Today, in American society, many people believe that being overweight is unhealthy, but back in the 1700’s, being overweight was what every person wanted to be. In the 1700’s, having a little extra weight showed that that person had good food and was therefore more likely to survive. Before the 1700’s, many people in Europe died from starvation and disease, resulting in little population growth. During the 1700’s was when that all changed. The population increase in the 1700s to 1800s was due to a declined mortality rate caused by changes in Europe’s economy, society, and culture. The economic changes in Europe in the 1700’s led to the population increase. Before the 1700’s, most of Europe was poor. With a large influx of silver, there was …show more content…
Before the population increase, the Black Death prevailed, famines led to food deprivation, hunger led to weak immune system, and people married at older ages, decreasing the number of children born. From the 1350’s to the 1720’s, the Black Death plagued Europe. This disease attacked the people of all ages, killing almost every person it infected. The emergences of the plague throughout the 1350’s to 1720’s kept Europe’s population from increasing. Another factor was bad harvests. When famine struck, many families starved because of the inability to buy or grow food. With less food on the table, people’s immune systems became weak, making them more susceptible to diseases such as the plague. Before the 1700’s many people could not put food on the table because they did not have enough money. To have a more stable family, many men and women postponed marriage until they could be financially stable. They gained stability by working, gaining the inheritance after their father’s death, or not gaining stability at all. Waiting to gain stability, prevented men and women from marrying at a younger age and prevented them from having more …show more content…
Before the 1700’s, European culture was not a prosperous culture. The methods Europeans practiced in farming and in war led to a high mortality rate.. Before the 1700’s, peasants used a method of farming called the open field system. This system was one large field that the entire village farmed on and every other year, there would be a fallow, which was a year when nothing was planted so the field could regain it’s nutrients. When famine hit, the results were more disastrous because the entire crop, which supported the entire village, could be destroyed, leading to starvation in the village. Another aspect, which caused no population growth, was the wars that occurred before the 1700’s. Many of these wars were very harmful to the land. Soldiers destroyed good land for farming and crops, leading to more starvation. During the 1700’s, the agriculture and wars changed to create a more prosperous culture. With the 1700’s, came the agricultural revolution. This revolution brought new methods for farming such as enclosures and crop rotation. Enclosures were fenced off portions of field, breaking apart the single open field that many peasants were accustomed to. The use of enclosures along with the use of crop rotation, rotating crops that deplete nutrients and restore nutrients to eliminate the fallow, resulted in an increase in food production and also competition between farmers to
The Black Death struck Europe in a time of great despair. "Although a `Great Famine' struck northern Europe between 1315 and 1322, nothing prepared Europeans for the horrendous onslaught of the Black Death" (Aberth, 2). The famine had caused a massive hunger shortage from which Europe had yet to recove...
The Effects of The Black Death on the Economic and Social Life of Europe The Black Death is the name later given to the epidemic of plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. The disaster affected all aspects of life. Depopulation and shortage of labor hastened changes already inherent in the rural economy; the substitution of wages for labor services was accelerated, and social stratification became less rigid. Psychological morbidity affected the arts; in religion, the lack of educated personnel among the clergy gravely reduced the intellectual vigor of the church.
The Black Plague came to Europe at a time referred to as the late middle ages. At this time, the quality of living was looking better than in the past
One of the primary changes between 1700 and 1750 was the changes in population, in the English colonies, increasing from 250,000 to one million. In the seventeenth century most of the immigrants to English North America came from England. In the eighteenth century they came instead from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Germany (http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects.pdf).
46. Indicate the factors that contributed to population growth in the American colonies during the eighteenth century, and discuss the characteristics and consequences of that growth.
When the Black Death had finally ran it’s course on Western Europe in 1350, the population had been diminished by a great margin. The plague has reduced the whole worlds population from an approximate 450 million to about 370 million in the 14th century. Death was something that was very normal and expected at this point in time. There were hundreds upon thousands of ...
The Bubonic Plague, or more commonly known as ‘The Black Death’ or ‘The Black Plague,’ was one of the most devastating and deadliest pandemics that humans have ever witnessed in the history of mankind. The disease spanned two continents in just a few years, marking every country between Western Europe all the way to China. During the reign of the plague, which is estimated to be the years between 1347-1352, it is estimated that “20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population” was killed off due to the plague. The Black Plague would change the course of European history since the plague knew no boundaries and inflicted its wrath upon the rich and the poor alike. As a result, not only did the plague have a devastating demographic impact which encountered a massive social disruption, but also, an economic and religious impact as well.
The Middle Ages are known for its abundant amount of deaths from plagues and wars. Let’s first look at what happened particularly in Europe during these Middle Ages. In 1347 the Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, arrived in Italy. The disease caused bulbous growths and sores filled with pus to appear on the body. It made victims of the illness look like “a skeleton, with black and blue splotches” (Friedlander) stained onto the face. Friedlander also stated that within two years, the plague had slaughtered “over 20 percent of the population of Europe.” This disease spread like a forest fire across the country and killed a total of 75 million people, almost 50% of Europe’s overall population. In addition to this, the smallpox epidemic swept through Paris, France and killed 50,000 individuals in 1438, most of whom were children. According to Friedlander this disease was a “virus that spreads from person to person, by touch or through breathing or coughing.” The danger level of the sickness fluctuated between people and their immune systems, some being as deadly as or even deadlier than the bubonic plague, and showed no mercy on smal...
“Fat Land”, a book by Greg Cristler, a health journalist who was formerly considered overweight, explains how America became the fattest people in the world. Before writing this book, Cristler was told that he needed to lose forty pounds and so to do so he enlisted a competent doctor, the prescription weight-loss medication Meridia, jogs in a congenial neighborhood park, a wife who cooked him healthy food, and access to plenty of information. Cristler is quick to add that those weren’t the only factors that led to his weight loss, but money and time were a big part of it. Cristler lost the weight, but he states “the more I contemplated my success, the more I came to see it not as a triumph of the will, but as a triumph of my economic and social
In the 1340’s, an epidemic named the Black Death, erupted through Europe, killing nearly ⅓ of its population. The Black Death originated in China, rapidly spreading to western Asia and Europe. It killed about 30 million people in Europe plummeting its population. A lot of these people were peasants. This was because they had the least money, therefore putting them in the worst living conditions. There were so many of them that no individual could make a substantial amount of money. When the plague hit, the peasants were strongly affected. A huge population of them were killed. After the epidemic, the population of peasants was far less than before. This provided them with a chance to really improve their lives. The Black Death caused a change
It cannot be argued that the Black Plague was detrimental to every aspect of Europe’s communities. It was a powerful epidemic that wiped out a third of the continent’s population. Out of the midst of all its terror, however, positive after effects presented themselves. Some of these effects included revolutions in the church and society, eventually leading to the separation of church and state. Feudalism was also challenged as peasants demanded wages and revolted. Along with social changes came technological innovations, new inventions, and an attention to hygiene and the beginning of modern medicine. The plague may have devastated Europe, but it also gave way to a new era.
What political, economic, and social forces led to a period of upheaval during this time? In 1700, small farms covered England’s territory. Wealthy landowners started to buy the land that the village farmers had once worked on. These landowners improved the farming methods they were used to, which soon led to an agricultural revolution. After buying up most of the land of the village farmers, their increase of landholdings enabled them to cultivate more crops on larger fields.
Many of the French people were left without homes, food or livestock, they were about to face a harsh winter and were unsure if they had enough seeds to plant crops the following year. The climatic changes that occurred over Europe had drastic consequences for agriculture, resulting in malnutrition which pre-disposed the populace to disease. Inflation increased and famine soon spread across Europe, resulting in many deaths. Around 1339, Europe’s population began to increase, this growth began to surpass the capacity of the land to feed its populace. Therefore, a severe economic crisis began to emerge....
After the Black Death took the cities, shortly after it spread into the villages and farms. Killing the farm workers, the Black Death left crops not gathered which led to a shortage of food supplies and people to starve. Because of the mortality and the labor shortage, prices of goods dropped while the wages rose. Landowners were so desperate that they tried everything to keep the peasants to work for them. This gave the perfect opportunity for the laborers to demand higher wages how much they were valued. During the epidemic, the societies in Europe found their own ways to live through the Black Death. Some people thought that it God that created the plague, so he can punish the people because of their sins. Other people tried to enjoy as much as possible their last moments of their lives because they knew they would eventually die. Day and night people were getting drunk and move from one tavern to another and satisfying every last-minute wish they could. A social long-term consequence of the Black Death was that people lost their faith and were against God because he could not save them from the epidemic. Another consequence covers the economic change of the lower and middle-class people. During the 14th century peasants were at the very bottom but thanks to the Black Death their lives changed dramatically. After the epidemic was over, they were very
It is to be noted that farmers in England are among the most productive farmers in the world. The new methods of farming brought mass production in the early 18th century, leading to the Agricultural revolution. “In the early eighteenth century, Britain exported wheat, rising from 49,000 quarters in 1700 to a massive peak of 950,000 quarters in 1750”. The whole benefit of the Agricultural revolution was shared among aristocratic landholders. They were the only top authorities, as the English throne was already overthrown by the aristocratic class in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution.... ...