Impact Of Natural Disasters On The Countrymen's Livelihood During The Republic Of China Period

It is worthy to do some academic research on natural disasters because they are the natural enemies that human beings always face and struggle with. Some sociologists have already researched into the social attributes of natural disasters and the human beings who suffered from them. However, their works are, for the most part, accounts of the reasons, the damage, the features and the relief of natural disasters, which happened in various periods and various places. This thesis tries to probe into the history of natural disasters during the period of the Republic of China in an overall way by discussing the impact of natural disasters on the countrymen's livelihood during that period.The whole thesis includes five parts:The first part is a brief account of the natural disasters during the Republic of China period, is an introduction of the background. In this part, there are three forms which collect and arrange the history data of natural disasters, including the number of the main natural disasters happened in the year 1949, the frequency of the important disasters happened in some provinces and the number of the counties where natural disasters happened. These forms help the writer draw the conclusion that the natural disasters in the Republic of China period happened frequently and they occurred almost every year and every place; there were a great many afflicted people; there were many different kinds of natural disasters and many of them happened in the same place and at the same time.The second part mainly discusses the link between natural disasters and the afflicted people's livelihood. The afflicted people's livelihood includes the lives when they were under the attack of natural disasters and the lives when they were provided with relief. At the time when people were under the attack of natural disasters, the prices of food were soaring and people ate food substitutes. The afflicted people had to sell their properties even sell their own wives and children to survive. Later, the afflicted people not only...