Title: History of the Alps - Wikipedia
Headings: History of the Alps
History of the Alps
Contents
Early history (before 1200)
Later Medieval to Early Modern Era (1200 to 1900)
Central Alps
Western Alps
Eastern Alps
Modern history (1900 to present)
Population
Economy
Milestones of railway transit across the Alps
Political history
Tourism and alpinism
Linguistic history
References
Bibliography
See also
External links

Content: Later Medieval to Early Modern Era (1200 to 1900)
The French historian Fernand Braudel, in his famous volume on Mediterranean civilisation, describes the Alps as “an exceptional range of mountains from the point of view of resources, collective disciplines, the quality of its human population and the number of good roads.” This remarkable human presence in the Alpine region came into being with the population growth and agrarian expansion of the High Middle Ages. At first a mixed form of agriculture and animal husbandry dominated the economy. Then, from the Late Middle Ages onwards, cattle tended to replace sheep as the dominant animals. In a few regions of the northern slope of the Alps, cattle farming became increasingly oriented toward long-range markets and substituted agriculture completely. At the same time other types of interregional and transalpine exchange were growing in significance. The most important pass was the Brenner, which could accommodate cart traffic beginning in the fifteenth century. In the Western and Central Alps, the passes were practicable only by pack animals up to the period around 1800. The process of state formation in the Alps was driven by the proximity to focal areas of European conflicts such as in the Italian wars of 1494–1559. In that period the socio-political structures of Alpine regions drifted apart.