Abstract At first glance, the historical development of mortality in Europe can be easily and quickly summarized. Pre-decline patterns typical of most Ancien Regime societies were characterized by high overall levels, punctuated by periodic bouts with epidemics caused by infectious disease (plague, smallpox, typhus, etc.). During the eighteenth century, and chiefly thanks to ever more efficient government intervention, the incidence of crisis mortality diminished drastically in most of Europe. It was the ‘stabilisation of mortality’ as Michael Flim called it, and was essential to the subsequent spurt in European growth rates. With the reduction of epidemics, endemic infectious diseases became relatively more important and gains in life i:xpectancy slowed considerably. It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that mortality once again declined sharply in most areas of Europe. Child mortality and, somewhat later, infant mortality were responsible for much of this decline, though gains in life expectancy affected all age groups. Mortality improvement was due mostly to the decline in diseases such as diarrhoea and tuberculosis. The third period of mortality decline began after World War II, spread throughout the world, and seems inextricably, though not exclusively, linked to the discovery and use of sulpha drugs and antibiotics.
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