Famine | Definition, Causes, & Facts | Britannica (original) (raw)

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famine, severe and prolonged hunger in a substantial proportion of the population of a region or country, resulting in widespread and acute malnutrition and death by starvation and disease. Famines usually last for a limited time, ranging from a few months to a few years. They cannot continue indefinitely, if for no other reason than that the affected population would eventually be decimated.

Conditions associated with famine

Famines, like wars and epidemics, have occurred from ancient times, achieving biblical proportions not only in biblical times but throughout history. Examples from the 20th century include the Chinese famine of 1959–61, which resulted in 15–30 million deaths, the Ethiopian famine of 1984–85, which caused approximately 1 million deaths but affected more than 8 million people, and the North Korean famine of roughly 1995–99, which killed an estimated 2.5 million people.

Many famines are precipitated by natural causes, such as drought, flooding, unseasonable cold, typhoons, vermin depredations, insect infestations, and plant diseases such as the blight that caused the Great Famine in Ireland (1845–49). Although natural factors played a role in most European famines of the Middle Ages, their chief causes were feudal social systems (structured upon lords and vassals) and population growth, which extended many common food shortages into malnutrition, widespread disease, and starvation. Medieval Britain was afflicted by numerous famines, and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period. Nor was Russia spared; some 500,000 Russians died of starvation in 1600.

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The most common human cause of famine is warfare. In addition to destroying crops and food supplies, warfare disrupts the distribution of food through the strategic use of siege and blockade tactics and through the incidental destruction of transportation routes and vehicles. The famines that plagued eastern Europe between 1500 and 1700, for example, were chiefly the result of human rather than natural causes, as the warring countries of the region interfered with and often prevented the production and distribution of basic foodstuffs. The deliberate destruction of crops and food supplies became a common tactic of war in the 19th century, employed by both attacking and defending armies. The “scorched-earth” policy adopted by the Russians in 1812 not only deprived Napoleon’s armies of needed food but also starved the Russian people who depended on the land.

Famines generally strike in poor countries; they have been endemic in some sub-Saharan African countries and widespread in South Asia. But they are not totally unknown to prosperous industrialized countries. In 1944–45, for instance, a famine struck the Netherlands with ferocity. The result of a temporary food embargo by German occupation authorities as well as harsh winter weather that impeded food shipments, the hongerwinter (“hunger winter”) claimed between 20,000 and 30,000 lives there at the end of World War II.

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Over the course of centuries, rulers and governments have managed, mismanaged, documented, and analyzed famines in numerous ways. An early concern with famines appears in an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, the Artha-shastra, by the Hindu statesman and philosopher Kautilya. Written during approximately the 3rd century bce and combining the modern and the quaint, the Artha-shastra classifies famines as “calamities due to acts of God.” (Other miseries and problems categorized in this way included fire, floods, and epidemics as well as “rats, wild animals, snakes, and evil spirits.”) It points out that all calamities “can be overcome by propitiating Gods and Brahmans” (the highest ranking caste in Hindu India)—a shrewd piece of advice, given that Kautilya himself was a Brahman. But the Artha-shastra also contains sophisticated prescriptions, stressing the king’s responsibility to act and recommending that in the event of a famine he “distribute to the public, on concessional terms, seeds and food from the royal stores [and] undertake food-for-work programs such as building forts or irrigation works.”

Historical responses to famine

The British government wrote the first modern codification of responses to famine during its occupation of India. The highly detailed Indian Famine Code of 1883 classified situations of food scarcity according to a scale of intensity, and it laid out a series of steps that governments were obligated to take in the event of a famine. The code continues to influence contemporary policies, such as food-for-work programs and what the code called “gratuitous relief” for those unable to work.

Despite the development of many detailed antifamine programs, famines have persisted. One reason for this is that until the 1980s the underlying causes of most famines were poorly understood. Despite some awareness to the contrary through the ages, there has been an overwhelming tendency to think that famines are primarily caused by a decline in food production. The result has been that famines that are not accompanied by such shortages are usually not recognized as famines until well after they have occurred. The Bengal famine of 1943, for example, was greatly worsened by the government’s failure to declare a famine and thereby secure the official responses that would have been dictated by the Indian Famine Code.