This recent article made the interesting point (new to me anyway!) that 18th century France was “the China of Europe”: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/frances

This recent article made the interesting point (new to me anyway!) that 18th century France was “the China of Europe”: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/frances-baby-bust https://worksinprogress.co/issue/frances-baby-bust One in five Europeans was French. This enormous population allowed the country to effectively fight all the rest of the continent at once. But something happened in the latter half of the century that broke French demographics and halted population growth. The article makes a well-founded case as to the reasons.