FAMINE

extreme and protracted shortage of food, causing widespread and persistent hunger, emaciation of the affected population, and a substantial increase in the death rate. Famines can be classified according to who is affected and where the affected population is located. General famine affects all classes or groups within the country or region of food shortage, although often not all the groups of people suffer to the same degree. Regional famine is concentrated in only part of a country, but all groups within the region of shortage are usually affected. Class famine describes a condition in which certain population groups suffer the greatest hardship in a country short of food, regardless of the geographic concentration of the famine. The causes of famine are numerous, but they are usually divided into natural and human categories. Natural or physical causes destroy crops and food supplies and include drought, heavy rain and flooding, unseasonable cold weather, typhoons, vermin depredations, plant disease, and insect infestations. Drought is the most common natural cause and the prime contributor to famine in arid and semiarid regions. Drought may occur outside the region affected. Sometimes drought in the headwaters of a major river used for irrigation can cause famine in an irrigated region downstream. The earliest recorded famines date back to the 4th millennium BC and occurred in ancient Egypt and the Middle East. These early famines have been called physical famines because of the natural environment's general hostility to intensive sedentary agriculture. Since 1700 Asia has been the principal, but not the only, famine region of the world. Many of Asia's famines have been characterized as food shortages due to overpopulation. These have occurred in drought- and flood-prone areas with agricultural production at or barely above the subsistence level. India and China are notable among countries where overpopulation famine has occurred. Recorded famine in India dates to the 14th century and continued into the 20th century. Famine in Deccan, India (170204), was reportedly responsible for the deaths of about 2,000,000 persons. An estimated 9,000,000 to 13,000,000 persons died during a famine in northern China in 187679 that was caused by drought over three successive years. India suffered one of its worst famines at the same time (187678) as the great Chinese famine. The basic cause was the samedrought, more specifically, the failure of the monsoon in successive years, with a resulting 5,000,000 deaths from starvation. Famine also continued to plague China into the 20th century: more than 3,000,000 persons starved to death in 192829. In 1967 a severe famine was recorded in Bihar, India, and excessive mortality was avoided only by major international relief efforts. Overpopulation has not been the sole contributor to modern famine. The Irish Potato Famine (184549), which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000,000 people, occurred when a blight destroyed almost all of Ireland's potato crop for several years in a row. A drought-induced famine caused some 1,500,000 deaths in Ethiopia (197173). In the mid-1980s, severe food shortages threatened the health and lives of some 150,000,000 inhabitants of drought-stricken sub-Saharan Africa. Human causes of famine are primarily political and cultural in nature and, unlike most natural causes, are within the bounds of human control. The severe and prolonged food shortages of Roman times have been characterized as transportation famines because of Rome's inability or often unwillingness to transport food to regions of shortage. Grain was a form of wealth for the Roman emperors, and the hoarding of grain while regions of the empire suffered from famine was a common practice. Rome itself was affected by famine in 436 BC, and thousands of persons threw themselves into the Tiber River to escape the pain of starvation. Famines in medieval Europe have been characterized as cultural food shortages. Natural causes played a role in famines of the Middle Ages, but it was the feudal social system, cultural practices, and overpopulation that extended food shortages into malnutrition, widespread disease (e.g., the Black Death), and famine. During the Middle Ages the British Isles were afflicted by at least 95 famines, and France suffered the effects of 75 or more. In 1235 some 20,000 London residents died from famine, and many persons resorted to eating tree bark for survival. Warfare, however, has been the most common human cause of famine. In addition to destroying crops and food supplies, warfare also disrupts the distribution of food through the use of siege and blockade tactics. The famines that plagued eastern Europe between 1500 and 1700 have been characterized as political, because the political aspirations of eastern European countries interfered in and often controlled the production and distribution of basic foodstuffs. In addition to warfare, natural causes continued to play a part in famine during this period. Famines in Hungary (1505 and 1586) drove some parents to eat their children. Russia was not spared from the effects of famine during this period; in 1600 some 500,000 people died of starvation in Russia. The deliberate destruction of crops and food supplies was a common tactic of war in the 19th century, employed by both attacking and defending armies. The scorched-earth policy adopted by the Russians in 1812 not only deprived Napoleon's armies of needed food but also starved the Russian people who depended on the land. Two of the largest famines in the 20th century had political causes. The great famine that occurred in Ukraine and elsewhere in the Soviet Union in 193234 was not due to crop failure or a shortage of food, but rather to the Soviet regime's brutal collectivization of the country's agriculture. When the peasants resisted the forced collectivization of their land, the government replied by confiscating their grain supplies for use by urban populations, with a resulting 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 deaths from starvation in the countryside. An even more serious famine occurred in China in 195860, when the Communist government undertook the campaign known as the Great Leap Forward. In this campaign, the rural economy was reorganized into communes, and farming was further disrupted by a massive effort to raise industrial production throughout the countryside. The consequent neglect and disorganization of agricultural production, compounded by bad weather, resulted in the deaths of as many as 20,000,000 people. One known instance of famine in the New World occurred about 1051 and forced the Toltecs to migrate from a stricken region in what is now central Mexico. Some scholars hold that the more diverse New World food sources and, in the case of the Incas, an extensive food-storage system mitigated the effects of famine. The New World populations were also generally less sedentary than the Old World and could simply migrate elsewhere, as the Toltecs and the Indians of Mesa Verde (now in Colorado, U.S.) apparently did. Although famine is still prevalent throughout the world, the ability of countries to import food and the efforts of international relief organizations have lessened the effects of modern famine. European nations, the United States, and other developed countries have not reported any instances of famine during the 20th century. Other countries avoided high rates of mortality by their ability to import food and to distribute it quickly and efficiently. Famine continues to be a problem in parts of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.