Rochefort-sur-mer : ville de la marine, étude démographique 1680-1820
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Bordeaux 3Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
Rochefort was created in 1665 in order to meet the royal navy's needs. The royal navy employed nearly the totality of the town's inhabitants, and also, temporarily, soldiers, sailors and workers. When, in the xviiith century, the royal navy grew poorer, it began employing "daily workers" and pay was irregular. As a result, unhealthy living conditions increa-sed due to poverty. The population lived through three growth phases which were followed by a decline, all linked to the town's naval activities. Monthly marriage variations were influenced by both the church and an-nual fever illnesses, the latter also influenced conception. Birth illigitimacy was, up until the empire, relatively moderate. Abandonned children resulted from illigitimacy, poverty and mortality. Illness and death were omnipresent, and despite early marriages, and numerous early remarriages, birth rates were largely overtaken by mortality rates. The "rochefort fevers" (notably paludism and typhoid) caused sharp increases in seasonal mortality rates which rose even higher when the population was high. Rochefort survived due to the strong immigration influence which came essentially from the central-west and both charentais departments.
Abstract FR:
Rochefort fut creee en 1665 pour repondre aux besoins de la marine royale. Celle-ci employait la quasi-totalite des habitants et faisait appel temporairement a des soldats, matelots et ouvriers. A partir du xviiieme siecle, appauvrie, elle employa en masse des "journaliers" et paya irregulierement. La misere aggrava les effets de l'insalubrite. La population connut trois phases de croissance suivie d'un declin, liees a l'activite de la marine. La repartition mensuelle des mariages fut influencee par l'eglise et, comme celle des conceptions, par les fievres annuelles. Le taux d'illegitimite a la naissance fut, jusqu'a l'empire, relativement modere. Outre l'illegitimite, la misere et la surmortalite furent causes d'abandons. La maladie et la mort etaient omnipresentes; la mortalite depassait largement la natalite, malgre des mariages, et de nombreux remariages, precoces. Les "fievres de rochefort" (paludisme et typhoide notamment) entrainaient des poussees de surmortalite saisonnieres d'autant plus fortes que la population etait nombreuse. Rochefort ne dut sa survie qu'a une surimmigration venant, pour l'essentiel, du centre-ouest et des deux departements charentais.