The processes of village abandonment, war damage and social fallows : the Cheb region in the late Middle Ages
Abstract
This study sets out to specify findings about the process of village abandonment, the course and impact of local conflicts, and about "social fallows" in the late Middle Ages. The Cheb region was selected for its vast source base in the form of land tax registers (1392-1757).
These allow to analyse the socioeconomic, demographic and settlement development of over a hundred villages, year by year. The analysis shows that 1) depopulation was the primary cause of the abandonment process in the late 14th century, possibly triggered by plague epidemics; other factors were of secondary importance, yet on the other hand they also played a part in whether a village would be restored or not; 2) consequences of war damage in the 15th century were quickly overcome, usually within 1-2 years, and in the Cheb Basin they did not result in village abandonment; 3) the individual defunct villages can be interpreted as long-term social fallows indicating economic and demographic problems of farming communities.