User:Erel Segal/Land reform by country

The color in the "Year" column is darker for earlier periods and brighter for later periods.

Place	Reformer	Year	Ideology / motivations	Actions	Outcomes
MiddleEast: Egypt	Joseph	−1500	Monarchism / strengthen the Pharaoh	Nationalization / Joseph bought all lands for Pharaoh	Success: Egyptian peasants became serfs of Pharaoh
MiddleEast: Egypt	Bakenranef	−720	Help the peasants	Freedom to peasants / land alienability / debt anullment	Failure: Bakenranef murdered, reforms undone
Europe: Greece / Athens	Solon	−575	Help the poor and prevent an uprising	Freedom to peasants / debt anullment / forbid slavery of Athenians	Mixed: poverty somewhat alleviated
Europe: Greece / Athens	Peisistratos	−560	Help the poor while strengthening the tyrant	Land redistribution from rich to poor	Success: Athenian aristocracy weakened, poverty somewhat reduced
Europe: Greece / Sparta	Agis IV and Cleomenes III	−244– −227	Help the poor while strengthening the army	Land redistribution / debt anullment	Failure: Reformer kings murdered by opponents, reforms undone
Europe: Italy / Rome	Gracchi brothers	−133– −121	Help the landless soldiers	Land redistribution / enforcement of land ceiling law	Failure: Reformer tribunes murdered by Senate, reforms undone
Europe: France / Savoy	Victor Amadeus II	1720–1793	Economics / Increase royal income and weaken the nobility	Freedom to peasants / abolish serfdom duties / confiscate lands from lords	Success: all estates were at least partially emancipated
Europe: Prussia	various	1763–1850	Economics / Modernize the state by improving the peasants' conditions	Freedom to peasants from serfdom duties / enable serfs to become free landlords	Mixed: nobles bought much more land than peasants
Europe: Italy / Sicily	various	1773–1865	Enlightment / Liberate the peasants and strengthen the king	Nationalize noble lands; Reduce duties of peasants to landlords; Abolish private landlord armies; Distribute common lands to poor peasants.	Failure: The rich bought most lands and became richer; the Sicilian Mafia was born.
Europe: Austria / Habsburg monarchy	Maria Theresa and Joseph II	1680–1790	Enlightment / Liberate peasants, increase tax revenues	Freedom to peasants from serfdom duties	Failure: nobles did not cooperate and laws were not enforced
Europe: Austria / Austrian empire	Constitutent Assembly	1849	Enlightment / Liberate peasants	Freedom to peasants; subsidized purchase of their lands	Mixed: feudal law abolished, but most land remained concentrated with the nobles
Europe: Russia / Russian empire	Alexander II	1861	Enlightment / Liberate peasants	Freedom to peasants; subsidized purchase of their lands	Mixed: More than 23 million people received their liberty, but many of them received land insufficient for survival and became proletariat
Europe: Russia / Russian empire	Stolypin	1906–1916	Economics / Encourage private property and capitalism	Liquidize communal villages and divide lands to individual peasants.	Mixed: Private land holdings increased, but reforms were reversed after Soviet revolution
Europe: Russia / Soviet union	Lenin	1917	Communism / Abolish private property	Private ownership of land was prohibited	Mixed: Private land holdings increased, but reforms were reversed after Soviet revolution
Europe: Russia / Russian Federation	Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin	1989–2001	Privatization / Allow private property	Private ownership of land was re-allowed in several stages	Success: Private ownership is gradually increasing
Europe: Albania / Albania	Post-WW2 government	1946	Social justice	Constitution declared that land belonged to the tiller and disallowed large estates	Success: By 1954, more than 90% of land was held in small and mid-sized farms.
Europe: Albania / Albania	Communist government	1958–1962	Communism / Collectivization drive	Most agricultural lands were shifted to Soviet-style collective and state farms.	Success: By 1971, independent family farms had virtually disappeared
Europe: Albania / Albania	Post-communist government	1991	Privatization / re-allow private property	Arable land held in cooperatives and state farms was equally distributed among all rural households.	Success: Land was privatized.
SouthAmerica: Mexico	Miguel Lerdo, Porfirio Díaz	1856–1910	Liberalism and economics	Forced sale of corporately held property, specifically lands held by the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and indigenous communities.	Mixed: Changed the nature of land tenure in Mexico. But, Most Indian land was acquired by large estates. 95% of villages lost their lands.
SouthAmerica: Mexico (after revolution)	Álvaro Obregón, Lázaro Cárdenas	1910–1940	Social justice	Allocate land to peasants in need of it	Success: Reversed the process of land concentration, reduced the power and legitimacy of the landlord class. Much land was allocated to peasants, agricultural production increased.
Asia: Philippines	various	1946–2014	Social justice	Land redistribution laws	Mixed: Some lands were distributed to landless peasants, but agricultural production suffered.
Asia: Taiwan	various	1950s	Modernization / community development		Success: The JCRR is credited with laying the agricultural basis for Taiwan's outstanding economic growth in the following decades
MiddleEast: Egypt	Nasser	1952–1961	Social justice	Land redistribution	Mixed: 15% of arable land redistributed; reforms undone after change of government
Asia: Vietnam / North	Hồ Chí Minh	1953–1956	Communism / break the power of the traditional village elite and redistribute the wealth to create a new class that has no ownership	Landlords were murdered by government and their land redistributed to peasants	Failure: Hunderds of thousands were killed, and 1 million people fled to the South
Asia: Vietnam / South	Nguyen Van Thieu	1970	Social welfare / gain support from rural population during the Vietnam war.	Land ceiling, land redistribution with compensation to previous landlords	Mixed: Land was redistributed, but law became meaningless 5 years later at the fall of Saigon.
SouthAmerica: Guatemala	Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz	1953–1954	Social justice	Expropriation of land and redistribution to peasants	Mixed: The reform itself was successful, but a later US-backed coup reversed it entirely.
SouthAmerica: Cuba	Che Guevara	1959–1963	Communism	Nationalization of large estates and redistribution to peasants / land ceiling	Mixed: peasants were given land rights, but these rights are constrained by government production quotas and a prohibition of real estate transactions
Asia: India	various	1961–	Economics / modernize the agriculture and end the exploitation of the poor	Abolition of rent-collectors; Secure land-tenure; Land ceiling; Consolidate disparate holdings.	Mixed: In parts of India redistribution of land became more equitable; in other parts, people found loopholes in ceiling laws.
SouthAmerica: Bolivia	Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Evo Morales	1953–2006	Social justice	abolish forced peasantry labor, distribute rural property of traditional landlords to Indian peasants, organize peasants into armed militias.	Success: By 1970, 45% of peasant families had received title to land. The reform goes on.
SouthAmerica: Chile	Jorge Alessandri	1962–1973	Communism	Nationalization of large estates and redistribution to peasants	Mixed: After the 1973 coup the process was halted and somewhat reversed by market forces
Africa: Ethiopia	various	1975	Social justice	Nationalization of large estates and redistribution to peasants / abolish tenancy	Success: end of feudal law, strengthening of peasants
Oceania: Australia	various	1976–2004	Historic justice to Indigenous Australians	Several laws giving land rights to Aboriginals	Success: Large lands have been returned to Aboriginals
SouthAmerica: Venezuela	Hugo Chávez	2001–2003	Communism	Redistribute government and unused private land to campesinos in need	Success: 60K families received land title
Europe: Scotland	Scottish Parliament	2003	Social justice / Freedom to farmer communities	Farmer communities can buy their lands without landlord consent	Success: end of feudal law