Chapters 19 & 20 Questions
Group 1:
Agricultural Revolution (Ch. 17, p. 542-546)
1. What was the economy of 17th-century Europe based on?
2. Describe the agricultural problems and crises that Europeans faced in the 16th and 17th centuries.
3. Define, describe, and draw a diagram of the open-field system. Include definition/identification of the common
lands. 4. What were the disadvantages of the open-field system?
5. Compare and contrast the condition of peasants in Eastern Europe vs. Western Europe.
6. Define each of the following terms and connect them to one another: agricultural revolution, crop rotation,
enclosure. 7. What were the causes of the agricultural revolution?
8. What were the consequences of the agricultural revolution?
9. In which countries did the agricultural revolution originate? Explain the factors that granted these countries their
leadership.
10. Explain the contributions of each of the following individuals: Cornelius Vermuyden, CharlesTownsend,
JethroTull.
11. What was the cost of technical progress in England, and to what extent did its payment result in social injustice?
List and explain different historians’ interpretations of the consequences of the agricultural revolution on the social
classes. Within your response, define the concept of proletarianization.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Group 2:
Population Explosion/cottage industry (Ch. 19, p. 546-554)
1. What was the overall pattern of population growth before the 18th century?
2. Trace the history of population changes from the 14th century up to the 18th – succinctly note patterns of growth and
decline, as well as reasons for these changes.
3. Explain the factors that caused the population explosion of the 18th century. 4. What was the negative consequence
of the population explosion?
Cottage Industry (Ch. 19, p. 639-643)
1. How were goods produced during the High Middle Ages? How did the production system that developed in the 18th
century differ from medieval production?
2. Define cottage industry, protoindustrialization, and the putting-out system. Also draw the connection between
these terms.
3. Explain how the putting-out system worked.
4. What were the advantages of the putting-out system?
5. Which country developed the putting-out system first?
6. The manufacturing of what type of goods employed the most people (at least until the 19th century)?
7. Describe the life of a rural textile worker. What was the worker’s cottage like? How was cottage industry a family
effort?
8. What conflicts and problems arose in the cottage industry?
Group 3:
Building the Atlantic Economy (Ch. 19, p. 557-571 excluding p. 567-569)
1. Which country was the commercial leader in 18th-century Europe?
2. Explain the economic system of mercantilism.
3. How did the British approach to mercantilism differ from the French approach?
4. What are the Navigation Acts? How were they a form of economic warfare?
5. In the 18th century which country was England’s biggest rival in the quest to build an overseas empire?
6. Make a timeline of the following events: War of the Spanish Succession, Peace of Utrecht, War of the Austrian
Succession, Seven Years’ War, Treaty of Paris. For each event, write a short description of what happened. What is
the theme and what was the outcome of these events?
7. Describe the development of slavery and its impact on the economy in the Americas: When was slavery introduced?
Who introduced it? Where did most slaves come from? What kind of labor did slaves do? Where was slavery most
common? What was the standard of living like in 18th-century America, and how was this different from the European
standard of living?
8. How did the colonial markets (i.e. the Atlantic economy) benefit the British?
9. Define and describe the Atlantic slave trade.
10. How did Europeans view the slave trade... (a) until 1700/1750? (b) after 1775? When was the British slave trade
abolished?
11. What were the causes and consequences of Spain’s revival in the 18th century?
12. Describe the economy and society of Spain’s American colonies. Include the following terms: Creole, debt
peonage, mestizo.
13. Explain the economic theory of Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, 1776). Tie in the terms economic
liberalism, capitalism, and “invisible hand.” How did his theory differ from mercantilism?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Group 4:
Marriage and the Family (Ch. 20, p. 576-586)
1. What changes occurred in marriage and the family in the course of the 18th century? What factors account for these
changes?
2. Describe patterns of employment for young people. What did (a) boys and (b) girls do for employment, and how
were they treated?
3. The number of illegitimate births decline while the rate of premarital sex increased in the first half of the 18th
century. Explain why this occurred.
4. Explain what is meant by the illegitimacy explosion that occurred between 1750 and 1850. According to
historians, what are two interpretations of why this explosion occurred?
Children and Education (Ch. 20, p. 580-586)
1. Describe childcare and nursing practices of the lower classes vs. the upper classes. Include the term following terms:
wet-nurse and killing nurse.
2. Why did the number of foundlings increase in 18th century Europe? What was the charitable response to the
increased number of foundlings? Was this response effective or not?
3. How were children in 18th century Europe viewed and treated? What factors influenced this attitude?
4. How did Rousseau attack existing attitudes toward children in Emile?
5. How did attitudes toward and treatment of children change at the end of the 18th century?
6. How did education and literacy evolve in the period 1500-1800?
7. Identify four types of popular literature.
8. Differentiate between the reading of the common people vs. the educated elite.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Group 5:
Food and Medical Practice (Ch. 20, p. 589-592 and 601-605)
1. What was the diet of the poor?
2. What was the diet of the upper classes?
3. What was the diet of the urban lower middle/middle classes?
4. What was the impact of diet on the health of the poor?
5. What was the impact of diet on the health of the rich?
6. Which group of people had the healthiest diet, and why was this the case?
7. How did patterns of food consumption change during the course of the 18th century?
8. Identify five different groups of medical practitioners and describe the healing methods and services of each. 9.
Describe the condition of 18th century hospitals.
10. What was the greatest medical advancement of the 18th century? Who was responsible for this advancement?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Group 6:
Religion and Popular Culture (Ch. 20, p. 586-589 and 592-601)
1. How did the attitude toward religion differ between the educated elite and the common people in the 18th century?
2. What role did local parish churches play in their communities?
3. How did the Protestant Reformation affect the organization and leadership of the Protestant churches?
4. How did the Protestant Reformation affect the relationship between the church and state in Catholic countries?
What types of reforms did Catholic monarchs introduce?
5. What is Pietism?
6. Explain three reasons why the Protestant revival began in Germany.
7. Who was John Wesley and why is he important?
8. How did Catholics demonstrate and celebrate their piety in the 18th century?
9. Differentiate between the Protestant and Catholic approach to popular piety.
10. List and describe the various forms of entertainment in 18th century Europe. Include the terms Carnival and blood
sports.
11. How did the patterns of popular religion and culture come into conflict with the critical world-view of the educated
public and thereby widen the cultural divide between rich and poor in the era of the Enlightenment?