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Period: Jan 1, 1300 to Jan 1, 1450
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age begins, the climate of Europe become overall colder and wetter. Agricultural productivity drastically decreased. Crops never ripe or other crops just don't survive. Leads to the Great Famine (1315 - 1322). -
Jan 1, 1493
Introduction of new crops
Introduced by Columbus and columbian exchange, new crops came into Europe from the Americas that later took major percentage of crops that were being farmed. Such crops are corn, white potato, tomato, and some spices such as chili pepper. Crops such as corn became staple crops in south eastern Europe. Some other crops caused confusion and conflicts due to religion and superstition. Potato and Tomato were both included in nightshade family, including poison in their stem and leaves. -
Jan 1, 1500
Major change in crops being planted
Crops such as corn and potato became staple crops in south eastern Europe. Potato was widely used because it replenishes the land and makes it more furtile while growing on the soil, and later became widely available for the poor, solving their starvation problems. However, it took a while for people to start planting potatos and tomatos for their food because they both are catagorized in the nightshade family, including poison in their leaf and stems. -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
The Columbian Exchage
The Columbian Exchange was a took a very important role of exchanging crops over from the Americas and to the Americas. The new world crops such as potato and corn were grown widely over Europe, while the original European plants such as olive and grapes were grown in farms in South America. -
Jan 1, 1550
Plantations - Crops not for food but cash
With the new introduction of crops and more demands, in the Americas, new crops were planted in mass plantations, grown to be sold and make profit. Most popular crops were sugar in the early plantations, and later followed with cotton and tobacco plantations. This also leads to high demands of slaves in the Americas -
start of enclosure
The movement to fencec the fields to farm more effectively. Farmers increased their productivity by gathering their scattered holdings into a compact and fenced field for more efficiency in farming. This required enclosing of innovator's individual shares of the village's natureal pastureland. -
Period: to
Agricultural Revolution
Many agricultural progress and developments were being made in Europe, and fallow (idling field for replenishing nutrients) were gradually eliminated. Many methods of effectively growing crops and repleninishing ways were researched and developed, espcecially with the help of developments from the scientific revolution. Lead to increase in overall agriculture productivity. These later leeds to the population explosion. -
Development of Seed Drill
An Englightenment thinker, Jethro Tull (1674 - 1741), and tried to develop farming for better method through empirical research, and advocated sowing seed with drilling equipment, This allowed seeds to be planted in an even manner and in the right depth, letting them grow fairly better, compared to seeds being scattered by hands. -
Drainage System in Dutch and England
Due to their high population density and limited amount of land, the Dutch were forced to figure out the ways to maximize their production from land and drain water out of swamps and marshlands to increase cultivated area. The drainage system allowed the Dutch to have a much larger farmland after few years the place has been drained, increasing the overall agricultural productivity. The England quickly learned this system and also created massive lands for cultivation.
