Cycles of Demographic Fluctuations in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

The demographic factor has always played a key role in social development. The population has acted as the basis and subject to social production throughout human history. Social and economic development of the Chinese dynasties is no exception. Generally stated, the purpose of the diploma thesis is to examine the cycles of demographic fluctuations in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1912). To achieve this goal, the following objectives were set: • Establish the main stages of social and demographic fluctuations during the Ming and Qing dynasties, basing on the theory of the three-phase system: growth – compression – crisis; • Identify the main patterns of development of demographic fluctuations during the stated period; • Identify the correlation between demographic fluctuations and the socio-economic and political situation of the country. The results of this work showed that there are obvious stages of increasing and decreasing the number of population during the Ming and Qing dynasties, these processes coincided with major historical events – wars, revolts, the fall of the dynasty, etc. We identified that the growth stage for the Ming dynasty is the time interval from the founding of the dynasty in 1368 till the middle of the 15th Century, the compression stage is the period from the middle of the 15th Century till the end of the 16th Century, the crisis stage is the period from the end of the 16th Century till 1644. For the Qing dynasty, we distinguished the following time periods: the growth stage – from the founding of the dynasty in 1644 till the end of the 18th Century, the compression stage from the end of the 18th Century till the middle of the 19th Century, and the crisis stage from the middle of the 19th Century until 1912.