Biohistory by Jim Penman

Author:Jim Penman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Biohistory Foundation, October 2016
Published: 2016-08-16T16:00:00+00:00

United States

Prior to the twentieth century, the United States engaged in several major wars. The two most significant were the War of Independence of 1775–83 and the Civil War of 1861–5. Because of its unique geographic and demographic situation, the pattern of lemming cycles in North America is different to that of Europe.

Precise population figures are not available for the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries, but we can note some trends. It is known that British North American colonies experienced rapid population growth in the late colonial period, increasing by as much as 700% between 1689 and 1760.185 Much of this was a result of immigration, but a large part was from natural increase. The colonists were quite well off compared to people in Europe—land was freely available and food was cheap, and there were none of the famines common in Europe.186 The average annual rate of natural population increase between 1720 and 1800 seems to have been around 25 per 1,000. European countries only achieved this briefly, at lemming cycle peaks.187

Such a fast-growing population suggests a very high level of V, supported by the extraordinary willingness of ordinary people to take up arms during the rebellion against the British. In September 1774, upon hearing a rumor that Boston had been bombarded, and fearing the seizure of powder stores, a vast gathering of New Englanders (estimates range from twenty to sixty thousand) left their homes and headed towards the action.188 According to one eyewitness:

For about fifty miles each way round there was an almost universal Ferment, Rising, seizing of Arms & actual March into Cambridge … [T]hey scarcely left half a dozen Men in Town, unless Old and Decrepit.189

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