>How and why did the society and economy of Europe change in the eighteenth century? Chapter 17 examines European demographic and economic changes in the eighteenth century. In 1700, peasants on the land and artisans in their shops lived little better than had their ancestors in the Middle Ages. Yet the economic basis of European life was beginning to change. In the course of the eighteenth century, the European economy emerged from the long crisis of the seventeenth century, responded to challenges, and began to expand once again. Population resumed its growth, while colonial empires extended and developed. This expansion of agriculture, industry, trade, and population led toward one of the most influential developments in human history, the Industrial Revolution, a topic considered in Chapter 20.