The agricultural crisis had actually been brewing for a long time. The Russian Great Reclamation Movement was merely the fuse that set it off.
After entering the nineteenth century, agricultural production technology developed very rapidly. The spread of crop rotation across Europe in particular greatly increased land utilization.
New farming tools were constantly being developed, ushering in the age of mechanized agriculture and enabling a single farmer to cultivate more land.
During this period, agricultural output also began rising sharply. Grain production in every country continually broke new records. In Austria's case, grain output growth had exceeded 3 percent year after year.
Population growth during the same period was nowhere near able to keep up with the growth in grain output. The greatest benefit of increased grain production was that it allowed most people to fill their stomachs. The increase in related agricultural and sideline products also enriched ordinary people's tables.
As the population grew, so did the agricultural population. Although industrial development and urbanization had turned large numbers of rural laborers into workers, continuously reducing the proportion of agricultural workers, their absolute numbers still increased.
Against this backdrop, people spontaneously began reclaiming wasteland in order to earn more income. The Russian Great Reclamation Movement was not the first of its kind; Austria had been the first to set this bad precedent.
Austria's domestic land revolution had been incomplete, and the nobility still held vast tracts of land. To satisfy the peasants' demand for land, the Austrian Balkans were developed.
Compared with 1850, the amount of cultivated land in Austria proper had already doubled. Once the cake grew larger, the domestic land problem was naturally solved with ease.
Alexander II's Great Reclamation Movement was, in fact, an attempt to learn from Austria's successful experience. Since the peasants needed land, he