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How Far Was The Period 1750 To 1900 An Age Of Progress?

From 1750 to 1900 there were some big changes which had an impact on every day life. Progress is defined as continuous improvement over a certain period of time. A revolution can be known as a big change. So a revolution, and then everything being at a standstill isn't progress. Furthermore you cannot improve over a period of time and have big hindrances in between; if any, hindrances can only be very minor. So the big question is how much consistent improvement was there from 1750 to 1900?

In 1700 there was an exponential growth in the population, food was scarce and more needed to be produced therefore agricultural needed change. The idea of ‘Enclosures' was introduced which meant combining the little strips of land owned by various farmers and surrounding them with fences. Also animals were now unable to spread disease by wondering off to other farms and many people cashed in as more animals were surviving thus more meat, sheep fur etc. However, people in the vicinity lost their rights to cut timber from woodland and graze their animals so ultimately common land was off limits. Some people could not afford it either. Enclosures were only used if 80% of villagers agreed to do so (so the majority benefited) and considering that open fields were abolished after 50 years, it was overall, much more productive and the statistics confirm this. New machinery was used to separate crops from stocks and fertilisers were being introduced, discovered and utilised in the newly introduced four field crop rotation. Hand labourers did lose jobs, but they now were able to move to factories, earn a better salary and work in better conditions The four field crop rotation an improvement of the three field crop rotation where rather than leaving part of the land fallow it would be used. Now all the land was being utilised and animals were grazing (also fertilising it with manure) on the (once fallow) land where crops were also being grown and this obviously...

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