The European Agrarian System Essay Essays

The European Agrarian System Essay Essays The European Agrarian System Essay Essay The European Agrarian System Essay Essay Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: The European Agrarian System Essay 1. The European Agrarian System had estates, which dealt with agriculture and farming and were divided socially into three groups. These groups are the first, second and third class. They are divided in this manner due to the difference in their composition, structure and the parallel missions each one of them has. The third class agrarian social estate is composed of the peasants. These citizens did not own land, which was a very valuable commodity during the 18th and 19th Century. These citizens acted as laborers to the owners of the land. The peasant and his family would be given a piece of land where they were allowed to settle as squatters. In return, they would offer their services to the owners of the land, known as lords. The squatters’ basic job was to cultivate the land, and this was to the Lord’s benefit. They ploughed the land in a shifting method system where they would work on one piece of land, after the land loses its fertility they would move to another leaving the former fallow. The land was divided into strips, and each peasant was allocated where to work. This job was done manually by men using simple tools. The peasants had other duties, which included grinding of grain into flour, baking bread, and squeezing wine from grapes, which was mostly done by the wome n and children. These laborers were further divided into free peasants or slaves; whereby the free ones had certain rights that included freedom to specify on the number of days to work. The slaves, who were known as serfs had no say whatsoever. The second estate was made up of long distance traders who were known as merchants, who emerged in the mid 19th Century. These groups of people traveled to distance places in search of trading opportunities such as market for the produced goods, more arable land, farming tools etc. On discovering new trading grounds, the merchants would pass the information to the Lords who deployed the serfs to the new working areas in guarantee that they would be granted their freedom. Along with this trade came banking and manufacturing. Laws of trade were set up, whereby property holding rules and regulations were set up and trade disputes were settled. The first estate of European Agrarian social estates was comprised of the nobles, who included the Lord who was the landowner and his family. He was considered as the king and had an assistant who was known as the vassal. The vassal was answerable to him concerning everything that happened in his kingdom. He also had a military system, which was composed of fighters known as knights. The peasants were all at the Lord’s mercy and had to serve him faithfully. 2. In order for the different classes found in society to work together, certain aspects have to bring them together. The European Agrarian social pyramid ensured that its different social classes have the same beliefs, have a common necessity and that each of the societies work according to the powers given. This led them to working together to achieve and fulfill their main objective, which is to improve the level of economic growth. The discovery of domestication of plants (1600s), a vast land for farming and a population growing at a very fast rate necessitated the need for the Europeans to find a way of making use of these opportunities. As a result, a social pyramid was created to turn the potential of Europe into action. As a result, the wealthy men of the region had to take charge of the arable land, while skillful labor would be required to work in the lands and market for the goods, land for expansion and other opportunities were being exploited. This therefore, led to the emergence of the three social states that included the nobles who were the first class, the merchants who were the second class and the peasants who were the third class. The Lords were in charge of the land, the merchants sought for greener pastures while the peasants acted as the laborers. This formed the agrarian social pyramid and the three worked for the betterment of the whole society. The European Agrarian Society had a system of beliefs that has defined the way in which the people in the societies functioned. They believed in innovation, and as such, were willing and ready to embrace new forms of technology and accept the changes that took place with time, such as the evolution from making hand made tools by guilds to manufacturing. They also changed from agriculture to horticulture in the 1920s. They also had a firm belief in religion and believed in Christianity. They believed in the coming of together for pilgrimage to thank God for their success and well-being. It also promoted fairness and equity and therefore played a major role in bringing all the three classes together. The first class that were the overall authority, had total and complete power over all the other classes. They made the rules and regulations that kept the three classes together and ensured that there was peace and order among everyone. The Lords divided the land into strips for the workers helping to avoid conflicts (between 18th and 19th century). They also worked together with the merchants in acquiring new territories and trading of goods. However, towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the government took over the rule from Lords and had overall power. 3. Cuxham is a village in England, which is believed to have existed in the ca. 1300. It is a very small city found in the northern side of Wallingford and south of Thames. However small it is, it represents the kind of life experienced in the whole of European Agrarian world. The Cuxham is home to the first Parish Church of England, which was built in the 14th century. It is the origin of the pre-Roman Church. This indicates that this was a very religious village. In the same way, the European Agrarian World also had very firm beliefs in religion. They believed in Christianity and led by the Roman Catholic Church. They have such a firm belief that at a certain time of the year they used to go pay pilgrimage. Cuxham village has a record of three watermills. The current one was built in the middle of the 18th century. It was built to be of service to the peasants who lived there. Similarly, in the European agrarian world, a number of watermills had been constructed to pump water to the dry areas. The village has a fertile land and cool climate for agricultural purposes, thus promoting farming. This played a major role in the European agrarian world, by motivating them to also take part in domestication of plants. The half-moon pub and restaurant built in the village in the 17th Century was among the first restaurants to be opened in Europe thus encouraging the society in agrarian Europe to invest in other businesses apart from farming. The growth and development experienced in the European agrarian world has been inspired by most of the activities, culture and beliefs of the people in Cuxham village.