European Working Conditions & Agriculture (cont.)

Questions:

7. Across Europe farming changed in many ways from the Middle Ages to around World War I. The methods in which farming was done changed dramatically over the years. Inventions and science helped spur an entirely new way of growing and harvesting crops. Also, much more was learned about the crop cycle and how certain plants grow better and more fruitfully. Also, in the Middle Ages, generally land was owned by the, "kings, noblemen, or the Church; " however, by the time of World War I the owners of the agricultural land were generally the poor and the peasants.

8. European governments had to face alternatives in order to deal with the foreign products being imported into their country. They could either, "do nothing" and let the foreign countries to, "swamp their home agriculture." This meant that food prices would be lowered and their population would rise in standard of living. Or, the second alternative was to protect their own crops by imposing food tariffs on imported products. Britain's choice to do nothing made it so that their agriculture, "once the most flourishing in Europe," suffered extremely from 1875 to 1900. They became utterly dependent on foreign supplies by 1914. France and Germany however, had a thriving agricultural sector in their countries which made it possible for, "more than a third of the labor force to be employed," due to their choice of imposing taxes on imports.