2008/10/01 by Geoffrey Parker · 4 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Asian Studies and History
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/ahr.113.4.1053
openalex publication_date 2008/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The mid-seventeenth century saw more cases of simultaneous state breakdown around the globe than any previous or subsequent age: something historians have called “The General Crisis.” In the 1640s, Ming China, the most populous state in the world, collapsed; the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the largest state in Europe, disintegrated; much of the Spanish monarchy, the first global empire in history, seceded; and the entire Stuart monarchy rebelled—Scotland, Ireland, England, and its American colonies. In addition, just in the year 1648, a tide of urban rebellions began in Russia (the largest state in the world), and the Fronde Revolt paralyzed France (the most populous state in Europe); meanwhile, in Istanbul (Europe's largest city), irate subjects strangled Sultan Ibrahim, and in London, King Charles I went on trial for war crimes (the first head of state to do so). In the 1650s, Sweden and Denmark came close to revolution; Scotland and Ireland disappeared as autonomous states; the Dutch Republic radically changed its form of government; and the Mughal Empire, then the richest state in the world, experienced two years of civil war following the arrest, deposition, and imprisonment of its ruler.1 The frequency of popular revolts around the world also peaked during the mid-seventeenth century. In China, the number of major armed uprisings rose from under ten in the 1610s to more than seventy in the 1620s and more than eighty in the 1630s, affecting 160 counties and involving well over 1 million people.2 In Japan, some forty revolts (hōki) and two hundred lesser rural uprisings (hyakushō ikki) occurred between 1590 and 1642—a total unmatched for two centuries—and the largest uprising, at Shimabara on Kyushu Island in 1637–1638, involved some 25,000 insurgents.3 In Russia, a wave of rebellions in 1648–1649 shook the central government to its foundations; of the twenty-five major peasant revolts recorded in seventeenth-century Germany and Switzerland, more than half took place between 1626 and 1650; the total number of food riots in England rose from twelve between 1600 and 1620 to thirty-six between 1621 and 1631, with fourteen more in 1647–1649.4 In France, finally, popular revolts peaked both absolutely and relatively in the mid-seventeenth century. (See Table 1.) The global crisis. A list of the major revolts and revolutions around the world between 1635 and 1666 (see facing page) demonstrates that, although Western Europe and East Asia formed the heartland of the “General Crisis,” the Mughal, Russian, and Ottoman empires, like the European colonies in America, also experienced episodes of severe political disruption. Sources: Table based on Yves-Marie Bercé, Histoire des Croquants: Étude des soulèvements populaires au XVIIe siècle dans le sud-ouest de la France, 2 vols. (Geneva, 1974), 2: 682; and René Pillorget, Les mouvements insurrectionnels de Provence entre 1596 et 1715 (Paris, 1975), 988. William Beik, Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: The Culture of Retribution (Cambridge, 1997), 258, estimated that between thirty and forty major uprisings and thousands of lesser ones took place in seventeenth-century France, especially in the 1620s, 1640s, and 1670s—although he also expressed skepticism about the precision of such calculations. Sources: Table based on Yves-Marie Bercé, Histoire des Croquants: Étude des soulèvements populaires au XVIIe siècle dans le sud-ouest de la France, 2 vols. (Geneva, 1974), 2: 682; and René Pillorget, Les mouvements insurrectionnels de Provence entre 1596 et 1715 (Paris, 1975), 988. William Beik, Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: The Culture of Retribution (Cambridge, 1997), 258, estimated that between thirty and forty major uprisings and thousands of lesser ones took place in seventeenth-century France, especially in the 1620s, 1640s, and 1670s—although he also expressed skepticism about the precision of such calculations. The mid-seventeenth century also saw a third major anomaly: more wars took place around the world than in any other era until the 1940s. In the six decades between 1618 and 1678, Poland was at peace for only twenty-seven years, the Dutch Republic for only fourteen, France for only eleven, and Spain for only three. Jack S. Levy, a political scientist, found the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe to be “the most warlike in terms of the proportion of years of war under way (95 per cent), the frequency of war (nearly one every three years), and the average yearly duration, extent, and magnitude of war.” The historical record reveals at least one war in progress between the states of Europe in every year between 1611 and 1669. Beyond Europe, over the same period, the Chinese and Mughal empires fought wars continuously, while the Ottoman Empire enjoyed only seven years of peace. The global “Conflict Catalogue” compiled by Peter Brecke, another political scientist, shows that, on average, wars around the world lasted longer in the seventeenth century than at any time since 1400 (when his survey begins). (See Figure 2.) War had become the norm for resolving both domestic and international problems.5 Average duration of conflicts by century, showing that more “long wars” occurred in the seventeenth century than at any other time in the past six hundred years. From Brecke, “Violent Conflicts,” Figure 11. Finally, throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the mid-seventeenth century witnessed almost unprecedented human mortality. When China's Yongzheng emperor looked back in 1729 on the turbulent transition from Ming to Qing rule two generations before, he claimed that “over half of the population perished” in the violence. In Sichuan (once a densely populated province), “people lamented that they did not have a single offspring. The few who survived had lost hands or feet or had their ears and noses sliced off,” he continued. “Older people who had witnessed [the devastation] would weep as they described it.”6 In Germany in 1635, Hans Conrad Lang, a clothier living in Konstanz, believed that war and epidemics had caused “so many deaths that the like of it has never been heard in human history”; while Johann Valentin Andreä, a Lutheran minister in Württemberg, lamented that barely one-third of his parishioners remained alive: “Just in the last five years,” he wrote in 1638, “518 of them have been killed by various misfortunes.”7 Many more would die the War ten years In France, a minister believed that during the Fronde Revolt of the of the around of and while at lamented that “the of France such that only few since almost in the by the and the have and to the In third of the world has and on the most In a on political in claimed that place for the and of the of the that be by of and of and the of and Many people in France, wrote his one had to in the wrote a in it while in that the the of the same of that the was the not in its In the that had began with to the ones he and he a list of to his from past of the monarchy was not by the the most in its as the world did not in the and of people who believed that they the like of had been heard in human subsequent has the of who the they did on a in in Württemberg, a government survey in (the year of his that only of the population remained in their while another survey in seven years the that the total population remained of its historians of Germany that during the War from to and that took at least half a century. (See Table 2.) Sources: the one based on by and and Sources: the one based on by and and In France, the from the also that the of the entire occurred during the most of the for have a total of for to a of the population in a single the of in the of the of and and duration at The and of and and a in with the Fronde the population of the by about In China, finally, government that the total of in the empire from million in to million in the year Qing China, with a to only million in and million in to the Yongzheng that “over half of China's population a of his a for in between and shows that some the by almost the of in a of and human the number of from just over in the to around in to than in and to in the same period, the number of in the from to The that the caused by the transition that in Sichuan (the by the Yongzheng over a million people have been killed and the was In occurred the General took place at a time population in the Northern had unprecedented and of in China's a population of about million by average of almost per the the most populous of Europe per In some the of people was population and the of London, for had in the not in or In some almost In such longer to a in of of people that not only the the be one from and in some the more almost he had become “so that living for years, I almost as at the as I was at the by the of the any not only in the and also on the as many people as would in Europe for some or “the number of people he be for or to many Many of of Europe In England, the claimed that time of to the of people that do and he to in to population at in the “the of the or of to them from England to their on the the that the thousands the year the American colonies for to their populous state would its by of peace and head or a for any only a few years and the population of China, the Stuart monarchy, and other states in the Northern did in Many the and that them to the in the and of the that has a with and the to the to the for twelve years have the revolutions and not only in Europe the world that have I since in a of time have it the world the and the more have in than the of twelve saw the that them as for of of they from to and called on to and them the the to in by the the state of Ireland, in and the state of England, with a of by a civil for to and the of do not well with with the of of and the and his on the In Scotland in a of and “the of and of than living the the of in and to some five hundred to in more for during the of than at any other time in Many the General with other A Spanish in that and and other have have and that the of the on would in political and to between and also that would generations of to the year The of a during the of to in China, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire, as well as Europe, that and the of would as a the of 1618 with the War “the in the year the war over Europe for thirty and In China, a popular that have have been conflicts over the to the it also the a with one the of has wars have on a Many in 1648, Johann a it that of revolts by the people their in the world, for in France, England, and the Ottoman and be by some of the in the years of that the human the in his years of and and of the to and the with the and would a few of who the seventeenth-century the that them with In and the and that any of the of government or and had to for the century and the of shook in state for in of the of with domestic and the between and to his King and has on the to he and the of the have never had the or the to more than their have almost the in the he wrote in the in the of and deaths (See Figure A few in began to a and the than the killed the ears of and the of the has to with every and one of to and a of he the in “The population and every it more to of some one a and it to do to and to any the people as a they have The people that the of of people who that he and that the at had any over the The of a in the of de la The of and in a major that peaked in and just as the of the of on of especially some to global In the de that, of the from the and have the and that “the of the and of the has same to Ottoman in one to about was have severe and have of the In China, the frequency of the who to in that “The has that in the mid-seventeenth century, I was in by the of the third the was to by the of the has not been I have also heard that in it never to since the of it A the the first to the and of the century as a global in from In the he a on the and of for his who was by the the mid-seventeenth century his with of to the by episodes a global of almost from one of the world to the that in Europe, in and in that his his in a over the of and he the of historians of the General have and in their few have the of the the of of A of since the by a of Europe, that the state of it as the or of the seventeenth century had some other than would be to and the Fronde by the of the of a of the of on European history, as he had to of In such was over the past forty years, of has of and the between and The two a and a The of of in and and and government and and compiled from as the on the of began or the from for the first time in in of that the of a in a year or that in a during a of or such as on that or of of The of for the mid-seventeenth century In more than a recorded in the progress of the and that in most of the in while in Ireland, took from some and almost with the and in following three of and their In China, a who in the to the of the transition from Ming to Qing in found almost seventy to previous such a of for historical a on of record for the to the on and around the world, in of of and the and of with of the on both and in and in and the at the time of the of by during in and A with a year to while a a year of the two has to for Europe back to by and back to by In the entire to European during the sixteenth century, was in in the of and have a of both the European between and 1715 and the entire global for decades of the survey has for the 1640s, the at the of the General the and human both and they both and around the In America, experienced the in a century in of the in his that “The was and that the was much and as the by the had not been forty years the also the was as and the as and at the was much of it and of their on the of of the to the of the East Asia also experienced In Japan, and living just of wrote his he the on in the one From that I seven until the The following was with only two other years since then have A of in since shows the in the mid-seventeenth century. (See Figure A in in recorded that the it has been and it has The has almost to the in China, In both and and and from the and as by the during the entire The same decades also saw the frequency of on Europe, experienced of the recorded in to that same year was much and that many the In the and disappeared as to their between and as well as in years. In France, every between and by a and experienced a of and in the while in in and and also in most of a in central Germany recorded in his in that time was such a that almost to in the three people did to a a and a In the Northern as a was the recorded over the past six was the and was the in a have historians and to of the as “the The also saw in many The in with the of in the of between and and a of the following the of the to in both years the of took the de on to the to a the entire from a that has been for and the the food in be and a and the experienced the recorded during the past In experienced the year recorded during the last five while in central experienced its year in two with a severe in that the for the only time on In the to some of its recorded between and much of of in and to the In Europe, finally, experienced a in that the a that the entire population a to a to for of only such recorded in five in in the entire central government to and the in a that the of the around the to for that the General with a major in the caused that with two that began in the mid-seventeenth century and until the century, the global changed and more the in two on the by that the with between and 1715 than in a single year of the century. more than and in a period, the last six decades of the seventeenth century saw by of the time a in The (the caused from the with the for two generations that saw in he wrote a the it was the first time he had one in almost years of the during every total also by between the and the only a of and around the The of the to have a with and on in the the Northern that the or than the first six of a lamented that I the was that the did not and it came it was and or much caused of to the on in the seventeenth century that “the around and as some of had the and the from a of major the it some of the back and in of the the In twelve major occurred around the between and of them occurred the that their the by the most densely populated of the and The number of and recorded by European shows the in in years than in a single year of in the (the a in the a with in the Northern on “The Figure and and on to more or only the global it also the In a of over Asia the that from to East and that the in the of and it as the of from Asia to the a called the in years the of and East in years they to and and in Asia and The by also three other the almost and and Europe average, episodes only every five years, in the mid-seventeenth century they as in and the experienced the frequency of the global in two other more in the Northern to the of and the of most and than at the in and more of the back any of the and of occurred in the mid-seventeenth in any in three In the of the over that people on between Europe and In in and Asia Ottoman with “the of caused severe that they two of the in place that and caused “the and to and to the Finally, in the Sweden and Denmark at in to such a that the from the of was as to the of not to a with of over the with and The in the of the of occurred in the historians the and of the of the the and the more cases of state breakdown such as the revolts of Ireland, and England Charles or the of Ming rule in not around and that since to be the only of simultaneous around the have caused the In the human and or major political much of in the of to unprecedented popular revolts throughout in as and the first urban riots of the era occurred in in the of the in the of and to major revolts in central and while the of was the of the century in the for the of the in Scotland of the of in King Charles I of his to of government and and to a single of that it has one and one it has one and one in the that under the of one In in Charles the to a based on the one in over between the his of William and the for three years, that in the the and of the on of the not only a of and a and of also a In addition, it a severe not unprecedented to the of one of “The has been in and the in the have been such and and as living the has and and the came did not reveals that was the year in two the experienced the recorded in a from until food of that “the like had never been in the since it was a that Charles at a time of popular riots and such as the of to the Revolt and to that the would their political and a of one the of the to throughout the as many of their as of the and a they to the that their and their Many that they their in England to the Scotland would The a of that rebellions during the mid-seventeenth century a between and on of government and especially in of with the to state not become other of them to human also the General in Scotland and The by by the that the first of Charles in on the the of the and the as as the began to the a of at the of their and such a in that place that not any one or be of them also of was that Charles major had for the of the in a of the government to the of the as and of it in “the of to and a of that Charles did to the form of and they for their to a the was first the who the in on the of and The also the of in as 1638, in Ireland about the the the have both to England and to and lamented that had to to the thousands of of that their to the in has as the most and by a to a with the to political and to the political of another In as to the for the of civil war in England, he the of the as “the of he in have and to it was first in The the of I the that the in the and had not in England, the had never took in had the over Ireland to the Many to that “the of had a in the of the The of in his his the by and to them had not only and for their a for to one of the the the that only “the government that was over and they who a by that “The had their by of another and “so would they in another of the his not as well and for the than the did for of another his a as the he the “The have Finally, and the between and during the General in 1638, Charles I to his in Scotland only for at and he that would die than to and he that the as in I have more in Scotland than as a of I than Charles the same of subjects he of to to of In he or to I be a or a to the that not and to or to be A with them at time a by the of I it for I to both in and to or that would in a the of and other of the General the of the that the of in both the human and to the of that he had in for of The first in that The of has progress since the of of the since the year has The historians with such as The time for such and to a human of with the of and on the of in some of In addition, the that he had following in the of who to on the of France: the and be at the of by on the with England, Ireland, the Switzerland, Germany only and and the three or the of with to he of the mid-seventeenth century. a on de la that with political in France and England between and the he in as the on by one of the living his has as in In although in a of only one had a of 2 in and the and that for the more than one hundred of his and the almost and American has a the of American to in it also a to that a on human the human to with that have in the and that they to in the that they not just at not to The and in over the past forty years have caused and wars that of the mid-seventeenth the of the world In the such as the European wave of claimed the of at least and or in the found the richest and most in human and of in remained would same would with a global like that of the have only two to the of a of them or the of and on the of or the and from during global in the many and political have the few have the only one previous global the one in the mid-seventeenth century, has for historical of the human and on to the General not only on also a for historians to with in other who with the of and years of the of in the historians the and in around the world that during the General and the have been some for with the that and