page_title: Landesausbau
section_title: Population growth
hierarchical_section_title: Landesausbau / Population growth
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Darstellung der mittelalterlichen drei Ständeordnung – Redner „jene die beten“ (Klerus), Krieger „jene die kämpfen“ (Rittertum) und Arbeiter „jene die arbeiten“ (einfacher Mann aus dem Volke: Arbeiter, Bauer, Kleinbürger); Buchillustration Frankreich XIII. Jahrhundert. English: An inhabited initial from a 13th-century French text representing the tripartite social order of the Middle Ages: the ōrātōrēs (those who pray&#160;– clerics), bellātōrēs (those who fight&#160;– knights, that is, the nobility), and labōrātōrēs (those who work&#160;– peasants and members of the lower middle class). Русский: Духовенство, рыцарство и крестьянство. Миниатюра из «Книги здоровья» Альдобрандино ди Сиена. Франция, XIII в. Британская библиотека, Лондон.
context_page_description: Landesausbau describes medieval settlement and cultivation processes in regions of Western Europe that were previously only sparsely populated or uninhabitable. By means of clearing of woods and drainage of wetlands, new agricultural areas and new settlement areas were created.
  The processes of population expansion and resettlement led to an exchange of cultures and cultural diversity of languages, traditions and lifestyles. The Landesausbau changed the natural and cultural landscapes of Western Europe and continues to have an impact.
  The terminology “inland colonization“ to describe the Landesausbau has raised controversies between historians because of the linguistic parallelism to modern colonialism.
context_section_description: The population of Europe increased significantly at the High Middle Ages, but an extensive, almost deserted fallow land of forests and marshes was not cleared. Around 1300, the population of Europe is estimated to have reached a peak of as high as 70 million, and the population density reached a peak of over 20 inhabitants per square kilometre. The clearing of woods and the drainage of wetlands for the creation of new settlement and cultivation areas became necessary.
caption: Medieval French manuscript illustration of the three classes of medieval society: those who prayed (the clergy), those who fought (the knights) and those who worked (the peasants).
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