New Monarchs

CHAPTER 14 The Latin West, 1200?1500 I. Rural Growth and Crisis A. Peasants and Population 1. In 1200 C.E. most Europeans were peasants, bound to the land in serfdom and using inefficient agricultural practices. Fifteen to thirty such heavily taxed farming families supported each noble household. 2. Women labored in the fields with men but were subordinate to them. 3. Europe?s population more than doubled between 1000 and 1445. Population growth was accompanied by new agricultural technologies in northern Europe, including the vthree-field system and the cultivation of oats. 4. As population grew, people opened new land for cultivation, including land with poor soil and poor growing conditions. This caused a decline in average crop yields beginning around 1250.