The Three Famines and the Makings of a Malthusian Catastrophe in Iran (۱۸۶۹-۱۹۴۴)

Iran suffered three catastrophic famines in the seventy-five-year span of ۱۸۶۹ to ۱۹۴۴. The population in ۱۹۴۵ was unchanged from that of ۱۸۴۰, a classic case of a Malthusian catastrophe. This article aims to assess the impact of the famines on Iran’s population level. It is first shown that the human losses in the Great Famine of ۱۸۶۹-۱۸۷۳ have been vastly understated in much of the literature. Two-thirds of the population was lost. Barely had Iran recovered its ۱۸۶۹ population when the Great Famine of ۱۹۱۷-۱۹۱۹ in World War I had carried off nearly half of the population. Finally, World War II and the resulting ۱۹۴۲-۱۹۴۴ famine and typhus epidemic had claimed a quarter of the population and again restored the ۱۸۴۰ population level. Only after ۱۹۴۵ was Iran able to shake off the Malthusian trap into which it had fallen for more than a century.

Keywords:

famines , starvation , disease , population loss , Malthusian Catastrophe