Editing Famine (section)

===Europe===
====Middle Ages====
{{Further|Medieval demography|Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|The General Crisis}}
The [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]] (or to 1322) was the first major food crisis to strike Europe in the 14th century. Millions in northern Europe died over an extended number of years, marking a clear end to the earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th and 12th centuries.<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=R688at3KskQC&pg=PA49 | title = The Story of Ireland | author = Brian Igoe | date = 2009 | page = 49 | access-date = 15 November 2015 | archive-date = 16 September 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142031/https://books.google.com/books?id=R688at3KskQC&pg=PA49 | url-status = live }}</ref> An unusually cold and wet spring of 1315 led to widespread crop failures, which lasted until at least the summer of 1317; some regions in Europe did not fully recover until 1322. Most nobles, cities, and states were slow to respond to the crisis and when they realized its severity, they had little success in securing food for their people. In 1315, in [[Norfolk]], [[England]], the price of grain soared from 5 shillings/quarter to 20 shillings/quarter.<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=o8ea33eCFQgC&q=great+wave+great+famine+inflation&pg=PA23 | author = David Hackett Fischer | author-link = David Hackett Fischer | title = The Great Wave | page = 38 | isbn = 9780195121216 | year = 1999 | publisher = Oxford University Press | access-date = 17 October 2020 | archive-date = 16 September 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142030/https://books.google.com/books?id=o8ea33eCFQgC&q=great+wave+great+famine+inflation&pg=PA23 | url-status = live }}</ref> It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism. It had consequences for Church, State, European society and future calamities to follow in the 14th century. There were 95 famines in [[medieval Britain]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3609390/Poor-studies-will-always-be-with-us.html |title=Poor studies will always be with us |website=Telegraph.co.uk |date=8 August 2004 |access-date=1 February 2016 |last1=Bartholomew |first1=James |archive-date=1 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301084104/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3609390/Poor-studies-will-always-be-with-us.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and 75 or more in medieval France.<ref>{{cite web |last=Basu |first=Kaushik |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine |title=famine |website=Britannica.com |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-date=7 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507160730/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine |url-status=live }}</ref> More than 10% of England's population, or at least 500,000 people, may have died during the famine of 1315–1316.<ref name="famine">{{cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/savagewarsofpeac0000macf | url-access = registration | title = The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap | publisher = Wiley | author = Alan Macfarlane | date = 1997 | page = [https://archive.org/details/savagewarsofpeac0000macf/page/66 66] | isbn = 978-0-631-18117-0}}</ref>

Famine was a very destabilizing and devastating occurrence. The prospect of starvation led people to take desperate measures. When scarcity of food became apparent to peasants, they would sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term survival. They would kill their [[draught animal]]s, leading to lowered production in subsequent years. They would eat their seed corn, sacrificing next year's crop in the hope that more seed could be found. Once those means had been exhausted, they would take to the road in search of food. They migrated to the cities where merchants from other areas would be more likely to sell their food, as cities had a stronger purchasing power than did rural areas. Cities also administered relief programs and bought grain for their populations so that they could keep order. With the confusion and desperation of the migrants, crime would often follow them. Many peasants resorted to banditry in order to acquire enough to eat.

One famine would often lead to difficulties in the following years because of lack of seed stock or disruption of routine, or perhaps because of less-available labour. Famines were often interpreted as signs of God's displeasure. They were seen as the removal, by God, of His gifts to the people of the Earth. Elaborate religious processions and rituals were made to prevent God's wrath in the form of famine.

====16th century====
[[File:Goya-Guerra (59).jpg|thumb|An engraving from [[Francisco Goya|Goya]]'s ''[[Disasters of War]]'', showing starving women, doubtless inspired by the terrible famine that struck [[Madrid]] in 1811–1812.]]
During the 15th century to the 18th century, famines in Europe became more frequent due to the [[Little Ice Age]]. The colder climate resulted in harvest failures and shortfalls that led to a rise in [[conspiracy theories]] concerning the causes behind these famines, such as the [[Pacte de Famine]] in France.<ref>Kaplan, Steven. ''The Famine Plot Persuasion in Eighteenth-Century France''. Pennsylvania: Diane Publishing Co, 1982. {{ISBN|0-87169-723-8}}</ref>

The 1590s saw the worst famines in centuries across all of Europe. Famine had been relatively rare during the 16th century. The economy and population had grown steadily as subsistence populations tend to when there is an extended period of relative peace (most of the time). Although peasants in areas of high population density, such as northern Italy, had learned to increase the yields of their lands through techniques such as promiscuous culture, they were still quite vulnerable to famines, forcing them to work their land even more intensively.

The great famine of the 1590s began a period of famine and decline in the 17th century. The price of [[grain]], all over Europe was high, as was the population. Various types of people were vulnerable to the succession of bad harvests that occurred throughout the 1590s in different regions. The increasing number of wage labourers in the countryside were vulnerable because they had no food of their own, and their meager living was not enough to purchase the expensive grain of a bad-crop year. Town labourers were also at risk because their wages would be insufficient to cover the cost of grain, and, to make matters worse, they often received less money in bad-crop years since the disposable income of the wealthy was spent on grain. Often, [[unemployment]] would be the result of the increase in grain prices, leading to ever-increasing numbers of urban poor.

All areas of Europe were badly affected by the famine in these periods, especially rural areas. The Netherlands was able to escape most of the damaging effects of the famine, though the 1590s were still difficult years there. [[Amsterdam]]'s [[grain trade]] with the [[Baltic region|Baltic]] guaranteed a food supply.

====17th century====
The years around 1620 saw another period of famine sweep across Europe. These famines were generally less severe than the famines of twenty-five years earlier, but they were nonetheless quite serious in many areas. Perhaps the worst famine since 1600, the great famine in [[Finland]] in 1696, killed one-third of the population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.euro.who.int/document/peh-ehp/nehapfin.pdf |title= FINNISH ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ACTION PLAN |website=www.euro.who.int |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009053403/http://www.euro.who.int/document/peh-ehp/nehapfin.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2009}}</ref>

Devastating harvest failures afflicted the northern Italian economy from 1618 to 1621, and it did not recover fully for centuries. There were serious famines in the late-1640s and less severe ones in the 1670s throughout northern Italy.

Over two million people died in two famines in France between 1693 and 1710. Both famines were made worse by ongoing wars.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ó Gráda |first1=Cormac |last2=Chevet |first2=Jean-Michel |year=2002 |title=Famine And Market In ''Ancient Régime'' France |journal=The Journal of Economic History |pmid=17494233 |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=706–33 |doi=10.1017/S0022050702001055 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |hdl=10197/368 |s2cid=8036361 |url=https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/368/3/ogradac_article_pub_039.pdf |hdl-access=free |access-date=23 September 2019 |archive-date=23 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923121948/https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/368/3/ogradac_article_pub_039.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Starvation image from Fäderneslandet 1867.jpg|thumb|upright=0.95|Illustration of starvation in northern Sweden, [[Swedish famine of 1867–1869]]]]
As late as the 1690s, Scotland experienced famine which reduced the population of parts of Scotland by at least 15%.<ref>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Michael |title=Population change in North-western Europe, 1750–1850 |publisher=Macmillan Education |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-333-34386-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/populationchange0000ande/page/9 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/populationchange0000ande/page/9 }}</ref>

The [[Great Famine of Finland (1695–1697)|Great Famine of 1695–1697]] may have killed a third of the Finnish population.<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/finland/9.htm "Finland and the Swedish Empire"]. ''Federal Research Division, [[Library of Congress]]''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009181052/http://countrystudies.us/finland/9.htm |date=9 October 2017 }}</ref> and roughly 10% of [[Norway]]'s population.<ref>Karen J. Cullen (2010). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RiLjHZdt-sMC&pg=PA20 Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s]''. Edinburgh University Press. p. 20. {{ISBN|0-7486-3887-3}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142030/https://books.google.com/books?id=RiLjHZdt-sMC&pg=PA20 |date=16 September 2023 }}</ref> Death rates rose in Scandinavia between 1740 and 1800 as the result of a series of crop failures.<ref>Alan Macfarlane (1997). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA63 The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap]''. p. 63. {{ISBN|0-631-18117-2}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128101941/https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA63 |date=28 January 2022 }}</ref> For instance, the [[Finnish famine of 1866–1868]] killed 15% of the population.

====18th century====
The period of 1740–1743 saw frigid winters and summer droughts, which led to famine across [[Europe]] and a major spike in mortality.<ref>Davis, ''Late Victorian Holocausts'', p. 281.</ref> The winter 1740–41 was unusually cold, possibly because of volcanic activity.<ref>Cormac Ó Gráda (2009). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LoN2XkjJio4C&pg=PA18 Famine: a short history]''. Princeton University Press. p. 18. {{ISBN|0-691-12237-7}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164808/https://books.google.com/books?id=LoN2XkjJio4C&pg=PA18 |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref>

According to Scott and Duncan (2002), "Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 recorded famines between AD 1500 and 1700 and there were 100 hunger years and 121 famine years in Russia between AD 971 and 1974."<ref>Susan Scott, Christopher John Duncan (2002). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BME8WHMQpNIC Demography and nutrition: evidence from historical and contemporary populations]''. John Wiley and Sons. p. 45. {{ISBN|0-632-05983-4}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164808/https://books.google.com/books?id=BME8WHMQpNIC |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref>

The [[Famines in Czech lands|Great Famine]], which lasted from 1770 until 1771, killed about one tenth of [[Czech lands]]' population, or 250,000 inhabitants, and radicalised countrysides leading to peasant uprisings.<ref>E. E. Rich, C. H. Wilson, M. M. Postan (1977). ''The Cambridge economic history of Europe: The economic organization of early modern Europe''. p. 614. {{ISBN|0-521-08710-4}}</ref>

There were sixteen good harvests and 111 famine years in northern Italy from 1451 to 1767.<ref>Alan Macfarlane (1997). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA64 The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap]''. p. 64. {{ISBN|0-631-18117-2}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142602/https://books.google.com/books?id=eGsCGAdH4YQC&pg=PA64 |date=16 September 2023 }}</ref> According to Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, "The Jesuits of [[Cagliari]] [in Sardinia] recorded years during the late 1500s 'of such hunger and so sterile that the majority of the people could sustain life only with wild ferns and other weeds'&nbsp;... During the terrible famine of 1680, some 80,000 persons, out of a total population of 250,000, are said to have died, and entire villages were devastated".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dyson |first1=Stephen L. |last2=Rowland |first2=Robert J. |title=Archaeology and history in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages: shepherds, sailors & conquerors |publisher=UPenn Museum of Archaeology, 2007 |location=Philadelphia |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-934536-02-5 |page=136}}</ref>

According to [[Reid Bryson|Bryson]] (1974), there were thirty-seven famine years in Iceland between 1500 and 1804.<ref>Henry Oliver Lancaster (1990). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=T4DLK7zLxYMC&pg=PA399 Expectations of life: a study in the demography, statistics, and history of world mortality]''. [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]. p. 399. {{ISBN|0-387-97105-X}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512203839/http://books.google.com/books?id=T4DLK7zLxYMC&pg=PA399 |date=12 May 2015 }}</ref> In 1783 the volcano [[Laki (volcano)|Laki]] in south-central [[Iceland]] erupted. The lava caused little direct damage, but ash and sulphur dioxide spewed out over most of the country, causing three-quarters of the island's livestock to perish. In the following famine, around ten thousand people died, one-fifth of the population of [[Iceland]]. [Asimov, 1984, 152–53]{{full citation needed|date=August 2020}}

====19th century====
[[File:Irish potato famine Bridget O'Donnel.jpg|thumb|Depiction of victims of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] in Ireland, 1845–1849]]
Other areas of Europe have known famines much more recently. France saw famines as recently as the 19th century. The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] in Ireland, 1846–1851, caused by the failure of the potato crop over a few years, resulted in 1,000,000 dead and another 2,000,000 refugees fleeing to Britain, Australia and the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rubinstein |first=W. D. |title=Genocide: a history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMMAk4VwLLwC&pg=PA85 |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2004 |page=85 |isbn=978-0-582-50601-5 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142527/https://books.google.com/books?id=nMMAk4VwLLwC&pg=PA85 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====20th century====
Famine still occurred in [[Eastern Europe]] during the 20th century. Droughts and famines in [[Imperial Russia]] are known to have happened every 10 to 13 years, with average droughts happening every 5 to 7 years. Russia experienced eleven major famines between 1845 and 1922, one of the worst being the [[Russian famine of 1891–1892|famine of 1891–1892]].<ref>[[Alan Macfarlane]]. "[http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-FAM.PDF The Dimension of Famine]" (PDF). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517095451/http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-FAM.PDF |date=17 May 2011 }}</ref> The [[Russian famine of 1921–22]] killed an estimated 5 million.
[[File:No-nb bldsa 6a030.jpg|thumb|Victims of the [[Russian famine of 1921–1922]] during the [[Russian Civil War]]]]

[[Famines in Russia and USSR|Famines continued]] in the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] era, the most notorious being the ''[[Holodomor]]'' in various parts of the country, especially the [[Volga Region|Volga]], and the Ukrainian and northern [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] SSR's during the winter of 1932–1933. The [[Soviet famine of 1932–1933]] is nowadays reckoned to have cost an estimated 6 million lives.<ref>Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&pg=PA206 Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916142527/https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&pg=PA206 |date=16 September 2023 }}''. Harvard University Press, 1999. p. 206. {{ISBN|0-674-07608-7}}</ref> The [[Soviet Famine of 1947|last major famine]] in the USSR happened in 1947 due to the severe [[drought]] and the mismanagement of grain reserves by the Soviet government.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ellman |first1=Michael |s2cid=45613622 |title=The 1947 Soviet famine and the entitlement approach to famines |journal=Cambridge Journal of Economics |date=1 September 2000 |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=603–30 |doi=10.1093/cje/24.5.603 }}</ref>

The [[Hunger Plan]], i.e. the Nazi plan to starve large sections of the Soviet population, caused the deaths of many. The Russian Academy of Sciences in 1995 reported civilian victims in the USSR at German hands, including Jews, totaled 13.7 million dead, 20% of the 68 million persons in the occupied USSR. This included 4.1 million famine and disease deaths in occupied territory. There were an additional estimated 3 million famine deaths in areas of the USSR not under German occupation.<ref>The Russian Academy of Science Rossiiskaia Akademiia nauk. ''Liudskie poteri SSSR v period vtoroi mirovoi voiny: sbornik statei''. Saint Petersburg 1995 {{ISBN|5-86789-023-6}}</ref>

The 872 days of the [[Siege of Leningrad]] (1941–1944) caused unparalleled famine in the Leningrad region through disruption of utilities, water, energy and food supplies. This resulted in the deaths of about one million people.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24841 |work=[[The St. Petersburg Times (Russia)|The St. Petersburg Times]] | title=Last Battle of Siege of Leningrad Re-Enacted |first=Irina |last=Titova |date=29 January 2008 |access-date=1 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140818002907/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24841 |archive-date=18 August 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Famine also struck in [[Western Europe]] during the [[Second World War]]. In the Netherlands, the {{Lang|nl|[[Dutch famine of 1944|Hongerwinter]]}} of 1944 killed approximately 30,000 people. Some other areas of Europe also experienced famine at the same time.