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The mobility transition revisited, 1500–1900: what the case of Europe can offer to global history

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  • Lucassen, Jan
  • Lucassen, Leo
Abstract
Historians of migration have increasingly criticized the idea of a ‘mobility transition’, which assumed that pre-modern societies in Europe were geographically fairly immobile, and that people only started to move in unprecedented ways with the onset of modernization in the nineteenth century. In line with this critique, this article attempts to apply thorough quantitative tests to the available data. The focus is on ‘cross-community migration’, following Patrick Manning's argument that migrants moving over a cultural border are most likely to accelerate the rate of innovation. Six forms of migration are considered: emigration out of Europe, immigration from other continents, rural colonization of ‘empty spaces’, movements to large cities, seasonal migration, and the movement of sailors and soldiers. To illustrate regional variations, the examples of the Netherlands and Russia are contrasted. The reconstruction presented here is partial and preliminary, but it unequivocally shows that early modern Europe was much more mobile than modernization scholars allowed for. There was indeed a sharp increase in the level of migration after 1850, but it was due to improvements in transport rather than to modernization in a more general sense. This model has been elaborated for Europe but it can also be applied to other parts of the world and can hopefully contribute to the debate on the ‘Great Divergence’ between Europe and Asia.

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  • Lucassen, Jan & Lucassen, Leo, 2009. "The mobility transition revisited, 1500–1900: what the case of Europe can offer to global history," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 347-377, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jglhis:v:4:y:2009:i:03:p:347-377_99
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    Cited by:

    1. Jord Hanus, 2013. "Real inequality in the early modern Low Countries: the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch, 1500–1660," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 733-756, August.
    2. Manning, Patrick, 2012. "Historical datasets on Africa and the African Atlantic," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 604-607.
    3. Philippe Bocquier & Rafael Costa, 2015. "Which transition comes first? Urban and demographic transitions in Belgium and Sweden," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(48), pages 1297-1332.
    4. Akira Igarashi, 2022. "How do initial migrants choose their locations? Interregional migration in Japan from 1899 to 1938," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 1032-1047, September.
    5. Deschacht, Nick & Winter, Anne, 2015. "Rural crisis and rural exodus? Local migration dynamics during the crisis of the 1840s in Flanders (Belgium)," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 32-52.
    6. Matthias Blum & Karl‐Peter Krauss & Dmytro Myeshkov, 2022. "Human capital transfer of German‐speaking migrants in eastern Europe, 1780s–1820s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 703-738, August.
    7. Ruben Schalk, 2016. "Apprenticeships and craft guilds in the Netherlands, 1600–1900," Working Papers 0080, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    8. Giulia Bonazza, 2022. "Enslaved Labour and Im/Mobility in the Mediterranean: The Italian Case (1752-1885)," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 56(1), pages 61-78, June.
    9. A’Hearn, Brian & Rueda, Valeria, 2023. "Internal Borders and Population Geography in the Unification of Italy," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(3), pages 747-785, September.

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