Incentivizing population growth

The course of Hawaiian history was majorly impacted by population loss. Much of it resulted from disease but men taking to whaling ships (and later trading ships) was also a factor. To staunch the loss, one idea I have is for the government to offer free land to men who come back and settle. Anyone have ideas on strategies to increase the birthrate?
 
Hawaii didn't need to worry about Native Hawaiian population growth since the easiest way to grow the population was to import whoever they could (East Asians, Portuguese, etc.) to work the plantations. And did the government even had the free land to give, given how much was owned by other Hawaiians or especially the bosses of the plantations? Any serious land reform would be met with a coup.
 
The East India Company and Nazi Germany both went with rewards, some entirely notional (certificates, plates, medals), others useful to the family. Details escape me, but I am sure they can be looked up!
 

Marc

Donor
The course of Hawaiian history was majorly impacted by population loss. Much of it resulted from disease but men taking to whaling ships (and later trading ships) was also a factor. To staunch the loss, one idea I have is for the government to offer free land to men who come back and settle. Anyone have ideas on strategies to increase the birthrate?

In regards to birthrates, abstractly, the ratio of males to females isn't an issue. Think bullishly about it, or ask anyone whose dealt with livestock...
More realistically, increasing birthrates successfully over time - besides the obvious improvements in reducing mother and infant mortality rates - is to make sure that birth control stays banned, and keep women barefoot and pregnant, just about literally.
By the way, wasn't the big population decline in the 17th century? (Vague recollection).
 
The course of Hawaiian history was majorly impacted by population loss. Much of it resulted from disease but men taking to whaling ships (and later trading ships) was also a factor. To staunch the loss, one idea I have is for the government to offer free land to men who come back and settle. Anyone have ideas on strategies to increase the birthrate?

What time in history are we talking about?
 

RousseauX

Donor
In regards to birthrates, abstractly, the ratio of males to females isn't an issue. Think bullishly about it, or ask anyone whose dealt with livestock...
More realistically, increasing birthrates successfully over time - besides the obvious improvements in reducing mother and infant mortality rates - is to make sure that birth control stays banned, and keep women barefoot and pregnant, just about literally.
By the way, wasn't the big population decline in the 17th century? (Vague recollection).
Overpopulation was a genuine problem in pre-modern society, the more people there are: the less food there is for each person. Increasing birthrate doesn't actually help population growth that much: because there will be big population drop from plague and resource wars every time population hits a certain level. This will continue to be true until the early modern period. There's something close to carrying capacity for each area before modern times.
 
Overpopulation was a genuine problem in pre-modern society, the more people there are: the less food there is for each person. Increasing birthrate doesn't actually help population growth that much: because there will be big population drop from plague and resource wars every time population hits a certain level. This will continue to be true until the early modern period. There's something close to carrying capacity for each area before modern times.
The issue is that Western diseases reduced the population from a sustainable 300,000 to 75,000.
 
In regards to birthrates, abstractly, the ratio of males to females isn't an issue. Think bullishly about it, or ask anyone whose dealt with livestock...
More realistically, increasing birthrates successfully over time - besides the obvious improvements in reducing mother and infant mortality rates - is to make sure that birth control stays banned, and keep women barefoot and pregnant, just about literally.
By the way, wasn't the big population decline in the 17th century? (Vague recollection).
The decline happened aftar contact with the west 1789. I don't think birth control was a factor. While infant mortality is relevant, that wasn't a factor in the decline.
 
Hawaii didn't need to worry about Native Hawaiian population growth since the easiest way to grow the population was to import whoever they could (East Asians, Portuguese, etc.) to work the plantations. And did the government even had the free land to give, given how much was owned by other Hawaiians or especially the bosses of the plantations? Any serious land reform would be met with a coup.
For my ATL, the point is to have sufficient Native Hawaiian population to sustain a viable economy so the Kingdom doesn't rely on foreigners. I'm certainly not looking for a Fiji-like situation. There was, by the way an enormous land reform "the Great Mahele" in the 1840s and that is how business people were able to buy land for plantations.
 
The East India Company and Nazi Germany both went with rewards, some entirely notional (certificates, plates, medals), others useful to the family. Details escape me, but I am sure they can be looked up!
Good point. I wonder how effective it actually was?
 
If they didn't try it already, make children legally responsible for maintaining their parents in their old age. That way having kids becomes a sound investment for your retirement years.
 
If they didn't try it already, make children legally responsible for maintaining their parents in their old age. That way having kids becomes a sound investment for your retirement years.
Ooh, I like that. However I suspect that was already the cultural norm. Elders were generally considered to be assets.
 
Governmental abilities to change birth rate is really limited. Most of the attempts even in modern times have been failures. Not even the Nazis or Soviets were able to have much of any success.
 
I remember reading that the Russian Mir system is speculated to have increased Russia's birth rate in the 19th century. Basically, land in the village (mir) was allocated based on the number of sons one family had. I could be remembering wrong considering I can't even remember what book it was in...
 
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