Evaluate the importance of population expansion and movements as causes of change in two societies, each chosen from a different region.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal of the importance of population expansion and movements as causes of change in two societies, weighing up their importance or otherwise. The two societies must be from different regions. Candidates may offer equal coverage of the two societies or they may prioritize their evaluation of one of them. However, both societies will be a feature of the response. Candidates may refer to increasing numbers of people who could not be supported by their families (notably non-inheriting sons) as a consequence of population expansion; this may have stimulated movement into towns and cities (such as Naples and London), which, in turn, affected mortality and poverty rates. Population expansion may have also promoted movement to the Americas. It may, by increasing the size of markets and providing cheap labour, have stimulated economic activity, for example in Edo Japan; expansion improved agricultural techniques, for example, agrarian reform and improved irrigation systems in Mughal India. Candidates’ opinions or conclusions will be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.

The question required that candidates make an appraisal of the importance of population expansion and movements as causes of change in two societies, each chosen from a different region. There were very few responses seen.