MALTHUSIAN Theory, Explained [AP Human Geography Review—Unit 2 Topic 6]

all right it's time to introduce you to my boy Thomas malus and his theory on population growth and it's uh bief so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked well let's get to it okay so Thomas malus was an Anglican Minister who between preaching sermons and visiting members of his Parish liked to ponder the ultimate destruction of the human race as one does anyway in 1798 he published his most famous work and essay on the principle of population in which he made some astonishing claim first he noted that food was necessary for life okay so far I'm with you second he said that the passion between the sexes is a constant by which he meant um you know what he meant so two laws of human society we have to eat to live and do to our passion we just keep on multiplying and really I don't think anybody could argue with those two points oh by the way if you want no guides to follow along with this video in all my videos check the link in the description anyway mouth is lived right at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution which we're going to learn all about in unit 7 but here all you need to know is that this revolution caused a massive explosion in population growth due to two factors first birth rates were slowly increasing second death rates were falling sharply because new medicines were introduced that help people live longer it was during this time that the Bubonic plague which had killed large swaths of humanity in the preceding centuries just sort of went away additionally thanks to folks like Edward Jenner vaccines were introduced which took much of the sting out of pandemic diseases like small poox and that meant people were living longer in other words we're right about here on the demographic transition model oh we're just tying things together it feels good doesn't it now you and me look at all those developments and we're like how marvelous but mou looked at all those people living longer and was like this is terrible and here's why so dumpy now based on the two principles I mentioned earlier mathus observed that while the population was growing geometrically the food supply was growing arithmetically in other words if people kept obeying their passions and multiplying like rabbits the Earth would soon run out of food and what would happen then well that population that had so unthinkingly obeyed its passions to multiply would be plunged into misery and vice which means famines and wars and plagues and once all those events reduce the population to a manageable level equal to the food supply well yeah they could try again so what was malus's solution to this problem stop people from having so many dang babies so delay marriage have less children stop governments from helping the poor because they seem to have so many more babies than everyone else I bet he was pretty fun to hang out with now in case you're not paying attention let me point out that malus was uh wrong when malus published his sour tasting essay there were about a billion people on the planet today there are about 8 billion and so far we haven't been made to endure the cycle of misery and apocalyptic end of humanity that mouth has predicted so why is that well a couple centuries later we can see what mouth has could not namely that new technologies and able the growth of the food supply to keep up with the population for example the rise of mechanized farming and chemical fertilizers have increased crop yields far beyond what malus could have imagined also Technologies to preserve food were invented like Refrigeration which allows food to last longer be transported greater distances and all that is meant that the food supply in general has kept up with population growth now just because malus was basically wrong doesn't mean this Theory doesn't still have influence in fact around the middle of the 20th century malthusian thought experienced a kind of Revival with the rise of the Neo malthusians the most famous of which is Paul early he essentially argued along the same lines as Malthus saying that we were rapidly approaching the point of apocalyptic misery but you know we haven't anyway one of the most significant critiques of malthusian theory came from Economist Esther boserup who argued that the rate of food production was directly proportional to the rate of population growth in other words when populations grow they are going to find a way to innovate and feed themselves and that seems to be how it's gone all right click here to keep reviewing my unit 2 videos and click here to grab my video note guides which are for anyone who wants to get an A in their class but just can't stand reading their textbook and I'll catch you on the flipflop I'm lout

Channel: Heimler's History

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Length: 3min 34sec (214 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 16 2023