E— GEOGRAPHY 115 



France and the Rhine in the early Middle Ages, and, in relation with this, 

 often, at the present day, the life of a town connects it with regions farther 

 west, while the peasant life round about knows nothing of this. The 

 Renaissance, being essentially an urban movement, accentuated this, and 

 we note the French leanings of part of the upper classes in Alsace contrasted 

 with the Alemannic tradition of the peasantry, German aristocracy and 

 Danish common folk in parts of Slesvig, German (including Yiddish) 

 affiliations of towns in Poland as against Slavonic life among the peasantry, 

 Polish affiliation of towns and the upper classes in East Poland as contrasted 

 with Lithuanian (in the north) and Ruthenian (in Eastern Galicia) 

 traditions of the peasantry. This difference in the fit of the traditional 

 frames of life has become one of the most troublesome difficulties of 

 Europe, by no means diminished in 1918-20 through the decision to follow 

 now the urban and now the rural tradition in rearranging boundaries to 

 suit political exigencies and a greatly intensified consciousness of kind 

 following the bitter struggle of 1914-18. 



VIII. Traditionalism and Individualism in various Geographical 

 Environments. Mass-Production. 



But the problem was greatly deepened by another sequence of develop- 

 ment. The Renaissance, whatever else it may have done, was a potent 

 factor of the rise and spread of individuality. After it, much larger 

 numbers of men in Europe became less members of a traditionalist com- 

 munity and more definitely persons with ideas of their own to express. 



In agricultural life the introduction of seed grasses, sown clover and 

 root crops, and, later on, of the potato, helped to break down the old 

 communal cultivation, perhaps most of all by interfering with the old 

 right of stubble pasture. Individualism in farming made its way in the 

 end, and the last eighty years have seen further revolutionary changes 

 due to modern transport developments. 



In urban life, the increased wealth that more elaborate agriculture 

 brought, and the growth of commerce, coupled with the individualist 

 spirit, made craftsmanship become more differentiated, and guild systems 

 gave place to independent enterprises, with apprenticeship continuing 

 the old idea of maintenance of a trust handed down and passed on. 



But in some parts, notably in France, these changes, and even great 

 political convulsions, long left some basic facts of society untouched. 

 The peasantry long remained attached to, almost worshippers of, their soil, 

 even if in parts of the west and south of that country this is no longer the 

 case. The peasant acquired more dignity, but the village remained an 

 entity ; men still often make it their main ambition to hand on an improved 

 farm to their descendants. The town too is often still essentially the 

 focus and market for its region, and it often still carries on a number of 

 smallish industries for the benefit of its neighbourhood. Its bourgeois 

 are peasants only slightly modified. The idea of maintenance, rather than 

 that of expansion on an English, German or American scale, is strong 

 in many minds and France, characteristically, makes external trade sub- 

 ordinate to internal production for use and exchange. The reasonable 

 assurance of her wheat, root-crop, potato, and, but for a few calamitous 



