> To be fair, the black death killed France's first demographic transition

Never heard of that, any sources to recommend on the topic?

> Abundance of food, and local peace is clearly the common denominator for demographic transition

That sounds really suspicious as description of France in the eighteenth century…

Louis-Henri Fournet was probably the historian I've read that from first. You can find the book on Amazon, but it's in French (tableau synoptique de l'histoire du monde). I used to be quite interested in the first empire era, then found his book on it, then found the book I've told you about and now I just read stuff on western history, from Louise de Savoie to the first world war

18 to 20 millions in a smaller territory than modern France. I also read that northern Italy demography was the same density, and only reach the same density circa 1850, but i'm not sure if it's from Fournet or a criticism of Fournet (I love reading historians' criticism, but the majority are academic papers or thesis)

[edit] > That sounds really suspicious as description of France in the eighteenth century…

Yeah, I was adding to the argument, I'm 100% in agreement.

> Louis-Henri Fournet was probably the historian I've read that from first. You can find the book on Amazon, but it's in French (tableau synoptique de l'histoire du monde)

Merci (ça ne va pas poser trop de problème ;))