaper in
the developed world but failing to end world hunger.

Agrarian Revolution

The Agrarian Revolution also known as the Agricultural Revolution was a period of
technological improvement and increased crop productivity that occurred during the 18th and
early 19th centuries in Europe.

Factors that influenced Agrarian Revolution in Britain

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· Increases in the urban population led to an increased demand for

food
· Demand for agricultural raw materials for textile industry
· A favorable climate. By the beginning of the 18th century, the
colder climate of the 'little ice age' had ended. The resulting
mild summer months created ideal conditions for crop
cultivation.

· Introduction of new farming tools such as the horse drawn seed

drill by Jethro Tull made farming less labour intensive and
more productive.

· The increased availability of farmland due to land

consolidation and enclosure systems. The Enclosure Acts,
passed in Great Britain, allowed wealthy lords to purchase
public fields and push out small-scale farmers. It limited the
common land available to small farmers in 1760.
· Selective breeding of livestock which led to increased animal
products
· Use of fertilizers and crop rotation in farming which improved
crop yields. New patterns of crop rotation paved the way for
better crop yields, a greater diversity of wheat and vegetables
and the ability to support more livestock. Previously, the
open-field system was prominent. This system was problematic
because it allowed part of the land to remain unplanted at all
times in order to avoid depleting the soil. Since growing crops
removes nutrients from the soil, a field must be replenished in
order to continue to yield food.

One solution to this situation was to continue to move crops to

different land. This was not feasible in Great Britain because the
country lacked a large percentage of available land. Instead,
farmers began to utilize barren soil by planting different crops,
such as clover or turnips. These plants have roots rich in nitrogen,
a necessity for replenishing soil. The cultivation of turnips was
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important because they could be left in the ground through the

winter.

● Three Main Characteristics of the Agricultural Revolution:

○ Three main characteristics of the Agricultural Revolution include

four-course crop rotation, enclosure, and the expansion of infrastructure.

○ Four-course crop rotation was the process of replacing different types of

crops in the same field for the purpose of ensuring continued soil fertility.

○ Enclosures were a system that represented a change from the common

field system. Enclosures resulted in field sizes that could sustain fewer
farmers with similar crop output.

○ Lastly, infrastructure dramatically expanded as the increase in the volume

of supply and demand resulted in an increased need to transport
agricultural products. Railroads, canals, and more roads were built to
handle the increased transportation needs.
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Agrarian Revolution Overview

● The Agrarian Revolution is the term given to the transformation in agriculture in
England between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries . Though the roots of
the revolution go back as far as the late medieval period, it was not until the 18th
century that these transformations really accelerated and began to drastically
change the way people lived and, at the same time, changed the English
landscape forever.

● One of the prime changes brought on by the agrarian revolution was enclosure,
the act by which large tracts of land were fenced in. In the Middle Ages, most
land was farmed by individual farmers who each had a strip of a large, open field.
Because the land was used 'in common', changing land use was not easily
implemented, and changes in farming practice were slow to be implemented.

● Though often this enclosure created hardship for peasant farmers, the
landowners were able to implement new farming practices such as regulated
stock breeding, controlled crop rotation, and more efficient production on
marginal farmland.
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● The social cost of these changes was immense, as many poor farm labourers
were rendered redundant, poor farmers lost their land, and the rural working
classes were often forced to move to industrial urban areas to find work.

● Some of the changes brought on by the Agrarian Revolution involved planting

crops (particularly clover and turnips) to provide food for overwintering animals.
Equally important was the introduction of new farm machinery, such as the
wheeled seed drill, which mechanized the traditional practice of scattering seeds
by hand.

● Another innovation was the horse hoe, a tool to eradicate weeds between rows of
crops. Iron tools replaced earlier wooden ones - the iron plough was a big
advance on the wooden plough and was so much more efficient that it could be
drawn by horses instead of oxen.

● Influential 'Gentlemen Farmers' such as Coke of Holkham Hall (Norfolk) and

Viscount Townshend made agricultural experimentation a fashionable pastime.

● The pace of reform accelerated during the Napoleonic Wars, when Britain was
forced to get by without imports from Europe. As a result, wide areas of land
were farmed for the first time. This led to higher yields and enabled Britain to
more easily feed a growing population