Population Growth in Earlymodern Europe - Essay Example

194781 Early modern period is approximately from 1500 to 1750 that includes rise of colonies, agrarian revolution, industrial revolution, initiation of transportation, communications and mobility, and reformation. This was a period of transition and even the people who did not migrate, eventually did well. Mortality rates that have been horrendous during the Black Death and other contagious diseases had fallen, and the standard of living had improved. There was a definite economic prosperity in the air. "Musgrave argues that the Mediterranean consumer society, with its differentiated agriculture and relatively inefficient tax system that limited the scale of warfare, achieved an alternative version of economic prosperity" http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3686/is_200008/ai_n8909494 This was the time when there was a booming increase in the population of Europe. The increase was proportionately larger compared to the increase in the rest of the world and one particular cause of this sudden demographic expansion is difficult to pinpoint. According to Musgrave, countries like Italy, Spain and Southern France developed higher strata of political, economic and social existence, which eventually ensured a much higher standard of living, even better than that could have been offered by the industrial revolution. This development eventually established "Europe's place in the world." In spite of the disastrous Thirty Years' War, this period, comparatively enjoyed a better peace and the earlier crisis-ridden days were forgotten fast enough to give place to a period of growth, arts, creativity and intellectuality. "Although some areas took as much as a generation to recover pre-crisis levels, many managed to do so with surprising speed. The virtual cessation of marriages and births in some communities was only temporary," Kamen (2000, p.27). Fertility rates have improved with better standard of living and relaxed way of life. Decisions not to have the children came much later and during this period with a certain community way of living, having children was not considered to be a burden. Acute individuality and resultant loneliness were not in the air and for people with slightly better income, house helps were available especially in the urban areas, where poverty was much more visible due to continuous migration. "Migration to urban centres was a long-term trend over the century; it was also a short-term trend during periods of famine, and it resulted in a disproportionate growth in the numbers of the urban poor," Bonny (1991, p.273). Another obvious cause was the tight-knitted family of those days which gave enough security, care, medical included, and the right atmosphere for the children to survive. "Family was at the foundation of private life. In western Europe, the nuclear family was most common. In eastern Europe, the nuclear family was also prevalent, although extended households were more common than in the west. Kinship ties bound the family to other groups within rural communities" http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350097-,00.html Even though here the discussion is between mortality rate and fertility, there were many other contributing factors to the population. Change in land-labour ratio and hence, in real wages and land rents, affected the economy and the population growth levels. Differences in marriage patterns, modernization of rural societies, loss of communal and private properties, alternation in the social hierarchies, empire building and travels to distant lands resulting in high economic development, scientific discoveries and advancement in medical science, were all such contributors to the population. Representative government, literacy, technology, development are all might not be major factors; still they contributed. It is important to know that population could work in two ways. "Population can function in two ways to explain social and economic change in early Modern Europe. First, changes in the land-labour ratio can explain changes in real wages and land rents. These changes, in turn, may affect other aspects of economic life like the extent of serfdom or proto-industrialization. Second, different demographic regimes may affect development by changing population growth and income levels." http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/allen/povprog3NEW.pdf As a result of this ongoing possibilities, European per capital income increased during this period almost by 30%. I feel that more than the fertility rate, which might have been always there, and might have definitely improved with better standard of living, it was the falling of the child mortality rate that made a great difference to increase in the population. Before this period, child mortality rate in the European countries had been enormous and stupefying. Rise in industrialisation and medicinal improvements, availability of doctors even in rural areas, improvement in the medicinal science due to new discoveries had reduced the child mortality and even the adult mortality to a very large extent. " children born to literate families fared much better as well. And lastly, those born into the agricultural sector were significantly more at risk than those born into crafts, trades, and services. Household measures of income illustrate how mortality could differ across social and economic class. Using households as the unit of analysis in pre-industrial Europe will contribute greatly to our understanding of the decline of mortality" Hadeishi, http://eh.net/Clio/Conferences/ASSA/Jan_99/hadeishi.shtml There was a basic change in the diet due to agrarian revolution and steadily increasing agricultural improvement. This diet change led to better fertility and less mortality rates. "It reinforces the view that at first the rise was due to an improvement in the diet of the lower classes resulting primarily from better methods of farming and spreading cultivation of potatoes and maize," Hamerow (1983, p.68). Change in diet and improvement in standard of living had resulted both in dropping the mortality rates and improving the fertility. The prevailing progress in most of the regions of Europe, better childcare with additional and readily available help was encouraging to have an enhanced family. The wage earner was receiving better money than he had done before and having additional mouths to field was not a daunting task. But if the mortality rates had not fallen, both in children and adults, the help facilities and health of mothers would not have created much of difference. The increasing population created social problems of unprecedented kind. "It is hardly surprising then, that the myriad and poor vagrants in this period are generally portrayed as children, single women, cripples, the worn-out elderly and of course, the vagabonds, charlatans, not to mention - a sign of the times - the depraved and crippled soldiers," Cunningham (1997, p.150). Hence the population boom brought its own problems to Europe. It is necessary to conclude that there were many factors that led to an unprecedented population growth during this period. All these general causes culminate in better fertility and in the fall of mortality rates. But a definite and clear fall in the mortality rates falling looks a much better reason as the fertility rates can get affected by tragedies like losing an earlier child. Lifespan of the adults too improved during this period and this means, children were better looked after and were better provided for. Children that were born around these times, survived to live a good life. Hence, out of the many causes that resulted in higher population growth, fertility and fall in mortality rate stand out; but the first cause remains the fall in mortality rate and comparatively fewer deaths. Fall in mortality rates did not diminish even after this period as the medical standards went on improving. The population growth went on unchecked till the tragic First World War which not only wiped out an entire generation in Europe, but also created a fear in the minds of people against having more children. The loss and bereavement of the younger generation was difficult to get over. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Bonny, Richard (1991), The European Dynastic States, Oxford University Press. 2. Cunningham, Andrew (1997), Health Care and Poor Relief in Protestant Europe, 1500 - 1700, Routledge, London. 3. Hamerow, Theodore (1983), The Birth of a New Europe, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. 4. Kamen, Henry |(2000), Early Modern European Society, Routledge, London. 5. ONLINE SOURCES 1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3686/is_200008/ai_n8909494 2. http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/allen/povprog3NEW.pdf 3. http://eh.net/Clio/Conferences/ASSA/Jan_99/hadeishi.shtml 4. http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_6/0,10852,2350097-,00.html 5. Read More