AP Euro Topic 4.4 18th c Society and Demographics Terms/Names (Amsco) (copy)

18th Century Society

Agricultural Revolution

A time when new inventions such as the seed drill and the steel plow made farming easier and faster. The production of food rose dramatically.

land reclamation

the process of restoring land to a more useful condition, usually in a way that is good for farming (such as draining areas that are constantly flooded).

crop rotation

The planting of different crops in a field each year to maintain the soil's fertility.

Enclosure Acts

a series of laws enacted by the British government that enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use that had previously been common land used by peasant farmers

epidemic

A widespread outbreak of an infectious disease.

bubonic plague

Also called the Black Death was a deadly disease that spread through Europe and killed one out of every three people

small pox

Leading cause of death in Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

introduced the idea (learned from Turkey) of variolation, getting immunity to a disease by getting a mild form of the disease on purpose.

Nicolas de Condorcet

An early champion of social science and human rights. His advocacy of women’s rights was extreme even among Enlightenment thinkers in the salon. Demanded equal education and political rights.