An Historical Geography of Europe 1500-1840

This book like its companion volume An Historical Geography of Europe 450 BCAD 1330 seeks to examine the complex of natural and man-made features that have influenced the course of history and have been influenced by it. It follows the general pattern of the earlier volume and spans the period from the early sixteenth century to the eve of the Industrial Revolution in continental Europe approximately 1500 to 1840. It first presents a picture of the geography of Europe - political social and economic - in the early sixteenth century and it ends with a similar picture of continental Europe in the early nineteenth. The intervening period of about three centuries is too short to be presented in a series of cross-sections. Instead between these two horizontal pictures a series of vertical studies has been inserted. These trace the development of the main facets of European geography during this period. There are chapters on population urban development agriculture manufacturing and trade and transport. As in the earlier volume no attempt has been made to include either the British Isles or Russia and these are referred to only incidentally.