What drove the transformation of Britain’s population, economy and environment so that by 1819 it was arguably the most rapidly industrializing and urbanizing society in the world?

Later Roman Britain saw a series of significant changes in the pattern of settlement which indicate a transfer in the emphasis of activity from the cores of the civitates to their peripheries. Whilst these changes affected urban settlements and industrial production, a series of alterations can also be observed in the rural settlement pattern. In the Principate, we saw rural Romanization characterized by the development of villas, and this pattern was shown to be deeply rooted in the existing settlement system. In the later Roman period a series of developments can be observed which reflect a radical deviation from that established in the early Empire. We see an increase in the number of villas, together with alterations in their character, the emergence of nucleated settlements (which may be described loosely as villages) and finally a diversification of production involving innovation in agricultural methods. Taken together with the changes already described in chapters 6 and 7, we may characterize these as representing a flowering of the countryside and the culmination of Roman Britain’s achievements. To be understood, they must be examined within the context of the structural alterations we have already described.

“Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations” is by far the longest of Hume’s essays. Although it does not always receive the attention it merits, it is a very important text not only in relation to Hume’s political thought as a whole but also for a full understanding of the intellectual history of the long eighteenth century as it partook in a set of wide-ranging conversations about the causes of demographic growth in which T. R. Malthus, amongst others, became engaged. This chapter first revisits Montesquieu’s position on the issue of the relative populousness of ancient and modern nations to show not only the true nature of the Frenchman’s views and that of the dispute between him and Hume but also the extent to which Hume’s reading of Montesquieu provided the basis for the Scot’s reflections on republics, liberty, the status of women and slavery in that essay and elsewhere. It underscores the centrality of demography to political debates of the period.

Models for the growth of interacting bacteria, structured populations, game theory and pattern formation.

This chapter demonstrates the crucial role of geographic proximity in shaping agrarian and herding relations in the history of late Ottoman Kurdistan, including regional political economy, socioeconomic structures, and intercommunal relations. It argues that the region is marked by three distinct ecological zones, which differ from each other in terms of elevation, climate, vegetation, and both human and animal habitation. The chapter then shows the encroachment of the Ottoman state through the arrival of Tanzimat reforms and the multifaceted consequences this had in the region. Next, it illustrates a demographic portrait of the region, depicting how human beings brought different ecosystems into conversation with one another. It argues that pastoralism sustained the conversation between geographic zones into the nineteenth century, creating linkages and slippages between mountains, pastures, and plains, and defining the interaction between the three zones until these links began to weaken in the face of a series of environmental crises. The chapter concludes with a glimpse into five villages from different parts of the region.

Chapter 1 explores the link between the research process and theory and the role of statistics in scientific discovery. Discrete and continuous variables, the building blocks of methodology, take center stage, with clear and elaborate examples and their applicability to scales of measurement and measures of central tendency. Understanding statistics allows us to become better consumers of science and make better judgments and decisions about claims and facts allegedly supported by statistical results.

This chapter examines the published work and careers of American conservationist William Vogt and Brazilian physician-geographer Josué de Castro during the early Cold War. It emphasizes the different affective strategies that the two men employed to persuade readers of their competing positions regarding the relationship between human population, arable land, food supply, and global security. As a briefly prominent intellectual from the global South, De Castro challenged the emerging, US-led consensus that population control was essential for economic development. Based on his own experiences among marginalized Brazilians, De Castro viewed Vogt’s concern with “carrying capacity” limits as an imperialist imposition on the autonomy of less empowered people. He feared that prioritizing population reduction as the solution to resource scarcity would undermine movements for social and economic transformation, such as agrarian reform in rural Latin America. With little personal experience of the world’s poor, Vogt projected a pessimistic vision of the future on continents overrun by desperate, starving hordes. De Castro’s contrasting vision, on the other hand, stemmed from frequent encounters with the chronically hungry and a more sympathetic understanding of their plight.

The nineteenth century saw a transformation in the concept of colonization as political economists recast the term to refer to directed migration and settlement processes. Brazilian statesmen, intellectuals, and businessmen in the newly independent Brazilian Empire (1822–1889) embraced this new brand of colonization as an advantageous policy expedient because it aligned with old regime peopling practices, promised to resolve the question of slavery, and, significantly, held the prospect of individual profits, particularly if carried out by colonization companies. Brazilian engagement with colonization fit within a wider series of colonization processes unfolding within European empires or their overseas dominions as well as throughout the new republics in the Americas. Comparing and connecting the Brazilian case to concurrent peopling efforts across the globe unsettles understandings of colonization as part of a global settler revolution of which Brazil figured as a peripheral case. The key role played by companies as the harbingers of a new colonization paradigm underscores profit as a guiding principle in Brazilian colonization schemes in the nineteenth century.

This chapter attempts to explore global trajectories of birth control, family planning, and reproductive health and rights discourses in the modern world by comparing experiences of countries in the Global South with the Global North. Women all over the world have long had some control over their reproductive bodies. “Planning” became a very crucial concept within the global development discourse put forward during the post Second World War. One of the main resources that needed to be planned was population, thus “family planning” emerged as a novel form of population control. This ideology was supported by philanthropic institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and by international conferences on population and development. Sri Lanka was a colony of the Western powers for four centuries (1505-1948), then a development “model” for South Asia in the 1970s, then the site of a civil war (1983-2009). Sri Lanka offers a more inclusive conceptual framework to understand how policy decisions taken in the Global North fails to have the same impact in the Global South. This chapter shows how policies must adapt to the local realities of the Global South irrespective of ratifying global population and development conventions.

China’s economic boom was based on three legacies of its socialist era: vastly improved population health, eradication of illiteracy, and a country’s population divided into two classes by household registration status. A healthy, largely literate, and underprivileged rural population was the main driving force for China’s economic boom. China had an abundant supply of labor, but it was not just cheap labor – it was good labor, and labor made cheap by China’s socialist legacies that subjected the rural population to secondary citizenship status.

Along with the establishment of values and belief systems, the early years, from birth to 12 years, are increasingly recognised as the crucial time in which the foundations for life are laid, with significant consequences for educational success, resilience and future participation in society. The formative years are the years in which the capacity for carers and educators to make a difference can and does have profound effects. Carers and educators need specialist preparation because they are required to promote and teach health and wellbeing and to have the skills and knowledge to understand and manage the plethora of issues related to young children. Around the world, including in Australia, early years education is undergoing significant reform as the potential for educators to improve children’s quality of life is better understood. These reforms herald health and wellbeing as central constructs of this agenda. This chapter explores the concepts of health and wellbeing and shares some of the initiatives that have put health and wellbeing on the agenda for early years learners in contemporary times.

The evolution of population and settlement in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages has similarities and differences with the rest of Western Europe. The differences arise from the process of territorial expansion and feudal colonization developed by the Christian kingdoms against Al-Andalus. That also determined diverse situations among the Christian kingdoms and regional contrasts within them. This chapter explores the evolution of population between approximately 1000 and 1500. The introduction offers a preliminary reflection on the sources and their possibilities and limits. In the second section, the patterns of population change and migration are discussed. Despite some methodological issues, some population figures and their evolution are offered for each area. This shows an evolution in which the late medieval crisis and, above all, the Black Death had a great impact, although uneven in the different kingdoms and territories. The study of rural and urban settlements is addressed in the third section, relating its characteristics and evolution to the social and economic structure in the different areas. Finally, the fourth section studies the population weight and the characteristics of the following urban socio-professional sectors: workers, artisans and merchants.

Chapter 4 discusses the transition from Ly to Tran dynasties in the early thirteenth century as a result of the rise of the Jiaozhi Sea. It marks a fundamental shift in political power from the upper-mid Red River valley to the coast. The Ly Dai Viet was a mid-river principality that ruled no more than half of the delta. By the middle of the twelfth century, Ly Dai Viet was looking increasingly seaward. Changing external factors played a major role in accelerating this transition. The main drive was Southern Song dynasty’s need for Yunnan horse that brought huge cash to the Guangxi border facing the Gulf of Tongking. Jiaozhi Sea networks flourished. Dai Viet’s main port shifted from the central Vietnam to Van Don, where merchants from Champa traded aromatics with the silk merchants from Sichuan. It was against this background that the Tran family from Fujian rose and replaced the Ly dynasty. The rise of the Jiaozhi Sea and resurgence of the Tongking Gulf accelerated the integration of the political forces of the upper, mid, and lower Red River delta and placed Tran-era Dai Viet in a strategic position to respond to greater macro-regional changes, not only on the agricultural and population but also the expansion of Islamic trade networks.

The world is undergoing unprecedented change as a result of global population increases, rapid urbanization, and the acceleration of affluence in developing countries, which leads to increased consumption of resources and impactful emissions.