‘Over the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the English countryside changed dramatically.’ Explain.

Earlier large parts of English countryside were open with no private ownership of land.

1. Every year at a public meeting the strips of land were distributed among the villagers so that each villager got a mix of good and bad land.

2. Apart from this, all villagers had access to common lands where they could pasture their cattle, collect fuel wood and fruits.

3. It was only after the mid-eighteenth century that the Enclosure Movement began at a rapid pace. It changed the English landscape forever.

4. It was the time when population in England was rising.

5. Industrialisation had also begun in Britain which attracted people to the urban areas. This increase in the urban population led to an increase in the demand and price for the foodgrains.

6. The imports of foodgrains from Europe were disrupted as France was at war with England. This further increased the price of the foodgrains which encouraged English landowners to enclose land and raise the production.

7. Seeing the profits accumulated landowners pressurized the parliament to pass enclosure acts. This gave an impetus to enclosing countryside in England.