At school in the UK, we learned the basic story of the agricultural and industrial revolutions in Britain in the 18th century. But how are these processes generally framed and taught in other countries?

by Parapolikala

This question comes out if a discussion I had last night with an Indian friend, where I was trying to explain to him the nature of the change in the concept of land ownership in the course of the transition to capitalism. I realised that I have no idea whether something like the enclosure of common grazing occured in Germany, France and Italy, or indeed, more generally how the broad narratives of the transition to agronomic profit making and land clearance are generally framed and understood in those countries.

I am thus not really asking about specific historical events (that would of course be far too broad) but how the processes tend to be seen.

thefoxisalive

I can answer for Germany as a history teacher.

The German curriculum for history is German centered but will always include the European perspective, meaning that you as well have a look into the question "how did that affect other European countries" as well as learning about influences from different countries on Germany itself. In your specific case, this will be a matter of year 7 or 8 (depending on the type of school you attend and the federal country you are at), and will make the pupils understand (hopefully) that in the 18th century the industrial revolution started in England by inventions as the Spinning Jenny, the steam machine by Watt and the first trains. Then we will switch to Germany and have a closer look how those inventions and industrial revolution was brought to Germany and what it meant for the people here. Since here for example the outcome was quite the same in England as in Germany (e.g. the growing of towns, pollution, people moving from countryside to towns and work in factories) we have a general perspective that can be transferred from one cointry to the other.

Does that help?