Resettlements and internal colonization in the Middle Ages


Population growth caused the overpopulation of many territories in Europe, where there was an acute shortage of land. The lack of land frightened those who worked on it, the specter of hunger. Therefore, many peasants, leaving their native land, settled in cities or sought vacant land on the outskirts of Europe. Such lands were still in the West; it is mainly forest thickets, swamps and other inhospitable places. The settlers had to root out forests and bushes, and drain swamps. With their indefatigable work they turned deafness into fields, vegetable gardens, meadows, orchards and vineyards. The same was done by monks, who were resettled from narrow monasteries to new monasteries in forest thickets. We went wherever our eyes looked, in search of new stocks of industrial raw materials and artisans. For example, German “miners” came across deposits of iron and copper ore in Sweden. They also wandered to Prussia, Poland, Hungary. The French helped the Spaniards for the Pyrenees to develop the territories reclaimed from the Arabs.

Such resettlement of monks, peasants and artisans scientists called the Inner Colonization. Settlers-colonists were not always friends with the indigenous population; nevertheless, they helped their livelihood to revive the economic life of Europe and helped it to avoid starvation. Internal colonization facilitated the exchange of economic experience and cultural achievements.

Internal colonization is the settlement of the outlying areas of one’s own country, the establishment of settlements in other countries.


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Resettlements and internal colonization in the Middle Ages