famine
famine may be defined as the occurrence of serious food shortages resulting in significant rises in the death rate. Mortality during famines was rarely caused solely by starvation but from related diseases like dysentery, typhoid, and typhus. Hence deaths from food shortages might occur some time after initial harvest failures. Increased migration out of famine-hit areas to towns and cities could also raise death rates since rural refugees often encountered diseases to which they had no immunity, or transmitted epidemics to urban dwellers.
Vulnerability to famine depended on more than the local harvest. Also important were the amount of food imported, the efficiency of distribution and relief systems, and the ability to purchase supplies in the market-place. Famines were more likely to occur when harvests failed successively, when population pressure on resources was extensive, and where populations were over-reliant on one particular crop. Pastoral areas of Britain, often located in more remote upland areas on poorer soils, where animal husbandry took precedence over grain production, were usually more vulnerable to famine than grain-producing regions.
What has been described as the worst famine in England in the last millennium occurred in 1315–18, after a century of rapid population growth, when a succession of disastrous harvests killed between 10 and 15 per cent of the population. Lesser famines had also occurred in 1293–5 and 1310–12. After the arrival of plague in 1348, however, England's agrarian economy was more than able to feed its much reduced population, and famine mortality disappeared until population growth accelerated again in the 16th cent.
When famine returned, the worst crisis took place in 1594–8 with another less serious in 1623–4. Even these were concentrated in England's more remote northern upland pastoral areas, notably Cumberland, and most of the country was unaffected. Famines disappeared from England after 1640. Their end was facilitated by improved agricultural productivity, a well-developed marketing network, and the introduction of England's poor law (1601) which alleviated distress when harvests failed.
England's Celtic neighbours experienced more severe famines for far longer. Scotland suffered spectacularly in 1623–4 when death rates in some areas increased eightfold. Increased specialization on pastoral agriculture in the 18th cent. seems to have increased vulnerability. Scotland suffered severe famine mortality in the 1690s which may have killed 15 per cent of its population, lowland areas were hit in 1740–1, and parts of the Highlands suffered famine late into that century. Famines were experienced in Ireland in the 1620s, 1640s, and 1650s. As its textile industry declined and the diet of its poor increasingly became dominated by the potato, Ireland became more rather than less famine-prone. Serious mortality occurred in 1727–9 and the 1740–1 scourge killed some quarter of a million people. Famines occurred again in 1744–6, 1800–1, and 1817–19 but these were dwarfed by the last Great Famine in Ireland, caused by potato blight which ravaged the staple potato crop for four successive years, 1845–8. Recent estimates put the number of deaths attributable to this disaster at 1 million.
Vulnerability to famine depended on more than the local harvest. Also important were the amount of food imported, the efficiency of distribution and relief systems, and the ability to purchase supplies in the market-place. Famines were more likely to occur when harvests failed successively, when population pressure on resources was extensive, and where populations were over-reliant on one particular crop. Pastoral areas of Britain, often located in more remote upland areas on poorer soils, where animal husbandry took precedence over grain production, were usually more vulnerable to famine than grain-producing regions.
What has been described as the worst famine in England in the last millennium occurred in 1315–18, after a century of rapid population growth, when a succession of disastrous harvests killed between 10 and 15 per cent of the population. Lesser famines had also occurred in 1293–5 and 1310–12. After the arrival of plague in 1348, however, England's agrarian economy was more than able to feed its much reduced population, and famine mortality disappeared until population growth accelerated again in the 16th cent.
When famine returned, the worst crisis took place in 1594–8 with another less serious in 1623–4. Even these were concentrated in England's more remote northern upland pastoral areas, notably Cumberland, and most of the country was unaffected. Famines disappeared from England after 1640. Their end was facilitated by improved agricultural productivity, a well-developed marketing network, and the introduction of England's poor law (1601) which alleviated distress when harvests failed.
England's Celtic neighbours experienced more severe famines for far longer. Scotland suffered spectacularly in 1623–4 when death rates in some areas increased eightfold. Increased specialization on pastoral agriculture in the 18th cent. seems to have increased vulnerability. Scotland suffered severe famine mortality in the 1690s which may have killed 15 per cent of its population, lowland areas were hit in 1740–1, and parts of the Highlands suffered famine late into that century. Famines were experienced in Ireland in the 1620s, 1640s, and 1650s. As its textile industry declined and the diet of its poor increasingly became dominated by the potato, Ireland became more rather than less famine-prone. Serious mortality occurred in 1727–9 and the 1740–1 scourge killed some quarter of a million people. Famines occurred again in 1744–6, 1800–1, and 1817–19 but these were dwarfed by the last Great Famine in Ireland, caused by potato blight which ravaged the staple potato crop for four successive years, 1845–8. Recent estimates put the number of deaths attributable to this disaster at 1 million.
Jeremy Boulton
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
famine