We explain how the population growth of the great powers between 1890 and 1938 was. In addition, its relationship with industrialization and its interruption during the First World War.
What was the total population of the great powers between 1890 and 1938?
The population of the great powers World Cups of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the United States and Japan) experienced significant growth due to the second industrial revolution (1870-1914).
Industrialization extended beyond the United Kingdom and caused the transfer of rural population to cities, The increase in life expectancy and the reduction of infant mortality Due to innovations in medicine, improvements in hygiene and the increase in food production and other goods.
The population growth of the great powers was part of the period known as Belle Époque characterized by economic prosperity, faith in the progress of science and technology, cultural innovations, imperialism (colonial expansion mainly in Africa and Asia) and “armed peace” (a system of alliances and tensions between the powers that encouraged the development of the arms industry without triggering a general armed conflict until 1914). The rapid demographic growth also meant an increase in the military potential of each power.
The outbreak of World War I (1914-1918) interrupted demographic progression Due to the mobilization of millions of people that resulted in the death of almost nine million combatants and seven million civilians, along with twenty million injured and mutilated and a fall in the birth rate.
The main affected were Germany, France, Russia and Austria-Hungary. To this was added the Spanish flu, an influenza pandemic that between 1918 and 1919 caused the death of twenty -five million people worldwide.
In the interwar period, population growth was recovered that was by the hand of the economic development of the powers, although generally at lower rates than in the Belle Époque (especially during the great depression of the thirty decade).
Anyway, the United States and Russia (which headed the Soviet Union) consolidated as two powers with demographic characteristics other than the others, which was evidenced when they became the two world superpowers after World War II (1939-1945).
Germany and Japan also differentiated from France, Italy and the United Kingdom in terms of population growth and, in the case of Germany, also in terms of the development of the arms industry. On the eve of World War II, Germany's military potential in Europe and Japan in Asia was particularly high both for the industrial level of both countries and their population increase.
| Total population of the powers 1890-1938 (in millions) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | 1900 | 1910 | 1913 | 1920 | 1928 | 1938 | |
| Russia | 116.8 | 135.6 | 159.3 | 175,1 | 126.6 | 150.4 | 180.6 |
| USA | 62.6 | 75.9 | 91.9 | 97.3 | 105.7 | 119.1 | 138.3 |
| Germany | 49.2 | 56.0 | 64.5 | 66.9 | 42.8 | 55.4 | 68.5 |
| Austria-Hungary | 42.6 | 46.7 | 50.8 | 52.1 | – | – | – |
| Japan | 39.9 | 43.8 | 49.1 | 51,3 | 55.9 | 62.1 | 72.2 |
| France | 38.3 | 38.9 | 39.5 | 39.7 | 39.0 | 41.0 | 41.9 |
| United Kingdom | 37.4 | 41,1 | 44.9 | 45.6 | 44.4 | 45.7 | 47.6 |
| Italy | 30.0 | 32.2 | 34.4 | 35.1 | 37.7 | 40,3 | 43.8 |
Source: Kennedy, PM (1987). The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Random House.
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References
- Aldcroft, DH (2003). History of the European economy 1914-2000. Criticism.
- Kennedy, PM (1987). The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Random House.
- Lario, A. (coord.) (2014). Universal Contemporary History. From the emergence of the contemporary state to World War I. Alliance.
