Population in Europe 1700-1914 [antikvár]

Population in Europe 1700-1914 INTRODUCTION The period from 1700 to 1914 was marked, in Europe, particularly towards the end, not only by vast economic changes but also by an unprecedented increase in population. This was by no means the first demographic expansion, since vast population increases had also taken place in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and again in the sixteenth. However, in the period under consideration this increase took on dramatic dimensions—the population of Europe, which amounted to about 170 millions in about 1700, had climbed to over 450 millions by 1914. Increases on this scale were quite unprecedented. Moreover, the very pattern of population movements had begun to change, at different times in various European countries—and above all in the West. Previously, and also at the beginning of our period, the mortality rate had been permanently and consistently high, to reach calamitous proportions in times of famine, war, or epidemics. This meant that the population could only increase by virtue of a relatively high birth rate which, in favourable years, helped to make good the losses sustained in hard times. But now this age-old pattern began to give way to a new order in which man's will played an increasingly important part. The mortality rate was greatly reduced by advances in medical science, hygiene and in the economic field, and shortly after- [5] P.E.-A2