ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to indicate the sources of energy available to the Mediterranean agricultural sector, and the use made of them, during the period from the end of the Middle Ages down through the twentieth century, as traditional agriculture disappeared. It also aims to demonstrate that the risk of environmental degradation connected with human activity is not a peculiarity of industrial society, but that it had already manifested itself at the beginning of the period taken into account. Between the Middle Ages and the modern era, the northern part of the Mediterranean was the most densely populated in Europe. Many people crowded the small amount of infertile land, concentrating both in cities and in the surrounding countryside. 'Dominant' cities became a prevailing environmental factor, since their power allowed them to spread through countryside and forests. These were manufacturing cities that needed to feed a population not employed in agriculture.
