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Description
Even with industrialization, the largest group of the population of Europe at the end of th 19th century worked and depended on the land. The state archives in Turin provided historians with a part...icularly good source of cadastres on which to research the social and economic conditions which prevailed in the regions; the hilly Langhe with sparse mixed farming and the flat Po valley area of the Vercellesi with large rice farms. By contrast the kingdom of Sicily a rich wheat growing and sulphur producing island, has next to no remaining archives. Historians of Sicilian rural society have to try and use police records and settlement patterns to piece together the social and economic hierarchy that prevailed before unification. after unification, the steady economic decline and rising population in rural Sicily contributed to the change in the social hierarchy, which itself led to civil unrest and emigration. In Piedmont, the Langhe region transformed itself into a specialist wine growing area and prospered considerably, whereas the wealthy landowners of the Vercellesi continued to exploit large numbers of deperate and deprived landless workers in the rice fields.
Even with industrialization, the largest group of the population of Europe at the end of th 19th century worked and depended on the land. The state archives in Turin provided historians with a part...icularly good source of cadastres on which to research the social and economic conditions which prevailed in the regions; the hilly Langhe with sparse mixed farming and the flat Po valley area of the Vercellesi with large rice farms. By contrast the kingdom of Sicily a rich wheat growing and sulphur producing island, has next to no remaining archives. Historians of Sicilian rural society have to try and use police records and settlement patterns to piece together the social and economic hierarchy that prevailed before unification. after unification, the steady economic decline and rising population in rural Sicily contributed to the change in the social hierarchy, which itself led to civil unrest and emigration. In Piedmont, the Langhe region transformed itself into a specialist wine growing area and prospered considerably, whereas the wealthy landowners of the Vercellesi continued to exploit large numbers of deperate and deprived landless workers in the rice fields.
| Module code and title: | A221, "State, economy and nation in nineteenth-century Europe" |
|---|---|
| Item code: | A221; 04 |
| First transmission date: | 1996 |
| Published: | 1996 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:49:07 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Charles Cooper |
| Contributor: | Clive Emsley |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Italian unification; Peasant reforms; Sicilian peasants |
| Subject terms: | Country life; Sociology, rural; Piedmont (Italy) --History; --Sicily (Italy) --History |
| Master spool number: | DOU8151 |
| Production number: | FOUA458X |
| Videofinder number: | 4998 |
| Available to public: | no |
