Early 1800's: A Cultural Analysis

According to Thomas Malthus, “the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man” (Brainyquote.com, n.d.). The historical pattern of growth of the worldwide population since our origin started out slowly. Homo sapiens began approximately 130,000 to 160,000 years ago (Annenberg Learner, 2016). In early society, diseases and climate changes kept death rates high and life expectancies were short (Annenberg Learner, 2016). Our population stabilization and increase did not occur until the early 1800’s. At that point in time, our population rose to 1 billion people. Medical advances had begun around this time and this helped to increase our life expectancies. Some milestones in the last 150 years that has helped to increase our population and life expectancies dramatically is improved urban sanitation, improvements in the water supply, creating greater access to the improved water supply, public health boards that detected illnesses, researching causes and cures of infectious diseases, creating vaccines and antibiotics, workplace safety laws, fortifying milk, bread, and cereal (Annenberg Learner, 2016). Our population continued to rise, until …show more content…
Cultural ideologies might suggest that women should not work outside of the home, therefore, there are many women that will stay home and begin a family. If the couple can afford it, many women may have more children than they had originally planned, thus creating a population boom in societies where this ideology may be the norm (Williams, n.d.). In cultures where birth control and family planning are not as prevalent, those societies will have an increase in population growth. If birth control methods are not being used more babies will be born to those couples. By contrast, couples who use birth control products will have a lower chance of having unintended pregnancies, thus, having a diminished effect on population