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French Population
Topic Started: Apr 20 2012, 08:42 PM (397 Views)
Basil Fawlty
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Post Tenebras Lux
Matt and I were discussing French demographics:

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As you can see, France's population growth was quite slow in the 19th Century... smaller than most other European nations. This trend continued well into the 1900s until it reached virtually zero during the Great Depression. This is rather strange given France's historical position as one of the demographically biggest powers on the continent.

What theories have been advanced for this decline? The Napoleonic Wars surely counted for something, but you'd think the rates would have rebounded after 1815 if that was the sole reason.
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JBK
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This has always pussled me. I have no idea.
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Petar
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The General
To be frank, I have no idea why it was so either.
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Doctor_Strangelove
Lord of the Seven Kingdoms
.
Edited by Doctor_Strangelove, Nov 11 2016, 10:45 AM.
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Basil Fawlty
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Post Tenebras Lux
Industrialization / urbanization usually contributes to lower birth rates, which doesn't explain why Germany and Britain remained higher than France. The same applies to education.

Contraception is something that may have been a factor, given the French obsession with romance. Nevertheless, there were still quite a few traditional Catholics who would balk at it. It also seems strange that the growth should be higher in modern times, where contraception is more effective and easily acquired on the cheap.

The Napoleonic land code may be the most influential. We would need to determine if other states had similar provisions, however.
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Simon Darkshade
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Nefarious Swashbuckler
The role of medicine and nutrition always needs to be taken into account. As said, there was no single reason, but a confluence of factors exacerbated by the Napoleonic Wars and French Revolution.
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Matthew
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Interesting discussion in the comments.

http://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/why-did-french-fertility-collapse-in-the-1800s/
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