6 THE GREEN RISING 



than they had been able to maintain in the late 

 Middle Ages. 



Agrarian revolutions occurred in France and Eng- 

 land from time to time during the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries. The French peasants were 

 relieved of servile tenure in 1789. By the middle of 

 the nineteenth century servile tenure had also been 

 abolished in the smaller countries of western Europe, 

 including Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, 

 and the Scandinavian countries. The small farmers 

 of England opposed strenuously the English policy 

 of enclosures, and, while they were unable to pre- 

 vent this movement, they succeeded in gaining im- 

 portant concessions in the way of a better economic 

 status and more liberal contractal rights with their 

 landlords. 



The seeds of agrarianism were sown early in 

 American soil. Agriculture in England had been 

 built securely upon its feudal traditions. At the 

 time of the settlement of America farming was a 

 well established capitalistic industry. In contrast 

 with the English situation, in all other countries of 

 western Europe agricultural enterprise was organ- 

 ized on the basis of small proprietorships. It is 

 probable that American agricultural history would 

 have been quite different had France, Spain, or Italy 

 dominated in the settlement of the new country. 

 But the fact that England soon gained supremacy 

 in the colonial policies of America made it inevi- 

 table that an effort would be made to transplant 



