Why did the population explosion happen in the 18th Century?

• There were a lot of problems that affected population prior to the 18th century:
• Famine: years of famine resulted in lots of people starving to death and population shrank throughout European villages that were affected
• Bubonic Plague killed thousands of people every time it reappeared throughout Europe
• Diseases like Typhoid and Smallpox killed off people constantly 
• How did this change during the 18th Century?
• In England roads and canals were built which allowed food to get to places where crops failed. Years of famine still occurred, but their effects were mitigated as people could purchase food. 

• The enclosure movement meant that there would be an increase in production of food which could support larger populations. 
• The Bubonic Plague disappeared and many disease outbreaks were carefully isolated so less people died. 

How did this population growth change rural life?

• Thanks to the enclosure movement, a lot of peasants had no way of gleaning or making money and they needed a way to earn a living.
• The population growth meant that jobs were scarce and not well paid.
• Urban capitalists took advantage of the huge amount of unemployed peasants through the putting-out system
• The putting-out system was set up so that a merchant would give raw materials to a worker in this cottage industry and the worker would make something with the raw materials.
• It was most common for peasants to turn wool into fabrics.
• Proletarianization: transforming large numbers of peasant farmers into wage earners 
• This transformation occurred most dramatically in England
• They had a well-developed system of navigable rivers and canals so goods could get from merchant to worker easily
• Life was not any better for wage-earning peasants than it was for peasants who gleaned during the open-field days. They lost some of their personal identity during this time and in many ways became part of a machine, assembling things for menial wages.