Agricultural developments were an essential step in technological progress for humanity that allowed people to sustain high population counts. However, due to the differences in availability of usable soil masses and their scale, West Africans and Medieval Europeans approached agricultural issues with entirely different solutions. This paper will examine how these two regions were affected by their corresponding climates and why their methods were unique to their respective locations.
The issues with the agricultural needs were significantly shaped by the nature of the regions. West Africans had to resolve the crucial task of irrigation of a vast landmass that was potentially suitable for rice fields (Carney, 1996). Major fertile locations allowed for a rain-fed system to be implemented, while others required the development of a flood-plain system (Carney, 1996). Throughout the ages, they have developed a way to utilize several water regimes depending on the availability of water sources, such as rains, tides, or swamps (Carney, 1996). Plantations, akin to those that were used by West Africans, were not widely implemented by Europeans (Carney, 1996). The previous approach that focused on size instead of efficiency became redundant with the rise of smallholdings, as greatly limited plots of land had to be utilized with greater output per land unit (Broedel, 2017). Many technologies were focused on transforming hard European soil into fields via fertilization, implementation of heavy plows, and soil drainage (Andersen et al., 2016). These differences are the primary cause of specific technological advancements.
In conclusion, these techniques differ significantly from those that were developed by West Africans, as the soil in Europe was harder to manage, while climate in West Africa forced local farmers to develop complex irrigation systems. Medieval Europeans and West Africans had to solve an entirely different set of issues. These conditions were unique to each location, which made the described methods unlikely to be developed outside these regions.
References
Andersen, T. B., Jensen, P. S., & Skovsgaard, C. V. (2016). The heavy plow and the agricultural revolution in medieval Europe. Journal of Development Economics, 118, 133-149.
Broedel, H. P. (2017). The tools of agriculture. In D. Skjelver, D. Arnold, H. P. Broedel, B. Kim, & S. D. Broedel (Eds.), History of applied science & technology. The Digital Press.
Carney, J. (1996). Landscapes of technology transfer: Rice cultivation and African continuities. Technology and Culture, 37(1), 5.