D. Henley, Fertility, food and fever. Population, economy and environment in North and Central Sulawesi, 1600-1930

Abstract

Combining historical geography with historical demography, and conceived as a study in environmental history, this book examines the long-term relationship between population, economy, and environment in the northern half of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Using a rich variety of Dutch historical sources, it reconstructs and analyzes patterns of demographic, economic, and landscape change throughout this large and ecologically diverse region over a period of almost three and a half centuries. The results call into question some common views regarding the reasons for low population growth, and the relationship between population density and landscape change, in the Southeast Asian past.