Major Themes, Food Prodduction

Major Themes














600 c.e. to 1450

FOOD PRODUCTION
 

Unlike the significant advances in food production of the previous era, Europe,  Asia, and Africa witnessed no revolutionary advances  in agricultural technology  from 600 to 1450.  Nor were significant new crops introduced comparable to what occurred  after 1492 as a result of Europeans coming to the Americas. As during  earlier eras, forests continued to be cut down  and swamps  drained  and turned into grazing and agricultural land. More efficient methods  were developed to plant and harvest food, using iron implements.  Trade and migrating  peoples introduced food crops to new regions. Tea made from leaves of a bush grown in southern China became a popular drink throughout the land after the seventh century  because  of political  unity  and  better  transportation. From China,  tea drinking  and tea cultivation  spread to Japan,  to its nomadic  neighbors,  and later to Europe.  Grapes and wine were introduced to China from western Asia via the Silk Road. Coffee, from a plant indigenous  to the Arabian Peninsula,  became a ubiquitous drink from western Asia and the Ottoman Empire to Europe.
 

Europe. Europe  suffered centuries  of invasions  and disruption with the decline and fall of the Roman  Empire.  Life fell to subsistence  level, not  to improve  until  around 1000  with  the end of barbarian invasions.  During  the  following  centuries,  the  clearing  of forests  and  repopulating of lands  previously  abandoned because  of the invasions  tripled  available  farmland, sharply  increasing the food supply and population. Medieval  farmers  also improved  productivity by adopting the three-field system and crop rotation, thereby producing crops from two-thirds of the cultivated  land rather  than half under the previous two-field system. They also farmed more efficiently by adopting improvements such as a heavier plow, the shoulder  collar and metal horseshoes for draft horses, and water  and windmills.  As a result,  the population of Europe  jumped  from 25 million in 500 c.e.  to more than  70 million in 1300 c.e.
 

Most  European farmers  were serfs, free in person  but  tied to the land.  They lived in villages ranging from 10 to several hundred families around a manor  house that  belonged  to a secular lord or to the church.  Each farming  family was allotted  strips  of land  scattered  around the village so that  all had  good  as well as poor  land.  Families shared  the pastureland and  woods  and  retained
about  half of what it produced for itself, giving the remainder to the lord or the church.  They were subsistence farmers, though  bartering took place for products that the serfs did not produce  locally. By the 13th century,  rising prosperity had led to improved  conditions for serfs, and some were able to raise cash crops, pay off their obligations to their lords, and move to towns.  However,  European economies  suffered  sharp  reverses in the 14th  century  due to climatic  changes; colder and  rainier weather  caused lower harvests,  higher prices, and population decline. Wars ravaged farmlands and contributed to famines. Between 1348 and 1354, the bubonic plague (Black Death) struck, reducing the population by about  a third.  It did not recover to pre-plague  levels until about  1600; ironically, the sharply reduced labor  supply resulted in better working  conditions for the surviving serfs.
 

Asia and Africa. Like Europe,  northern China  suffered repeated  nomadic  invasions  and warfare between c. 200 and 600. They caused economic disruption in northern China and development in the south, which was spared invasions and saw an influx of northern immigrants and rapid development. The completion of the Grand  Canal around 600 c.e., which connected  lands from south of the Yangzi (Yangtze) River to the Yellow River valley, would  be crucial for the economic integration of the Chinese Empire after reunification and ensured efficient distribution of food and other resources.  Wheat and millet were the main cereal crops in northern China,  and rice from irrigated  fields was the main staple crop of the south.
 

The introduction of early ripening rice from the Champa Kingdom (modern  Vietnam) around
1000  made double cropping  possible; this, together  with major projects  to build irrigation canals and  clear land,  made  possible  significant  population increases in subsequent centuries.  Whereas the Chinese  population remained  fairly static  at about  60 million  during  the Han  dynasty  (202 b.c.e.–220 c.e.)  and Tang (T’ang) dynasty  (618–907), it had surged to about  150 million in the early 13th  century.  It dropped to below  100  million,  or by 40 percent,  by the end of the 14th century  because of disruptions caused by the Mongol  invasions  and subsequent Mongol  misrule, including  turning  farmland to  pasture  land  and  hunting  ground,  neglecting  irrigation systems, and the bubonic  plague.
 

China’s population would  not reach 150 million until the early 17th  century.  The ability to feed an increasing  population was because  of effective government measures  that  improved  agricultural technology  by investment  in hydraulic  engineering that drained  marshes and extended  irrigation. Sea walls were built along the southern coast to protect  delta lands from storm tides, and a well developed network of granaries,  roads,  and canals were maintained to store and transport food.  According  to nutritional experts,  a wide variety of food crops, fish, and meat from domesticated animals made the Chinese among  the best fed people of Asia, and perhaps  of the world  during  this era, at an average daily intake of more than 2,000 calories. Except under Mongol rule, Chinese farmers during these centuries either owned their land or worked  as tenants  or sharecroppers. Chinese technological advances in agriculture were transferred to Vietnam,  Korea,  and  Japan.  Thus  agricultural patterns and  food habits followed similar patterns throughout eastern Asia.
 

There is little information on food production from similar periods in India. Indian governments, since the Mauryan dynasty (324–c.185 b.c.e.), claimed ownership of agricultural land and let it out to the tiller for an annual  rent and tax, up to about  half of the product. Rice was grown along river valleys and  on  delta  land,  relying  on  monsoon rains  and  irrigation. Where  water  was available, up to three crops could be harvested  on some lands. The farmers  also cultivated  wheat  and millet, many kinds of vegetables, and fruits. India was famed for growing a wide variety of spices used in cooking. The Spanish and Portuguese  voyages of exploration in the 15th century were motivated in part  by the desire to obtain  spices and other  riches from India. Increasing  emphasis  on vegetarian- ism by Hindus  meant  that  there  was less raising  of animals  for meat in India  than  in many other lands.  However,  Indian  farmers  used bullocks  for draft  animals  and  raised  cows for milk, which provided  much of the protein  in their diet. In the eastern  Mediterranean and Ottoman Empire, the production of grains and fruits was the main agricultural activity. From China, Central  Asia, Persia, the Middle  East, to North Africa, sedentary  agriculturalists and nomadic  (or seminomadic)  herders and pastoralists depended  on one another to supply what  each could not produce.  Pastoralism
generally existed in areas less favored  with rainfall.  As a result,  pastoralists were more dependent on outsiders for vital food items such as grains and salt than were farming societies. Therefore,  hard times or inability to trade for needed items often led to nomadic  raids, wars, and migrations.
 

In sub-Saharan Africa, farming ranged from advanced to slash-and-burn methods.  Herding,  hunting, and fishing were also important sources for food in many regions. In most European and Asian societies, men performed the heavy agricultural work and women spun and wove cloth, but in many African societies, men hunted  and  herded  animals  while women  farmed  and  produced most  of the food. Major  crops included millet, sorghum,  and ground  nuts as well as some vegetables.
 

The Americas. The method  of food production and the types of food produced throughout the Americas did not change from the beginning of the Neolithic  age to this period.  Maize, beans, and squash  remained  the staple crops.  The range of animals  available  for domestication remained  the same also—dogs,  turkeys,  llamas, alpacas,  and guinea pigs. All farm work  was done (by humans) with stone, bone, wooden, and sometimes copper tools, as there were no sturdy draft animals. In the Amazon basin the people combined  slash-and-burn tropical  forest agriculture with hunting  for wild game, fishing, and  gathering  of nuts  and  edible plants.  In North America,  the peoples  combined agriculture with hunting  both big and small game and gathering  edible nuts and fruits.
 

Peoples across  the world  used many  methods  to produce  food.  Incremental improvements in food production were most noticeable in Europe and eastern Asia during this period, where most of the population increases and improvements in living standards occurred.