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Europe Life in the Era of Expansion

Europeans expanded the African slave trade in response to the establishment of a plantation economy in the Americas and demographic catastrophes among indigenous peoples. Innovations in the banking and finance promoted the growth of urban financial centers and a money economy. For example The Dutch East India Company. Overseas trade made Europe part of a global economic network and encouraged the development of new economic theories and state policies. The growth of commerce produced a new economic elite, which related to traditional elites in different ways in Europe's various geographic regions for example Gentry in England. Hierarchy and status continued to define social power and perceptions in rural and urban settings.

 

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The price revolution is described as a series of economic events from the second half of the fifteenth century to the first half of the seventeenth century. Large landowners had to come together at times when they wanted to experiment new ideas and they all had to agree to it. According proponents of this movement, known as the enclosure, the upheaval of village life was the necessary price of technical progress. Traditional rights were precious to these poor peasants, who used commonly held pastureland to graze livestock, and marshlands or forest outside the village as a source for foraged goods that could make the difference between survival and famine in harsh times. In many countries they found allies among the larger, predominantly noble landowners who were also wary of enclosure because it required large investments in purchasing and fencing land and thus posed risks for them as well. 

Feudalism eroded in Western Europe and was codified in Eastern Europe as it spread from  France to spain, Italy and Germany.Many lords began using their land and renting it out to farmer. By the lords engaging themselves in trade, many serfs got the opportunity to substitute money so that they could become farmers as well. It came to the point where many sefs were able to purchase their own freedom.

Towns and cities held a scarcely more than 10 percent of the overall population, they would provided for some variation from what Karl Marx would call "the idiocy of rural life." People who lived in the city generally lived better than their rural counterparts, with better housing and a more varied diet, although urban poverty was also increasing in this period. Guilds, which began to dominate the urban economy during the High Middle Ages, continued to play a role in production of commodities down to the time of the French Revolution. However, the guild method of production was being supplanted by a new means of production that was in part directed by the expansion of population and the growth of markets. Cities had a greater variety of occupations, with a much greater emphasis on specialization, with specific tasks such as baking or brewing taking place in specific quarters of the city .More and more people still migrated to cities either for work or to start their own business.

During the eighteenth century there were many changes that had resulted in population growth. Population growth was a dramatic and good experience for people. It not only introduced many things, but created many opportunities. More women began having babies than before because new opportunities for employment in rural industry allowed them to marry at an earlier age. The decline in mortality was seen as one of the main reasons for the population growth. One of the primary reasons behind this decline was the mysterious disappearance of the bubonic plague. Following the Black Death in the fourteenth century, plagues had remained part of European experience. The growth of population increased the number of rural workers with little or no land, and this in turn contributed to the development of industry in rural areas. With this overwhelming new growth, there came some consequences with it. One consequence was an undermining of the traditional guild system that protected urban artisans. World trade had a leading role in population growth. The need for goods made the need for slaves to make the goods necessary. Slaves were brought on ships and sold for goods. 4 continents had been linked together by the exchange of goods and slaves. The new dynamics of the eighteenth century prepared the way for world-shaking changes.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth century more and more families were able to dedicate more space for children, private life, and comfort. Parents started to love their children, they suffered anxiously when they fell ill, and experienced extreme anguish when they died. As a precaution parents were well aware of the dangers and risks of infancy and childhood but still chose to have children for the love and care that they would provide. Discipline of children was often severe due to the fact that there society was filled with violence and brutality. The spread of Elementary schools was a great factor in a child well being. These schools offered teachings of basic literacy, religion, and perhaps some arithmetic for the boys and needlework for the girls.  With a great childhood for children their has to be a start which starts with the parents marriage. Marriage grew dramatically as young people were able to choose their partners themselves, rather than following the interests of their families. For men it was the right thing to do if you got a woman pregnant that you end up marrying her, but many little men actually married the woman that they got pregnant.

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