Low population trap. During most of our existence the human race was trapped in a cycle of the population being destroyed by famines and diseases every time it reached a certain ceiling that barely changed with time, the land and big cities could support just so many people. And with a low population there is less people to work, less people to develop new technologies, less people to advance civilization. But after the Ice Age of the High Middle ages and the black death passed through europe, the europeans opened new trade and travel lines which allowed for an huge increase in the population, which allowed for more people developing new technologies, and with new technologies the capacity for population increased, and with more population there was more technologies and so on. This process is exponencial, the improvement rate increased more and more until it exploded with the industrial and sanitary revolutions of the 19th century. Basically, more population = more technolgies = better life = more population = ad infinitum
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