Essential Terms in History and Agriculture

Key Historical and Economic Concepts

Balance of Power

Parity or stability between competing forces. It represents a 'just equilibrium' between the members of the family of nations, designed to prevent any one nation from becoming strong enough to enforce its will upon the rest.

Demographic Metrics

• Birth rate: Nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year.
• Mortality rate: A measure of the number of deaths per population.
• Life expectancy: Average number of years of life remaining at a given age.

Agricultural Systems

Fallow System of Farming

Fallow refers to land that is plowed and tilled but left unseeded during a growing season. The practice of alternating wheat and fallow assumes that by clean cultivation, the moisture received during the fallow period is stored for use during the crop season.

Norfolk System of Farming

A revolutionary farming system in which four crops were rotated instead of three. It removed the fallow field and replaced it with turnips and clover. These provided excellent winter cattle feed and enriched the soil with nitrogen found on the tips of their roots. When the plant was removed, the root tips and nitrogen remained, greatly increasing profits.

Economic and Social Structures

Guilds

An association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest guilds were formed in the Middle Ages as confraternities of workers.

The Factory System

A method of manufacturing first adopted in England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1750s. Each worker created a separate part of the total assembly, increasing efficiency. Workers, paid by wage, and machines were brought together in a central factory where all production processes occurred under one roof.

Political and Colonial Terms

Sovereignty

The principle that an individual or institution can exercise political power. Sovereignty can reside in the king, the Republic, or the People (Popular Sovereignty).

Nueva Planta Decrees

Signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, following the War of the Spanish Succession. Modeling his state after France, Philip V suppressed the institutions, privileges, and ancient fueros of the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands), mandating that these territories be ruled by the laws of Castile.

Criollos

A social class in the caste system of the overseas colonies established by Spain in the 16th century, especially in Latin America, comprising locally born people of pure or mostly Spanish ancestry.