HIST 1301W Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Crop Rotation, Gruel
Document Summary
Life in europe at the time of the voyages of exploration and conquest. Small scale of life, 25-35 age expectancy, difficult travel, rarely left village, low literacy famine. Mid 15th century 50k books (mostly controlled by church) - end of century 10m books. Pop growth in about 1500 little perception of historical change. Nasty, brutish, and short -unsanitary, 95% bread & gruel diet, hunger and. In relative terms, eu was rich-tech, military, material well being. Iron tipped plow, crop rotation, water mills, harness birth rates higher than death rates. Promoted economic development, expansion and colonization, nationalism, army. Astrolabe, quadrant, compass, printing and map making, sail tech. Portugal, brazil, and west africa: slave trade, sugar. Dutch: trading model, urban, pluralist, trading with natives. French: trade/settler model, catholic missions, interdependent w/ natives. English: combination of all models with relative greater success. Each country needed help of natives to make colonization successful eagerness to leave europe.
