MODERN ERA:
1750 - 1914
DEMOGRAPHY AND THE
ENVIRONMENT IN AN AGE OF
REVOLUTION AND
INDUSTRIALIZATION
DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION
Malthusian Economics
Predicted human population always outpaced food, supplies
Only natural disasters, wars, famine keep population low
Did not figure in technology, inventions, science
Key Characteristics
Population
• Increased from 900 million (1800) to 1.6 billion (1900)
• In Europe, Asia, North America
• Scientific, medical advances
– Increase life span, infant survival rate
– Decrease death rate, death of mother during childbirth
– New hygiene
Food supply increases
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Lightly, uninhabited areas brought under cultivation
World trade allows for foods to reach areas quicker
Staples in world trade due to refrigeration, canning, ships
Agronomy, animal husbandry increase yields, variety, quality
– Fruits of the Columbian Exchange
– Many nations begin to export quantities of wheat, meat
Population Movements
• Internal Migration to unsettled lands, international Migrations
• Urbanization
• End of Slave Trade necessitated labor based migration
GRAPHING MALTHUS &
DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION
2ND AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
In 1750 the world was largely subsistence agriculture
Rhythms of regional agricultural societies based on seasons, surroundings
Small plots, rural villages, no export: exception were Russia, Baltic
Began in England but also occurred in Western Europe, US, Asia
Outgrowth of Columbian Exchange
Outgrowth of the Scientific Revolution
Enclosure Act
Larger landowners begin to enclose lands
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Began with enclosure of public lands
Done legally to increase yields of large landowners
Then took smaller farms, plots away from poor farmers
Done with support of Parliament
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Moved small, inefficient farms into better productivity
Brought new lands under cultivation
Freed labor for factories and swelled population in cities
Results
The Revolution
New Foodstuffs planted; new styles of crop rotations
Selected breeds of cattle, dairy cattle, sheep
Technology, science applied to farming
Agricultural Revolution followed European imperialism
Europeans brought their crops, animals with them
Europeans began exploiting cash crops for commercial profit abroad
FROM PEASANTS TO FARMERS
The process, while social, began with technology, science
Agronomy and animal husbandry replaced herding
• Selective breeding, splicing, experimentation
• Crop varieties, fertilizers to enrich soil
Farming machinery introduced
• Thrashers, reapers, seed drills, tractors
• Muscle , animal power replaced by machines
• Barbed wire was a revolution
Transport, preservation made export possible
• Trains, ships with large holds
• Grain silos, refrigerator ships, canning, food processors
Subsistence Agriculture becomes commercial farming
Western Europe, US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay
Australia, New Zealand, parts of India, China, Japan
On the other hand, in some countries
Peasants went from masters of their own work
To hands for someone else’s work, or someone else’s work hands
Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa, parts of Latin America, SE Asia
COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE
Commercial agriculture was a revolution 1750 – 1914
Cash crops: crops grown for profitable export
Often luxuries or non-necessities with high profit margins
Two bottlenecks (natural hindrance to profitable production)
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Many are labor intensive: solution – slavery, paid agricultural workers
Many require extensive processing, preservation to be useful: solution – technology
Commercial agriculture is heavily damaging to the environment, soil
First arose during 16th century colonialism
Caribbean, Brazilian, SE Asian plantations
Latin American haciendas, rancheros
First export crops: sugar, hides, wool, spices
Expanded in 18th century
British North American colonies added tobacco, indigo, rice
Asia added tea, coffee, opium, cloves
Americas added cocoa, coffee
Industrial Revolution made additional possible more
Cotton (seeds); rubber, oil (synthesizing)
Beef, mutton, grains, dairy (long-term preservation, get to market on time)
The rest of world, especially Africa enormously effected
Many areas of world taken from feeding people to exporting for profit
POPULATION
GROWTH
The Fruits of Industry
Industrialization raised material standards of living
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Mass production made luxuries into common goods
Workers received pay and able to buy goods, foods
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Reduced death rate of adults and children
Reduced deaths due to childbirth
Increased life span
Decreased infant mortality
Declining birthrate in response to declining mortality
Voluntary birth control through contraception
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Populations of Europe, America, Asia rose sharply from 1700 to 1900
Increasing urbanization especially of port cities, industrial cities
Better diets and improved sanitation
Impact on Population
World Effects
Change typical of industrialized countries
Change confined to port cities of non-Western nations
DOMESTIC MIGRATION
Industrialization
Drew migrants from countryside to urban centers
By 1900, In Europe and Anglo-North America
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50 percent of population of industrialized nations lived in towns
More than 150 cities with over 100,000 people
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Shoddy houses, fouled air, inadequate water
By late 19th century
Urban problems
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Governments passed legislation to clean up cities
Passed building codes, built sewer systems
Internal Migration
Settlement of Frontiers by population centers
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Existing populations expand into plains, prairies
Facilitated by railroads, technology
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Westward Movement in USA, Canada, Australia
Settlement of Siberia by Russia
Great Trek by Afrikaaners
Chinese settlement of Yangtze, west, Manchuria
Settlement of Brazilian, Argentine interior plains
Examples
TRANSCONTINENTAL IMMIGRATION
Reasons for immigration
Factors pushing people to immigrate
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Failed revolutions, nationalisms led losers, minorities to immigrate
Severe economic, social conditions, repressions in Italy, Slavic lands
Overpopulation drove many to immigrate
Contract labor immigration in India, China, Indonesia
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Better economic opportunities abroad
Gold Rushes, free land, recruitment by settler nations
Factors pulling people to immigrate
Europe 1800-1920
60 million Europeans migrated
Canada, US, Chile, Brazil, Argentina in the Americas
Settler colonies of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand
Jews, Catholics transformed US through migration
Asian Immigration
Chinese Immigration
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Businessmen allowed to settle in French, British port cities
Laborers exported across Pacific to do manual labor following abolition of slavery
Built American railroads in the West
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Migrated to British, French African, Indian Ocean, British Caribbean, Asia-Pacific colonies
Used for heavy labor, household labor following abolition of slavery
Indian, Southeast Asian laborers
Korean laborers moved around Japanese Empire
MIGRATION TO THE AMERICAS
Industrial migrants to United States and Canada
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In 1850s
2.3 million Europeans migrated to US, Canada
Mostly Irish, German, English
Number increased after from 1870s to 1920s
Immigrant labor replaced slave labor
Contributed to U.S. industrial expansion
Provided labor in factories, on railroads
Union soldiers were 1/5 immigrants
1852-1875
200,000 Chinese migrated to California
Worked in mines and building railroads
Provided domestic labor in West
1875 – 1920
S. European: Italians, Greeks to USA
E. European: Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks, Jews to US, Canada
N. European: Scandinavians to Canada
Latin American
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Migrants mostly worked on agricultural plantations
Italians migrated to South America
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Changed Chile, Uruguay, Argentina into Neo-Europes
Profoundly remade Brazil into a multi-racial society (was African)
Asians migrated to Cuba, Peru and the Caribbean sugar fields
Migration to the cities in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil
MIGRATIONS DUE TO EMPIRE
European migration
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Fifty million Europeans migrated 1800-1914, over half to the US
Settler colonies in Canada, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, S. Africa
Most European migrants became cultivators, herders, skilled laborers
Led to Dominion Status for Canada, S. Africa, Australia, New Zealand
Britain, Russia
UK: Canada, Australia, New Zealand
Russia: Siberia
South Africa
British acquired South Africa from Dutch in 1815
Pressure led Boers to migrate to the interior
Indentured labor, contract labor migration
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Most from Asia, Africa, and Pacific islands
2.5 million indentured laborers during 1820-1914
Indentured migrants to work on plantations
Example
Indian laborers to Pacific island and Caribbean plantations
Japanese laborers to Hawaiian sugar plantations
Chinese work on building railroads in US
Chinese provide heavy lifting labor throughout French, British, US empires
Other migrations
Reflected global influence of imperialism
Hindu merchants settled heavily in East Africa, S. Africa, Malaya
Chinese merchants followed contract laborer to Pacific cities
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGREDATION
First era in history when environment seriously threatened by humans
Causes of Environmental Stress
Industrialization
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Pollution increased significantly especially in cities, water
Ability to destroy land for resources increased due to technology
Examples: Industrial areas of Western Europe, Eastern USA
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Iincreased production on land, from resources
Marginal lands could be settled, exploited
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Urbanization, expanding cities destroyed habitats
High Population Densities supported by food
Many acres moved to unproductive status
Examples: Western Europe, Asian/Indian port cities
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Farming, ranching changed face of landscape
Technology
Demographic Stress
Environmental Shift
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Ranch animals introduced new fauna, diseases, threats
Farming horticulture introduced new flora
Examples: Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Hawaii
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Switch from subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture changed face of environment
Forests were the most effected by this shift
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Overfishing of areas began, overforesting of areas
Many died out due to competition from domestic flora, fauna
Many were exterminated due to hunting: Passenger Pigeon, Dodo
Examples: United States, Australia, New Zealand
Extinction, Endangerment of Flora, Fauna
ECOLOGICAL IMPERIALISM
Europeans brought flora, fauna to their colonies
Preferred European animals, crops; drove out native species
Ecological imperialism worse in Australia, New Zealand
New crops transformed landscape and society
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Westerners converted colonial landscape to export
Wanted agriculture to be export, profit
Converted farming land to use for export crops
Destroyed centuries old farming systems to plant export crops
Many lands could no longer feed the native population
Plantations used paid, indentured native labor
Colonial rule
Transformed traditional production of crops and commodities
Indian cotton grown to serve British textile industry
Inexpensive imported textiles undermined Indian production
Examples
Rain forests of Ceylon converted to tea plantations
Ceylonese women recruited to harvest tea
Rubber plantations transformed Malaya and Sumatra
Americans ran sugar, pineapple plantations in Pacific, Hawaii
Planted coffee, banana trees in Africa, Americas
US interests plant hemp in Yucatan for export
Argentine, Brazilian grains, cattle take over Pampa, Mato Grosso