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> France appeared to be a stagnant society before the French Revolution. If culture was not changing, then how could it be responsible for such a climactic shif

> France appeared to be a stagnant society before the French Revolution. If culture was not changing, then how could it be responsible for such a climactic shift in such an important social outcome? > Using this genealogical data, I estimate that the decline in fertility took hold in France in the 1760s 1760s don’t look far from the French Revolution to me. Ending a regime that lasted more than a dozen centuries doesn’t happen from a one night cultural shift, and I’d argue a shift starting in the 1960s seems pretty reasonable. Of course the cultural itself is coming from other factors, but I’m not convinced it can be dismissed so lightly.

yobbo 4y ago
Yes. French revolution was partly sparked by high food prices due to poor harvests. When there is surplus, the population can grow. If production does not increase in step with population growth, there will be shortage. When there is shortage, there is hunger and/or starvation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overshoot_(population) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overshoot_(population)
RockyMcNuts 4y ago
In the 1700s France had John Law, wars, famines, and bad kings. Geopolitically France is an interesting place with one foot in Mediterranean civilization and one foot in Northern Europe, good natural barriers, and a fairly unified culture. After the religious wars of the Reformation, there was a period of pretty good kings and increasingly strong state, prosperity importing tech from Muslim world via Italy, and liberalization. During this period, Italy, Germany, UK, low countries had their own problems and France was pretty dominant. Before the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, France had 4x the population of Great Britain. After Napoleon's defeat, was never that dominant again. Mediocre kings and Napoleon III, played second fiddle to UK in industrial revolution, political unrest, and Germany unified under Prussia and Rhine industrialists and defeated France in 1870.

yobbo 4y ago

Yes. French revolution was partly sparked by high food prices due to poor harvests. When there is surplus, the population can grow. If production does not increase in step with population growth, there will be shortage. When there is shortage, there is hunger and/or starvation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overshoot_(population) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overshoot_(population)

RockyMcNuts 4y ago

In the 1700s France had John Law, wars, famines, and bad kings. Geopolitically France is an interesting place with one foot in Mediterranean civilization and one foot in Northern Europe, good natural barriers, and a fairly unified culture. After the religious wars of the Reformation, there was a period of pretty good kings and increasingly strong state, prosperity importing tech from Muslim world via Italy, and liberalization. During this period, Italy, Germany, UK, low countries had their own problems and France was pretty dominant. Before the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, France had 4x the population of Great Britain. After Napoleon's defeat, was never that dominant again. Mediocre kings and Napoleon III, played second fiddle to UK in industrial revolution, political unrest, and Germany unified under Prussia and Rhine industrialists and defeated France in 1870.