HOW MANY PEOPLE ON EARTH? — DESMOND 555 



development in northern Europe. For the first time since the Golden 

 Age of Greece, the human intellect began to look at the world objec- 

 tively. This led to the birth of the scientific method : new concepts 

 of the nature of matter, energy, and, ultimately, of life began to cap- 

 ture the minds of men. Out of this intellectual revolution came 

 powerful new insights w^hich were eventually to change greatly man's 

 pattern of living and dying. 



In Europe about the middle of the lYth century — after the end of 

 the Thirty Years' War and the period of peace and stability which 

 followed — agricultural methods improved, slowly at first and then 

 rapidly. New crops were introduced and crops were rotated ; manure 

 and fertilizers were used more generally ; and the soil was cultivated 

 more extensively. Even though these more advanced methods in- 

 creased food production, the margin of plenty continued to be pre- 

 carious, especially for those who lived in cities. A comparable agri- 

 cultural expansion seems to have occurred in China at about the same 

 time. 



Unfortunately, little is known about population growth and decline 

 during this period for the vast continent of Asia, particularly for 

 India and China. M. K. Bennett, Director of the Food Eesearch In- 

 stitute, Stanford University, has recognized the need for a continent- 

 by-continent or region-by-region survey. He estimates that world 

 population in A.D. 1000 was somewhere around 275 million, or "prob- 

 ably less than half of the population of Europe in 1949; . . . that 

 there has been one century, the fourteenth [the century of the Black 

 Death in Europe] in which world population did not increase at all, 

 but declined. . . ." 



The earlier "hydraulic" civilizations became subject to disorders 

 which checked and, in some cases, reversed their population growth. 



The Americas had an estimated population of 16 million at the time 

 of their discovery by Columbus. Julian Steward, Research Professor 

 of Anthropology, University of Illinois, has estimated the population 

 of the different regions of the American Hemisphere in 1492 as 

 follows : 



North America : 



North of Mexico 1,000.000 



Mexico 4,500,000 



West Indies 225,000 



Central America 730,000 



South America : 



Andean Area 6,131,000 



Remainder 2,898,000 



Total 15,490,000 



