The following passage is adapted from a historical essay on European agricultural history.
Prior to the sixteenth century, northern European agriculture was dominated by open-field grain cultivation, a system highly vulnerable to weather fluctuations and frequent fallow cycles. The introduction of the Andean potato (*Solanum tuberosum*) via Spanish trade routes quietly transformed this precarious landscape. Unlike grains, which grew above ground and were easily destroyed by early frosts or military forage, the potato matured safely beneath the soil and yielded up to four times more calories per acre. Consequently, European farmers began converting marginal, previously uncultivable lands into productive fields. This agricultural intensification stabilized the food supply, virtually eliminating the localized famines that had historically checked population growth. As nutrition improved, infant mortality rates plummeted, initiating a demographic boom. This surplus labor pool, no longer tethered to subsistence farming, migrated to urban centers in search of employment, thereby providing the essential workforce that fueled the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.
According to the passage, the introduction of the potato initiated a chain of cause-and-effect relationships. Arrange the following events in order from the initial cause to the final consequence.
- 1Farmers cultivate potatoes on marginal lands due to their resilience and high caloric yield.
- 2The food supply stabilizes, reducing localized famines and decreasing infant mortality.
- 3A demographic boom creates a surplus labor pool that is no longer required for subsistence farming.
- 4Rural workers migrate to cities in search of work.
- 5A large urban workforce becomes available to fuel the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.