ABSTRACT
A key dimension of human progress in general, and economic progress in particular, over the last several centuries has been the phenomenal increase in population. This chapter traces the pace of demographic change and juxtaposes it against economic progress. The idea that modern Homo sapiens might have appeared around 50,000 BC was from Determinants and Consequences of Population Trends, revised edition, published by the United Nations. An important facet of population growth since 1800 was the growth of urbanization. The Industrial Revolution could well be defined as the compendium of growth and trade promoting improvements and innovations unveiled during the early eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, first in Europe and then in America. The pace of innovation changed during the second phase of the Industrial Revolution covering 1870–1914, which may be extended to 1945, the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the end of colonization.
