AH Challenge: Make France have a population on par with an unified Germany

Valdemar II

Banned
What was the reason for the population boom in those other countries? Would it be possible for France to somehow have one with them?

Yes start a big civil war in the 17th century which kill 1/3 of the population and split it up in minor warring states, in that case you will see a large population boom. France problem was that the population was well off, they didn't have a tradition for the commoneers emigrating*, so they had to limit their population growth.

*Most French emigrants was younger sons of the nobility, whom emigrated to position in central adminstration of other countries, beside that the main emigrants was religeous refugees.
 
Thank you everyone for their input. A quick question comes to mind, Would France benefit from this larger population that is roughly germany's population within the same amount of land as OTL France?
 
Yes start a big civil war in the 17th century which kill 1/3 of the population and split it up in minor warring states, in that case you will see a large population boom. France problem was that the population was well off, they didn't have a tradition for the commoneers emigrating*, so they had to limit their population growth.
Well, the Fronde civil war may have removed 15 to 20 percent of the population of northern France (source), and the French peasantry was not very well off for the next half-century, facing population decline and other hardships. So I'm not sure the two situations are comparable.
 
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