Abstract
IN a discussion of war and over-population (Current History, March 1936), Prof. Raymond Pearl states that the aggressor in every major war in recent times has given the need for more room for his people as the primary motive. The land surface of the earth is some 52,000,000 square miles, about one fourth of which is arid or semi-arid, while lakes and mountains still further reduce the cultivable land on which more than 2,000 million people have to dwell. An equal distribution would give each individual about sixteen acres, but probably little more than half would be available for production. The United States census for 1930 showed a population density of 40.6 per square milevery close to the world average. Europe has 92 per square mile, Asia 76, North America 19-20, South America and Africa about 12, Australia and Oceania only 3. Among countries of the world, China stands seventh and India fifteenth in density of population. The province of Kiangsu alone, having 897 persons per square mile, has a greater population density than Belgium, while Bermuda has 1,462 per square mile. India has 195, about the same as France, but large areas of jungle and desert increase the population density of the rest. Urbanisation, however, leads to greater local densities in the West than the East. Nevertheless, highly industrialised countries can induce few of their people to emigrate to colonies. Up to 1914, Italy had placed only 8,000 Italians in her African colonies, and Germany only 24,000 Germans in her colonial empire. Pearl estimates that the British, Russian, French and American “Empires” control 57 per cent of the earth's land surface; but concludes that the conquest of these lands by other nations would not benefit the human race, while war would impoverish all the nations involved.
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War and Populations. Nature 137, 1025 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/1371025b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1371025b0