The Three Famines and the Makings of a Malthusian Catastrophe in Iran (1869-1944)

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

PhD in Agricultural Economics, Cornell University, New York, USA

Abstract

Abstract : Iran suffered three catastrophic famines in the seventy-five-year span of 1869 to 1944. The population in 1945 was unchanged from that of 1840, a classic case of a Malthusian catastrophe. This article aims to assess the impact of the famines on Iran’s population level. It is first shown that the human losses in the Great Famine of 1869-1873 have been vastly understated in much of the literature. Two-thirds of the population was lost. Barely had Iran recovered its 1869 population when the Great Famine of 1917-1919 in World War I had carried off nearly half of the population. Finally, World War II and the resulting 1942-1944 famine and typhus epidemic had claimed a quarter of the population and again restored the 1840 population level. Only after 1945 was Iran able to shake off the Malthusian trap into which it had fallen for more than a century. . .

Keywords

References

 
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Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History
Volume 12, Issue 27
June 2021
Pages 75-105

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History

  • Receive Date: 20 January 2021
  • Revise Date: 26 December 2020
  • Accept Date: 17 May 2021

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