Agricultural Revolution FRQ

There were many different features of the Agricultural Revolution during the eighteenth-century. All of these aspects of the Agricultural Revolution had effects both economically and socially. One of these things was crop rotation. Crop rotation led to the social effect of healthier animals and more of those animals which led to healthier people because of their improved diet. Economically crop rotation led to new crops that were ideal for feeding livestock, which made it easier to feed animals. This, in turn, made it a lot cheaper to feed animals and it allowed there to be larger herds of cattle which produced more meat, milk, animals for work, and more crops for people to buy and sell. Another feature of the Agricultural Revolution was the enclosure movement for fencing off private property which eventually led to proletarianization. Socially this made it so that the peasants no longer had access to the common land which meant that they no longer had a place to graze their livestock or farm. Economically this led to market-oriented estate agriculture where the wealthy own the land at it is worked by peasants in return for wages. A third aspect of the Agricultural Revolution was the improvement of farming techniques. Because of the population increase, an increase of farming was needed for both a needed increase in food production and employment opportunities. Socially the effects were that the English and Dutch became known for their new farming techniques and became models for other countries to base themselves after. Economically the new methods of farming resulted in more land being left open for use, better crop production and higher output of crops, and better quality livestock. A closer look at all three of these aspects of the Agricultural Revolution shows how much they had an impact both socially and economically. The introduction of crop rotation during the agricultural revolution allowed Europeans to produce a greater surplus of crops,