Peasant

In a detail of Brueghel's Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the 16th century.

The word peasant, from fifteenth century French païsant meaning one from the pays, the countryside or region.(from Latin pagus, country district) The peasant is an agricultural worker with roots in the countryside in which he or she dwells, either working for others tenant farming or, more specifically, owning or renting and working by his or her own labor a small plot of ground. In England the term "cottager" is used. The term has historically meant Euopean land workers, although perhaps 80% of the contemporary world's population could be termed "peasant." Much contemporary thought is based on the European experience alone, though there is variation in the continued development of farm workers around the world. Peasant revolts coincided with the Protestant Reformation, and the Enlightenment as well as with the development of stronger classes as opposed to absolute Monarcy. This improved the ability of peasants to improve their political rights.

Background

Historically, peasant is a word for farmer. But in the world before the development of individual ownership, free trade and democracy, to be a peasant meant to stay alive. All land was owned by various aristocracy or state governments, and as the modern division of labor and industry had not developed, the way to eat was to cultivate the land. Peasants were part of their land and depended on it.(illustration, above right). A peasant had to be a jack-of-all trades, handy at everything and able to solve all problems that came up. Peasants lived within agricultural time; the "world-time," in Fernand Braudel's term, of politics and economics did not directly affect the peasant. Peasants typically made up the majority of the population. In modern society, where a market economy has taken root, the term may be more loosely referring to the traditionalist rural population where land is chiefly held by smallholders, peasant proprietors.

A rural peasant population differs enormously in its values and economic behavior from an urban worker population. Peasants tend to more conservative than urbanites, and are often very loyal to inherited power structures that define their rights and privileges and protect them from interlopers, despite their generally lower status within them.

Peasant societies developed strong social support networks. Especially in harder climates, members of the community who had a poor harvest or suffered some form of hardship often have been taken care of by the rest of the community. Loyalties and vengeance both ran very deep. Peasant communities can be difficult to access or understand by outsiders.

Peasant societies often have had very stratified social hierarchies within them.

Sedentary Occupations of the Peasants.—Facsimile from an Engraving on Wood, attributed to Holbein, in the "Cosmographie" of Munster (Basle, 1552, folio).

Some commentary has been made that in a barter economy, peasants characteristically had a different attitude to work than peasants— or town dwellers— in a money economy would. Often such societies have been markedly less competitive.

Fernand Braudel devoted the first volume of his major work, Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century to the largely silent and invisible world that existed below the market economy, in The Structures of Everyday Life.

Costume of a Vilain or Peasant, Fifteenth Century, from a 15th-century miniature of the "Danse Macabre," Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, Ms 7310

Since the literate classes who left the most record tended to dismiss the peasants as figures of coarse appetite and rustic comedy, "peasant" may have had a pejorative rather than descriptive connotation in historical memory. However, it was not always that way; peasants were once viewed as pious and seen with respect and pride. Life was hard for peasants, but before modern technology and a money economy, life was hard for everyone. Society was theorized as organized in three "estates": those who work, those who pray and those who fight.

The position of the Medieval European Peasant diverges

Russian peasants in Viktor Vasnetsov's "Moving House," 1876

The relative position of Western European peasants greatly improved after the Black Death unsettled medieval Europe, granting far greater economic and political power to those peasants fortunate enough to survive the cataclysm. The respect and power inherent in food production was at a high point. In the wake of the disruption of the established hierarchy, later centuries saw the invention of the original printing presses, widespread literacy and the enormous social and intellectual changes in the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. The development of these ideas within an environment of relatively widespread literacy laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution, which enabled mechanically and chemically augmented agricultural production while simultaneously increasing the demand for factory workers in cities. The factory workers were low skilled and easy to replace and quickly came to occupy the same socio-economic stratum as the original medieval peasants. The tension between the interests of these two groups forms an underlying context for much of the social and economic debate of the past century and a half. Much of this dialogue was applied to regions that were culturally very different from 19th/20th century Western Europe.

This is especially pronounced in Eastern Europe. Lacking any catalysts for sweeping change in the 14th century, the Eastern European peasants largely continued upon the original medieval path until the 18th and 19th centuries, when the tsars began to notice that the West had made enormous strides they had not. They responded by forcing the largely illiterate peasant populations under their control to embark upon a Westernization and industrialization campaign. Using methods of coercion and inept central planning that were largely continued by the later Communists, Peter the Great initiated a half-successful attempt to force over five hundred years worth of social change in the space of a few generations. Although this approach eventually (under the Communists) produced a technologically advanced and literate population, it came at the cost of many millions of lives and a cultural legacy that persists to this day.

European Peasant Revolts

Peasant, Peasants' or Popular is variously paired with Revolt, Uprising and War and may refer to (sorted chronologically):

Peasant revolt in Flanders 1323-1328

The revolt began as a series of scattered rural riots in late 1323, and peasant insurrection escalated into a full-scale rebellion that dominated public affairs in Flanders for nearly five years until 1328. It was caused by excessive taxations levied by Count Louis I of Flanders, and by his pro-French policies. The insurrection had urban leaders and rural factions which took over most of Flanders by 1325. The king of France directly intervened and the uprising was decisively put down at the Battle of Cassel in August 1328.

English peasants' revolt of 1381

The revolt was precipitated by heavy-handed attempts to enforce the third poll tax, first levied in 1377 supposedly to finance military campaigns overseas — a continuation of the Hundred Years' War initiated by King Edward III of England. The Black Death had greatly reduced the labour force, and as a consequence, the labourers had been able to demand enhanced terms and conditions. The Statute attempted to curb this by pegging wages and restricting the mobility of labour. Probably those labourers employed by lords were effectively exempted, but those labourers working for other employers, both artisans and more substantial peasants, were liable to be fined or held in the stocks. As result, this rebellion had representations from members of these classes as well as peasants.

"Wat" Tyler, brought a contingent from Kent in June of 1831 and the 'Men of Essex' had gathered with Jack Straw. The renegade Lollard priest, John Ball, preached a sermon for them that included the famous question that has echoed down the centuries: "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?"^{John Ball (priest)#Footnotes|[1]}. The rebels were encouraged by this, and crossed London Bridge into the heart of the city the next day and began a systematic attack on certain properties, many of them associated with John of Gaunt and/or the Knights of Hospitaller Order. On June 14, they are reputed to have been met by the young king himself, and to have presented him with a series of demands, including the dismissal of some of his more unpopular ministers and the effective abolition of serfdom.

Meanwhile, a group of rebels stormed the Tower of London— after likely being let in— and summarily executed those hiding there. Richard II of England agreed to reforms such as fair rents, and the abolition of serfdom.

At Smithfield, London, on the following day, further negotiations with the king were arranged, but on this occasion the meeting did not go according to plan. Wat Tyler is is alleged to have behaved belligerently when negotiating with the King, and in the ensuing dispute Tyler was killed. King Richard, seized the opportunity, rode forth and promised the Rebels all was well, that Tyler had been knighted, and their demands would be met - they were to March to St John's Fields, where Wat Tyler would meet them. They did this and were tricked as the Nobles re-established their control, and most of the other leaders of the rebellion were pursued, captured and executed, including John Ball. Jack Straw turned on his associates under torture and betrayed many of them to the executioner - though it did not save him. Following the collapse of the revolt, the king's concessions were quickly revoked, and the tax was levied.

Slovenian peasant revolt of 1515

The Croatian and Slovenian peasant revolt of 1573 was a large peasant revolt in Croatia and what is now Slovenia. The revolt, sparked by cruel treatment of serfs by a local baron, ended after 12 days with the defeat of the rebels and bloody retribution by the nobility.

German peasants war of 1524-1525

The Peasants' War (in German, der Deutsche Bauernkrieg) was a popular revolt in Europe, specifically in the Holy Roman Empire between 1524-1525. It consisted, like the preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars, of a mass of economic as well as religious revolts by peasants, townsfolk and nobles. The movement possessed no common program. The conflict was in the southern, western and central areas, but also affected Switzerland and Austria. There were about 300,000 peasant insurgents: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000. The revolt was in many respects a direct consequence of the Protestant reformation, which taught that all people were valued by God and could access God directly without the need of priestly mediation. Some translated this into the political realm, arguing that all people, regardless of social rank, should participate in governance.

Swiss peasant war of 1653

The population of the countryside demanded fiscal relief from their ruling authorities, which were the city councils of these cantons' capitals to begin what has become known as the Swiss peasant war of 1653. Although Switzerland was entirely made up of cantons that were rural or urban, some cantons were controlled by the rural population. When however, peasant demands were dismissed by the cities that ruled them, the peasants organized themselves and threatened to blockade the cities. What originally began as a response to the increase in taxes caused by a devaluation of Bernese money began to encompass demands of a much broader nature. The peasants formed a confederation called the "League of Huttwil" and negotiated the treaty of Huttwil.

When the terms of this treaty were broken the peasants laid siege on Berne and Lucerne, whereupon the cities negotiated a peace agreement with the peasant leader Niklaus Leuenberger, the so-called peace on the Murifeld. The peasant armies retreated, but troops from the federal council of the Old Swiss Confederacy were sent from Zürich to definitely end the rebellion. Soon after the Battle of Wohlenschwil, the Huttwil League and the peace of the Murifeld was forcibly annulled. After their victory, the city authorities took drastic punitive measures. Many exponents of the insurrection were captured, tortured, and finally received heavy sentences. Niklaus Leuenberger was beheaded and quartered in Berne on September 6, 1653.

Although the military victory of the absolutist city authorities was complete, the war had also shown them that they depended very much on their rural subjects. Soon after the war, the ruling aristocrats instituted a series of reforms and even lowered some taxes, thus fulfilling some of the peasants' original fiscal demands. In the long term, the peasant war of 1653 prevented Switzerland from an excessive implementation of absolutism as occurred in France during the reign of Louis XIV.

1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt

The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt took place in March 1907 in Moldavia and it quickly spread, reaching Wallachia. The main cause was the discontent of the peasants about the inequity of land ownership, which was in the hands of just a few large landowners who didn't want to bother with good administration of these lands. There were middle men hired, called (arendaşi) who in exchange for a fixed rent would administer the land and try to make a good profit in a short time. Most of these middle men were not ethnically Romanian, being Jewish or Greek. They owned as much as half the arable land while Romanian peasants formed up to 80% of the Romanian population and about 60% of them holding very little or no land at all.

When one large land owner, Mochi Fischer, was scared and fled before signing contracts as customary with the peasants, the peasants became fearful. The fear of remaining out of work, combined with the activities of some alleged Austro-Hungarian instigators, led the peasants to revolt. The revolt soon spread across most of Moldavia, with several landowners' properties destroyed and many arendaşi killed or wounded. The Conservative government (Partidul Conservator) couldn't handle the situation and resigned, so the Liberals (Partidul Naţional-Liberal) of Dimitrie Sturdza assumed power.

On 18 March a state of emergency was declared, then general mobilization, with 140,000 soldiers being recruited by 29 March. The Romanian Army began firing on the peasants; thousands of peasants perished and more than 10,000 were arrested. Although unclear, he most commonly used death toll is around 11,000

Legacy

The transition to societies that are primarily urban as opposed to rural has not been easy, nor is it clear that it is an ideal situation. The dream of the ancient Roman senator and soldier was to return home to his rural villa, and to enjoy the beauty of the land. Most Utopian visions have included much more of the natural world than visions of vast urban settings. Of course, the economics of how this all works has often been very difficult.

While peasants often were unfairly used, the Protestant Reformation brought the concept of the equality of all people to a new level and the rights of all people to be children of the same God. The Enlightenment provided many political tools and scientific advances in farm technology to accomplish this. In the twentieth century, some peasants still revolted in less developed countries, largely spurred by the images of more democratic and mutually beneficial governances. Yet, the angst of modern man reaches new heights. Dorothy Day had her farms as methods of restoration of mankind overcome with world weariness. Silicon Valley in California and the headquarters for the economic and technological trend setting company of Microsoft are both in idyllic rural settings.

Alvin Toffler suggested in "Future Shock" that "high tech" creates the need for "high touch," with nature being very "high touch." Perhaps the future will find a reconciliation through technology of man's need to access one another and various resources, fulfill economic stability and be one with nature like a peasant of the past.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Blum, Jerome. 1961. Lord and Peasant in Russia From the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century Princeton University Press.
• Braudel, Fernand, The Structures of Everyday Life vol I of Civilization and Capitalism1992. ISBN-10: 0520081145
• Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy, Montaillou : The Promised Land of Error
• Mollat, Michael, The Poor in the Middle Ages, 1986. ISBN: 9780300027891
• Kishlansky, Mark, Civilization in the West, fourth edition, 2001. ISBN-10: 0321070909
• TeBrake, William H. "A Plague of Insurrection: Popular Politics and Peasant Revolt in Flanders, 1323-1328",1993. ISBN 0-8122-3241-0.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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