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I guess I'd always assumed that the Baby Boom was the result of a victorious end to war, but the other makes sense too. Was there a baby boom after WWI, or the
by PhasmaFelis 9y ago
I guess I'd always assumed that the Baby Boom was the result of a victorious end to war, but the other makes sense too.
Was there a baby boom after WWI, or the American Civil War, or other wars that siphoned off a major part of a country's young men?
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y agoQuick googling leads to this StackExchange question regarding WWI. Apparently it didn't see a boom (at least, not in the US?): https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1026/did-ww1-produce-a-baby-boom-like-demographic-effect-in-usa-or-elsewhere https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1026/did-ww1-pro...
- protomyth 9y agoIt was a lot easier to move around the country and commute ranges were greater after WWII due to the enhanced infrastructure and greater number of personal automobiles. This and the improved economy after the war had some big effects on society.
- bsder 9y agoIt's funny that nobody mentions the Spanish Flu. Unusually, that took out a lot of child-bearing age individuals around the world. And the flu, in particular, ravaged pregnant women.
- emodendroket 9y agoJapan may have been the loser, but it also had a big postwar economic boom. To me this seems like the more obvious cause.
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y agoThe Allied Powers had seemingly learned the lessons of Versailles and didn't try to punish the losers (well, not as much), instead letting them grow. Thus why them not being victorious didn't matter, I guess.
- krapp 9y agoAlso, the US felt a strong, capitalist Japan would be less likely to fall prey to communism.
- emodendroket 9y agoConcerns about communism also led to them doing a 180 on keeping war criminals around and in them outright funding Japanese organized crime to violently suppress the Japanese left, as detailed in Kaplan and Dubro's Yakuza book. Japan still has echoes of this policy in that organized crime is entangled with legitimate government and business to a surprising degree.
- yequalsx 9y agoAmerica did try to punish the Germans. Millions starved as a result of deliberate Allied policy. It wasn't until the schism with the USSR that policies shifted. Eisenhower in particular wanted Germany to be an agrarian society.
- Qub3d 9y agoWait, i'm confused. I've always been told America poured tons of money into Germany via the Marshall Plan [0], which resulted in the "Wirtschaftswunder"[+] of the 50s and 60s. Former president Hoover went over and surveyed Germany almost directly after the war, in 1947. [0]:https://web.archive.org/web/20090419195002/http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2008/webarticles/080103_marshallplan.html https://web.archive.org/web/20090419195002/http://www.un.org... [+]: Literally "economic miracle"
- rtpg 9y agoDidn't Marshall Plan money end up coming back to the US? Essentially a loan to purchase US goods? It's definitely helpful as a loan, of course.
- vkou 9y agoThe initial plan (Carried out between 1945 and 1947) was starving Germany - economically, and literally. Once communism became the big boogieman, the US did a 180 on its occupation policy, and instead started dumping money and American goods into Germany via the Marshall plan.
- majjam 9y agoIt may also have been to do with little other recreational options. Poland had a baby boom after curfews were introduced in the 1980's: https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21725707-now-polish-firms-worry-visa-free-travel-may-lure-them-away-rest-eu-ukrainian https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21725707-now-polish-fi...