StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm still studying history and we've arrived to the late 1700 and the beginnings of the 1800's. Our book goes lesson-by-lesson by country-by-country, with an occasional page dedicated to the emerging philosophies and technologies.

One such lesson where technology and new problems appear, is the mention of the demographic bloom of the late 18th (1750-1800) century.

My book says that this demographic bloom was caused by the improvements in agriculture, changes in hygiene (the appearance of sewers) and improvements in medical technology (it mentions vaccines). This caused a reduction of deaths per year while the births per year still kept high.

My book explains the end of this bloom due to families birthing less children per year (as well as migration and urbanization: in rural settings people wanted more kids because they represented a workforce).

However, this seems to be insufficient to me. What other factors contributed to the demographic bloom, in both its cause and stop? Was this the first case of overpopulation becoming a problem? How aware was everyone of this problem?

And yes, this is both inspired by my history lessons and the recent "overpopulation is a myth" bullshit that some had recently.

This is a demographic bloom in Europe, correct? Because in the Americas the native populations were being devastated by epidemics and displacement. Some settlements experienced losses as high as 90% with the introduction of European diseases they had no resistance to.

Improved transportation would have evened out the effects of localized crop failures, helping to avoid widespread famine.

Wealth extracted from the New World and African colonies might have elevated the average standard of living in Europe, which may have lead to improved nutrition and better health.

Not entirely sure of the state of sanitation - streets and cities were still pretty filthy by our standards. Nonetheless, any improvement over earlier conditions would have been a positive.

Another important question: how much of the reduction of the bloom was due to deliberate causes (people realising that they need to birth less children and taking steps to lower the number of children birthed) and how much are environmental causes (a lot of people dying because of pollution)?

This is a demographic bloom in Europe, correct?

Yes, England most specifically.

Not entirely sure of the state of sanitation - streets and cities were still pretty filthy by our standards. Nonetheless, any improvement over earlier conditions would have been a positive.

Considering that the method of dealing with sanitation was pretty much "throwing it out unto the street" is several medieval European cities, yeah, I would say that.

People started having less kids because more of them were making it to adulthood so they no longer need to have as many to insure that enough survive. That is how the demographic transition occurs.

(as well as migration and urbanization: in rural settings people wanted more kids because they represented a workforce)

I'm pretty sure they had child labor in the factories in 18th century England.

People started having less kids because more of them were making it to adulthood so they no longer need to have as many to insure that enough survive. That is how the demographic transition occurs.

I understand that. I am just asking whether other factors were involved in reducing child births.
Also, just how did your average simpleton realise that they don't need to birth as many children as before? Were there government edicts or what?

Any demographic shift that made people move from rural to urban areas would act to depress the birthrate, as townfolk and cityfolk who have less physical space for a large family, and the cost of living in an urban area was higher, thus the same income would support fewer children.

Also, if I recall correctly, it wasn't until the late 19th or early 20th Century that large cities started to have self-sustaining populations. Prior to that, the death rate in the cities tended to exceed the birth rate (due to lack of medical care, poor sanitation, diseases, epidemics, crime, etc.) with the population being sustained by "excess" rural populations moving into town over time.