Migration In Early Modern Europe

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The early modern period was seen as a time of intense social and economic change as there was a shift of the economic centre of Europe from Italy to north-western Europe. A major part of this involved the migration of people from one region to another. The process of migration involved the movement of people from one location to another in order to settle in a new place of residence. Even before the industrial period, it was typical behaviour for Europeans to move from their home and take on the role of a farm servant, annually rotating between areas. This was particularly true within the framework of young, rural communities. There were various motives and outcomes for migration in early modern Europe, some similar and others differed based …show more content…

The scope of work available to men was much wider than that of women, such as migrating to work on farms of in the trading industry. Young male villagers from rural areas were often able to find work in urban marketplaces and warehouses. Men who didn 't have the connections or reputation to gain skilled employment were able to enlist as a sailor or a soldier. This therefore made migration enticing to a lot of young European men who were looking for work. Job prosperity was the main appeal for male migration, but there were also other factors. Family life was also an important part influencing a man to seek out work through migration across Europe. Parents would send their sons away from home to enter into service, in order for them to gain the skills to prepare for a working life in the future and to help support the family financially. A man may also choose to migrate later in life with his family as a result of a local or regional subsistence crisis, or to improve the position of his family both economically and socially. Large and medium-sized cities had a very high ratio of migrants as a result of their high mortality rate, meaning that many men would move upscale with their families as there would be more opportunities for a better life in the …show more content…

Both would migrate from their hometowns in search of better employment in order to start a new life. Although, arguably the distance they went differed. Men were more willing to go further away in order to find new opportunities, whilst women tended to stick to cities that weren 't more than a few hours away for their home town. Additionally, motives for migration differed between men and women in that men migrated for economic gain, and women migrated more for the social purpose of acquiring a husband and to start a