I don’t either.
As I understand it (and I may well be wrong), at that point in European history nationalism was just staring to take off, especially in what would become Germany (remember, before the Franco-Prussian War there was no unified German state). If there were a lot of German speakers in an area, they may have considered themselves German, despite the fact that their families had been living in French territory for generations.
I was thinking of a bit of how it was more or less the ‘germanness’ of the population made a convinent excuse for Germany to go and invade France a few times.
Sounds more like the birth of Texas. If the Chinese population in Siberia were to reach a critical mass and then declare independence from Russia, it would be Texas all over again.
Yes, Russia is in demographic decline. But this might actually be a good thing-higher wages for labor and better living standards. Is INDIA a great place to live (with their exploding populations?). As for China, yes, China needs and wants the vast resources of Siberia-but I don’t see large numbers of people wanting o live there-it is inhospitable under the best of circumstances.
China is going to have huge problems all its own-look at wha will happen when unemployment rises (as it is doing now). I predice the collapse of the communist government in 5-10 years.
As for countries with aging populations (like Western Europe): what can’t people keep working in their late 60’s? Obviously, you cannot be a construction worker at age 68-but your can certainly do most jobs at that age.
This seems to be based on the fallacy that money has a value in and of itself. It doesn’t. Higher wages are irrelevant if your economy isn’t actually, ‘productive’.
Yes you can, and that will be necessary. It will be interesting to see how Europe handles the tax on its socialist entitlements in the next twenty years.
From what I have read in various news articles, this downward trend has been slowed down in recent years and is predicted to turn around soon.
Here’s a news article about it: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080123/97616414.html.
This seems a little rash, don’t you think? Their grip seems tighter than ever these days. This thoughtful article from a man who actually lived in China sees quite the opposite. China's Way Forward - The Atlantic
He ends up listing several good reasons that demonstrate the CCP knows what its doing - and the populace isn’t exactly an eyelash away from violently overthrowing them.
From what I understand China is making efforts to turn it’s vast manufacturing resources inward to create an internal economy that can better weather external storms.
So, China is Russia’s Mexico? At least for paranoid right-wing talk radio values of Mexico.
Heh except China is not in the process of imploding due to a civil war between the army and militant criminal cartels. 
I think Russia has many Mexicos in that regard.
Actually, Russia is re-arming-they are building new nuclear submarines, and upgrading their aircraft. I think they may well plan a return to superpower status.
What good this will do them is open to question-if I were Medvedev/Putin, I’d be spending the money on infrastructure and public health.
Having more people alive at this point in time then we’ve had in all of history,six billion and rising quite rapidly, I think its fair to say that the world has an overpopulation problem.
And while the populations in some third world countries may not be heavy industrial users their deforestation and desertification are most definitely having their effect on the the world.
If the figures for Russias apparent decline in population are actually accurate and the decline becomes a permament event rather then a passing trend, while encouraging in the short term this will still be nowhere near enough to save the planet from the fast approaching crisis caused by too many people having too many children using up too many resources and causing too much environmental damage and too much pollution.
Is Siberia fertile enough to sustain a massivly increased population?
I’m not asking a rhetorical question here I honestly dont know.
Soz, this is most likely an urban myth, although depends on what you count as “human history”.
Here is a report about Russia’s current state and how they could significantly increase production just with more standard fertilizer use and land reforms. More so global climate change is expected to likely increase productivity in Russia’s Far East significantly, especially if precipitation increases rather than decreases along with warming there (not much confidence from the models which way it will go).
So maybe yes.
No. Dear God, no.
Not another one.
Did a quick Wiki which said that Siberias agriculture was limited by a harsh climate and poor soils but it was better in the west of the region.
How does it relate to economic inequality?
To whom are they a threat now?
By “top heavy,” do you mean a preponderance of senior citizens? Lots of countries are dealing with a “grayby boom” but there’s no sign it threatens to destabilize them.