The document defines key population geography terms and discusses ancient views on fertility and population. It outlines four categories of fertility and examines writings from Chinese philosophers like Confucius, Greek thinkers like Plato and Aristotle, Romans like Cicero and Augustus, Hebrews, early Christians, Muslims like Ibn Khaldoun, early merchants, and Physiocrats like Quesnay who viewed population growth in relation to agricultural production. Many emphasized maintaining an optimal population size and saw advantages to population growth if food production could support it.

1. World’s Ancient Views of
Fertility on Population
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2. Definitions of terms
 Fertility - This is the number of live births a woman has during her
reproductive period – 15 to 49 years of age.
 Fecundity – This is the ability of a woman to conceive and give birth to a child,
whether alive or still born.
 Population – This is the total number of people occupying a given area of land.
 Population distribution – This is the way people are spread out on the land –
can be dense or sparse.
 Population density – This is the number of persons per unit area – it is
calculated by dividing the number of people in a given area by the total area of
the place.
 Overpopulation – This is the condition of having a population so dense as to
cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life or population
crash.
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3. Definition of terms
 Population pressure – The sum of factors (as increase in numbers or
excessive food consumption) within a population that reduce the ability of
an environment to support the population. The results of population
pressure are;
 Migration and expansion of range of the population
 Extinction or decline of the population
 Demography – The qualitative and quantitative study of statistics of human
populations e.g. births, migration, aging, income, incidences of diseases
etc. which illustrate the changing structure of the human population.
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4. Definition of terms
 Population geography – The study of size, territorial distribution and
composition of the human population as well as the changes they are
currently in. It deals with the following demographic factors;
 Fertility – the number of live births a woman has during her reproductive
period.
 Migration – a form of spatial mobility which involves a change of the usual
residence, between two clearly defined geographic units within a specified
period of time.
 Mortality – the number of death occurring in a population per 1000 of the
population.
 Marriage – the formal union of a man and a woman, typically recognized by law,
by which they become husband and wife.
 Divorce – a legal decree of dissolving a marriage.
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5. Categories of fertility
 There are four known categories of fertility, namely:
 Marital fertility – it occurs within marriage
 Teenage fertility – it occurs to teenagers
 Non-marital fertility – it is any fertility that occurs outside marriage
 Overall fertility – it includes both marital and non-marital fertility
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6. Fertility views of the Ancient World on
Population
 Population problems have been man’s concerns since ancient times.
 Most of the writings seem to discuss issues such as;
 The most desirable number of people
 The need to stimulate or retard population growth
 Many opinions of the ancient world about fertility by ancient antiquity,
statesmen and thinkers were based on their;
 Political considerations
 Military considerations
 Social considerations
 Economic considerations
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7. Ancient and Mediaeval Writings on Population
 Germs of certain ideas which have figured prominently in recent theoretical
works on population can be found in ancient writings.
 We are going to look into the summaries of the writings of ancient writers
from;
 The Chinese
 The Greeks
 The Romans
 The Hebrews
 The Early Christians
 The Early Muslims
 The Early merchants
 The Early Physiocrats
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8. 1. The Chinese
 From the written works of Confucius and his school and other Chinese
philosophers:
 Optimum population has to be maintained as far as the population is engaged in
agriculture.
 Governments should be responsible for maintaining an ideal proportion
between land and population e.g. by moving people from over-populated areas
to under-populated areas.
 Excessive population may;
 Reduce output per worker
 Depress levels of living
 Give rise to conflicts
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9. 1. The Chinese
 Population aspects in the works of Confucius and his school are as follows;
 Mortality increases when food supply is insufficient.
 Pre-mature marriages cause high infant mortality.
 Wars, diseases and droughts check population growth.
 Costly marriage ceremonies reduce the marriage rate.
 Family, marriage and procreation are essentially favourable for population
increase.
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10. 2. The Greeks
 Were concerned with formulation of policies and rules for population than
theories about it.
 Considered the problem of population size from a point of view of
defence, security and government.
 Writings were on the ideal conditions for the full development of man’s
potential – Plato’s and Aristotle’s writings.
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11. 2. The Greeks
 Plato’s writings;
 Population should be self-sufficient and thus possess enough territory to supply
its needs but not so large as to make constitutional governance impossible.
 If the highest good was to be achieved, the city-state should have 5040 citizens
– Plato’s law.
 Since demographic trend can either be positive or negative, Plato proposed
measures to maintain the desired size;
 Under-population – rewards, advice or rebuke to the young in order to increase birth
rates, and encourage immigration.
 Over-population – birth control for large families and colonization of uninhabited
areas.
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12. 2. The Greeks
 Aristotle’s writings;
 In his work, ‘Politica’,
 The state should ensure that inhabitants live at once temperately and liberally
in the enjoyment of leisure.
 Since property cannot be increased at the same rate as the population grows,
the excessive number of inhabitants would breed poverty and social ills. To
prevent this (an excessive population), he mentioned child exposure and
abortion.
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13. 3. The Romans
 They viewed the population question in the perspective of a great empire.
 Writings indicate that they saw population growth as advantageous to
military and related purposes - Cisero’s and Augustus’ writings.
 Cisero’s writings;
 States population must be maintained by monogamous marriage as opposed to
Plato’s communism in wives and children idea.
 Marriage as primarily and fundamentally for procreation.
 Augustus’ writings;
 Privileges for those married and having children.
 Discriminating financially those not married to increase marriage and birth
rates.
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14. 4. The Hebrews
 Emphasized on procreation and multiplication.
 Unfruitfulness was regarded as a serious misfortune.
 Oriental philosophers favoured fertility and multiplication – Kautalya, in
his book ‘Arthasastra: Book Guide for Rulers’.
 Kautalya’s writings;
 Desirability of a large population as a source of military and economic power.
 Population checks by effects of wars, famine, pestilence and the colonization of
new areas.
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15. 5. The Early Christians
 Argued in favour of the teaching of Paul, who cited pestilence, famine and
wars as natures ways of reducing excess population.
 They favoured population growth since mortality rate was too high and there
were constant threats of depopulation through famine, wars and epidemics.
 Birth control was opposed due to the fear of depopulation.
 Condemned polygamy, abortion, infanticide and child exposure.
 Glorified virginity and continence.
 Frowned upon second marriage
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16. 6. The Early Muslims
 Writings resembled those of Hebrews and Christians.
 Ibn Khaldoun’s writings;
 Dense population was conducive for higher levels of living since it permitted a
greater division of labour, a more effective use of resources, and military and
political security.
 Favourable economic conditions and political order stimulated population
growth by increasing natality and checking mortality – in the wake of the
periods of economic progress came luxury, rising taxes and other changes in
several generation produced political decline, economic depression and
depopulation.
 Cyclic variations in the population occur in rhythm with economic fluctuations.
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17. 7. The Early Merchants
 Emphasized on the political and economic advantages of a large population.
 The strength of the state is to be found in its population and its predominance
of industry over agriculture.
 Population was not only an important factor in the power of State, but also
played a role in increasing the State’s revenue and wealth.
 Limit of population growth manifests itself through:
 Poverty – which discourages marriage
 Periodic calamities such as wars, drought and pestilence
 Favoured policies aimed at stimulating population growth, including measures
to:
 Encourage marriage and large families
 Improve public health
 Promote immigration especially of skilled workers
 Check emigration to other countries
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18. 8. The Early Physiocrats
 They opposed most aspects of mercantilist thinking.
 Agriculture sector is the most strategic: the growth of the entire economy
was supposed to be governed by the increase in agricultural produce.
 Population increase is only necessary on condition that it was possible to
expand agricultural production to support the increasing population.
 Quesnay: a large population was desirable but under the condition that
people must live comfortably.
 Mirabeau: a large population is desirable on condition that agriculture should
be encouraged in every conceivable manner.
 Mercier: dependence of the population on subsistence, governments to
promote the best possible ways of cultivation to make sure that increase in
food production outpaces that in population.
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