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One must ask firstly if Europe posed an European awareness among Europeans? ...
Europe up until the 18th Century consisted of “two nations”: on one hand, the agricultural population who lived their lives according to a rhythm, fixed largely by nature and which remained fairly constant until the end of the 18th century. ...
It has to be maintained, consequently, that in the majority of cases, towns and countryside largely had their own cultures: whereas Western Europe may have had some 20,000 towns, it had some 160,000 villages, where the majority of Europeans lived. In the centuries between 10,000 and 5000BC, until the 18th century AD, the beginnings of agriculture in Europe, between 70 and 80 percent of Europe’s population were farmers or, to be more precise, survived on the basis of agricultural labour. ... ”
The Catholic Church, the Church of Rome played and important part in European’s life also making the agrarian change slow. The church called itself universal, and indeed it was up until about the 1500’s because all the people in Western Europe were still Catholic. ...
For the countryside in Europe, the city proved to be either a friend or foe to the villages. ... Due to this, a mixture of disdain and fear frequently characterized the attitude of city dwellers towards countryfolk who, in their turn, were inclined to distinct city dwellers as stuck-up cheats.
Agrarian change was slow in Western Europe also because the ‘information caste’ wanted to preserve their exclusiveness. ... Knowledge here was not shared, on the contrary, the monks in their monasteries monopolized it, and were often the only educated persons in Europe’s village world.
Most farmers in Western Europe went to the weekly market, this was the only break they got from their villages because markets where in their cities/towns. ... Lurking in the dark up until the late 18th century were roving bands of professional robbers, plundering soldiers “living of the land,” and farmers who had become penniless and rebellious because of some economic disasters. ... There were ghosts, spirits and witches, who had all sorts of nastily plans up their sleeves. ... The culture and mentality of most who lived in Europe’s agricultural communities were severely limited. ... All occurrences added to the reason why agrarian change was slow in Western Europe up until 1700.
Approximate Word count = 1889
Approximate Pages = 7.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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