Population growth is a common element seen in the history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Increasing population is followed by the shrinkage of resources and space that later impact the political and social history of the region. Political impact is characterized by the introduction of new policies and regulation, while social impact ranges anywhere between changes in class structure and values. 19th century Europe with Britain at its focus is one of the three regions that exemplify this idea. The two other regions that also experience the effects of rapid population growth are the United States and India in the 20th century. The population of Europe nearly doubled between 1850 and 1914, exerting tremendous amount of pressure on rural land, …show more content…
Americans transform the environment in the most drastic scale by deforestation for the cultivation of houses (@). Similar to Europe, there were many complaints about unsanitary living conditions and strenuous working conditions that need to be addressed by the government. Air pollution from burning coal as well as the consumption of water contaminated by sewage led to various health issues. Preindustrial diseases such as smallpox, dysentery, tuberculosis and bone disease caused by lack of sunlight struck the general population resulting in the reduction in life expectancy (@). Many of the social implications seen in Europe are also present in industrial America. The poorest of neighborhoods still remain crowded followed by the continuation of a slum life. This ultimately demonstrates that the fine line between the owners and the workers exist even across geographic borders. Due to the spurt in population growth and increasing grievances, laws and regulations that are a part of a political reform are introduced to combat these urban problems (@). Despite the effort, population growth always seems to outgrow government-initiated house construction and municipal services. Economically, America benefited mainly from the cultivation of cotton and wheat, but with soil depletion as an environmental cost. Overall, there is little to no change in the social …show more content…
This growth produces a shortage in the number of jobs available in the slowly growing industries. Britain economically bound India by discouraging the cotton and steel industry to prevent social upheavals in response to the Industrial Revolution in Europe and to limit competition against the British industry. British colonization of India enables the development of railroads, cotton and steel mills, and harbors (@). Economic developments hardly benefit the average Indian population because they have to pay taxes to landowners, village moneylenders, and the government (@). In the end, there is nothing left to improve their land or the standard of living. This rigid social and economic structure is further fueled by population growth that is comprised mainly of the lower class because the government always passes regulations in favor of property owners. One political impact is the creation of an educated middle class that will play a crucial role later in India’s independence movement. After learning English as well as the idea of rights and freedom, the educated middle class with yearning for freedom from British rule forms the Indian National Congress (@). Members would voice their opinion to the government calling for access to higher administrative positions, but their request was eventually shot down. As a result of ongoing pressure from the increase in population growth and various
The transition, however, was not so smooth. Men and women were attracted to the new cities because of the culture and conveniences that were unavailable to rural communities. Immigrants in particular were eager to get to cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston for these reasons, and to look for better jobs than the ones they had found at home. In fact, without the increase in immigration from 1850 to 1920 (where around 38 million came to America), cities would have expanded at lethargic rates – if at all – due to a decreasing fertility rate and a high rate of infant mortality. Death due to disease was also common. Yet the influx of immigrants managed to make up for these losses, and cities grew exponentially for nearly a century1.
To begin with, one can observe that the British colonizers did indeed improve Indian civilization by developing means of communication and transport. They built a great number of bridges, over 40,000 miles of railway and paving an astounding 70,000 miles of road (Doc. 4). They established schools,newspapers and telegraphs for the people of the colonies.All blessings of civilization they could not create for themselves (Doc. 1). Furthermore, the British brought 30 million acres under cultivation with large scale irrigation works, began industrialization, improved sanitation and provided an overall higher standard of living (Doc. 4). With many new establishments and institutions to staff, job opportunities opened up left and right for Indian workers.Their contributions to Indian civilization made famine all but disappear throughout India. Without the British, it’s quite possible India could not achi...
Between the years 1450 and 1600, the population of Western Europe increased at a dramatic rate. This being said, the number of land entitled citizens outnumbered the available land remaining. This extreme case of overpopulation forced the government leaders and aristocracy to look into the idea of expanding outside of Europe. England was especially affected by this mass amount of overpopulation, seeing that they were already struggling with the amount of people verses the lack of land vacant.
Some people believe that immigration in the 1900’s was a good thing, however, they would be wrong. The United States government should have restricted the immigrants around that time. Some reasons are the population, the taking of new jobs and lowering wages, and diseases spreading quickly. These all factored importantly into why they should not have been allowed in.
Despite impacting India very positively, imperialism still caused problems within the Indian society. An example of this negative effect is that poverty was very prevalent in India due to the dismantling of the old crafts such as metalwork, glass, paper, etc. The rationale for this huge spike impoverishment is because India was to be used as a supplier for raw materials, thus halting the growth of the economy (Doc 7). Not only did Britain disrupt the Indian’s industry, but they also caused unemployment through the superseding of Indian handspinners in the 19th century. (O.I) Another negative effect imperialism has made on India is through the persecution of Indians. "For a hundred years you have done everything for us. You have given us no responsibility in our own government," says Mohandas Gandhi in regards to the British rule. He also says that the British treat the Indians insultingly and without empathy (Doc 6,7,8).
Prior to industrialization, the population of Europe saw a dramatic growth – from 110,000,000 to 190,000,000. What triggered this growth? Likely the end of feudalism. The end of feudal contracts gave people a little more say in their day-to-day working activities, resulting in more time spent at home, which ultimately resulted in childbearing. This would leave citizens scrambling both to provide needs for the population as a whole, and to improve the individuals overall quality of life. This resulted in economists, like Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776), examining the most cost-effective method of producing the goods and services citizens demanded (such as clothing and food). It also left others, such as Thomas Malthus in his Essay on Population (1798), searching for a way to curb population growth so that Europe could sustain its growth. Ultimately both theorists’ ideas were put into play in reality. While both theorists’ ideas were initially met with resistance by the everyday-labourer and his family, these ideas were necessary for the nations economic development and sustainability. The Industrial Revolution was advantageous to society at the time because it provided the population with the means to provide needed materials through developments in mechanization, laboured work, as well as agriculture – but conformed to Malthus’ subsistence model by having citizens living together in slums located in urban areas close to their workplace, the health and safety issues associated with this move would result in a naturally decreased population.
Throughout the 1800’s many restrictive religious laws and economic conditions wore away and started to fuel the largest human migration in history of the world.
For instance, the human population trebled from about 1000-1350 and main reason is due to migrations (Davis, 245). Civilizations such as Vikings, Saracen, and Magyar migrated to Northern Europe and France (Davis, 250). Hence, the area of northern Europe and France was open and deserted and fully of resources such as food, animals and spaces (Davis, 250). Therefore, due to the affluent of quantity resources, this cause an attraction and driven a massive of people and civilizations to migrated in northern Europe and France. As results, there were increases and spread of population rapidly that filled the spaces and by 1300-1350 Europe was closed and the frontier was gone (Davis, 250). Furthermore, the drastic increased of human population in northern Europe and France led into a crisis of an economic and agricultural causing drought and poverty. Reason being there was a limitation and regulation. Limitation at some level of scarcity of one or more resources such as food, transport or space and regulation that brings the population to the limits set by the environment (Davis, 249). The increase of human populations totally occupied the deserted space and demands a higher quantity of food supply, in which creating a limitation and regulation in the population. For example, the pressure for land resulted in restriction of the use of forests, decrease in the size of the farms,
For example, Document “C” is a letter from a farm family to Richard and Ruth Bennet, May 1843. The letter explains that the family could no longer support the farm land. The family the decides to split up and move to Mill town. The children are having bad luck getting in and working. Some family members stayed behind to take some care of the farm property. In summary, the population increased in domestic migrates which then means their is more land. When there is more labor, more manufacturing and more consumers. Document G shows a large increase in population between 1820-1860. The graph shows the slope ( increased and decreased) of immigrants. Population increased in the United States from the result if many “push and pull” factors. For example, a push factor would be a reason to leave that location; hence religious reasons, scarce food source,government problems etc. For many immigrants,America was a land full of opportunity, pull factors made immigrants want to come to The United States. The land was very cheap, making settling a new area cost little to nothing. Our rights were very different than Germany and Ireland (where most immigrants came from during this time period). Freedom of speech, jobs and opportunity were some major factors in the U.S. Many other countries did not have the ideas and technology we have Making technology, government and transportation be a factor for a big
An outburst in growth of America’s big city population, places of 100,000 people or more jumped from about 6 million to 14 million between 1880 and 1900, cities had become a world of newcomers (551). America evolved into a land of factories, corporate enterprise, and industrial worker and, the surge in immigration supplied their workers. In the latter half of the 19th century, continued industrialization and urbanization sparked an increasing demand for a larger and cheaper labor force. The country's transformation from a rural agricultural society into an urban industrial nation attracted immigrants worldwide. As free land and free labor disappeared and as capitalists dominated the economy, dramatic social, political, and economic tensions were created. Religion, labor, and race relations were questioned; populist and progressive thoughts were developed; social Darwinism and nativism movements were launched.
Thousands of years ago, Indian society developed into a complex system based on different classes. This system was known as the Caste System. It separated Indians into different castes based on what class were born into. As thousands of years went by, this system grew larger and became further complex (Wadley 189). This system caused frustration for the Indian citizens because they were receiving inequality. Not only did the inequality and separation of the Indian society frustrate the citizens of India, but the imperialism Britain had upon them as well. In the early 20th century, Indian nationalists wanted to take a stand against the British rule and make India independent. The British created unfair laws that created a nationalist movement
A continuing high birthrate accounted for most of the increase in population, but by the 1840’s the tides of immigration were adding hundreds of thousands more. Before this decade, immigrants had been flowing in at a rate of 60,000 a year ; but suddenly the influx was tripled in the 1840’s and then quadrupled in the 1850’s. During these two feverish decades, over a million and a half Irish, and nearly as many Germans, swarmed down the gang planks. Why did they come? The immigrants came partly because Europe seemed to be running out of room. The population of the Old World more than doubled in the nineteenth century, and Europe began to generate a seething pool of apparently "Surplus" people. They were displaced and footloose in their homelands before they felt the tug of the American magnet. Indeed at least as many people moved about within Europe as crossed the Atlantic. America benefited from these people churning changes but did not set then all in motion. Nor was the United States the sole beneficiary of the process : of the nearly 60 million people who abandoned Europe in the century after 1840, about 25 million went somewhere other than the United States.
As the world’s population slowly grows our world grows smaller as well. Resources sustain us, but when there are no resources then what would we do. Our population is always growing, which is a growing problem. Overpopulation has caused an increased resource depletion throughout the world, causing a push for more sustainable ideas.
Population growth affects the earth just as much as it does the people. With the population continuously growing at an alarming rate, earth can’t keep up with the resources needed to survive. Eventually we will run out of oil, land to build houses, and air. The reasoning behind running out of air is if the world is covered in houses, there is no room for trees – which supplies our oxygen. The factors effecting population growth are: fertility rates, life expectancy, migration, and death rates. More and more people are migrating to North America because of the high life expectancy, average fertility rates, low mortality rates, and of course, job opportunity. Even though population growth isn’t as high as it used to be, overpopulation can still
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, society and economics were largely determined by land and agriculture. Growth was slow and people relied on traditional means to survive. The majority of societies were farmers who raised crops and animals for a living. However, in the eighteenth century, the population exploded and grew at a significant rate. The four primary factors behind this growth are: a decline in death rate, an increase in the birth rate, the virtual elimination of plagues, and an increase in the availability of food [[i]]. This burst of population created an excessive amount of workers, who were not needed in the agriculture society. The need for workers in agriculture decreased due to the advances in technology and tools. A large number of people as well as perspective farmers had to find jobs elsewhere. This is one of the important factors in the shift of the population from rural areas to the more urban cities.