1.1 Spatial and Food Crisis

Technological and medical advances caused a significant rise in the Chinese population. In the 18th century, China saw an unprecedented rise in population. By 1800, the population in China doubled from “150 million in 1650 to 300 million by 1800 and reached 450 million by the late 19th century” (Columbia). In comparison in the United States in 1980’s, the population was only “200 million” (Columbia). Arable land was quickly becoming scarce, as more of the environment continued to be destroyed for human expansion. Mountain sides were stripped, wetlands trampled, and forests cut down; all intensified a series of natural disasters that swept through the nation. Famine continued to ravage the nation, which heavily relied upon its natural resources for both monetary security and sustenance. The worst famine occurred in 1878, effecting “nine to thirteen million lives” (Gammon 348). Due to the fact, “that 80 to 90 percent of the population lived in rural areas as peasants and worked as farmers or other types of laborers” these natural disasters affected the majority of the population (Yale). Though at one time China had been of the largest exporters of rice, it had no choice but “to import extra rice from abroad” to feed its starving citizens (Chang 14). In the Guangdong province the soil “could yield only enough food to feed 1/3 of its people” (Chang 14). Small provinces were desperate for relief, and received little or no assistance from the government. The wealthy and corrupt bureaucracy kept much of the food and monetary aid sent in from other countries to help with the crisis.