King Leopold's Ghost
Eighteenth Century Europe
By Jeremy Black
Jeremy Black’s book indeed looks at multiple aspects of the eighteenth century in Europe. He offers a specific approach to the century by using detailed examples of his interpretation of the period. Jeremy Black breaks down each section of his book by demonstrating his own developed ideas that he brings forth to the reader.
In chapter one, Jeremy Black explains his view of how the lives and activities of individuals of all social groups were governed in Europe by a hostile environment. Jeremy Black points out that economic adversity structured demographic activity which created as well as altered norms of behavior that produced great pressure on individuals as a whole. Black points out that birth control as well as higher ages of marriage restricted the number of child births followed by disease and malnutrition being the principal limited factors of change. “In the Tuscan village of Altopascio the average age on marriage rose from 21.5 prior to 1700 to 24.17 between 1700 and 1749, and was matched by a decline in the average number of children per couple” (Black, 3).
Jeremy Black points out that his view of such statistics may have derived due to depressed incomes that corresponded due to the fall in the price of wheat at the beginning of the century. The plague and famine was a serious problem in Europe that caused a huge drop off in population as well. The plague in the late 1700s destroyed large proportions of the population of eastern Europe. On the other hand famine remained an ever present fear and a continual focus of government. Black points out that the build-up of Austrian troops in Hungary in 1787 aided in food shortages which sparked the fears of famine. Food shortages were mainly due to agriculture problems due to climate change. Black also explains that detailed variations in population movements do provide some aspects to the reasons for such...
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