Konrad Wnęk

Demographic Changes in Lvov in the Years 1829–1938

In the article, the author sums up the results of research on the issue of demographic transformations which had taken place in Lvov in the years 1829–1938. Due to a lack of archival sources, the paper relies on the published statistical data. Up until now, Lvov possessed neither a monograph concerning demographic issues, nor any detailed analyses of population changes which had taken place there in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the analysis, the author makes use of the crude birth and death rates in order to single out the individual phases of the demographic transformation. The first phase is typical of the demographic ancient regime and is characterized by high values of the birth and death rates. However the author goes beyond this observation and undertakes an effort to answer the question what was the cause of such high mortality in Lvov and how the contemporary city authorities tried to counteract these unfavorable factors.
Subsequently, the author focuses on trying to define the time of commencement of the second phase of the transformation which began with the drop of the death rate. In spite of the fact that it is difficult to talk about precise dates, it seems that this process began at the turn of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries. The author also draws attention to a certain lack of precision in estimating the number of inhabitants in the city, due to a considerable volume of migration which intensified towards the end of the 19th c.; this phenomenon could have exerted an influence on entering the process of demographic transformations earlier than might be inferred from formal observations.
Apart from a general analysis, the author carried out community research taking into consideration such factors as gender and religious belief. If in the case of differentiation into gender, the results only confirmed the occurrence of inequality towards death among men and women, then in the case of religion, certain fundamental differences were observed. In the light of the conducted studies, it turned out that it was the Jews who entered the second phase at the earliest moment, which in turn led to an increased birth rate among the Jewish population. This process could have exerted a considerable influence on the perception of this religious group as a more expansive one at the beginning of the 20th century, not only in the economic, but also in the demographic sense.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Historical Research

The author of the article discusses the application of GIS systems for historical research as well as for presenting the research results. The fi rst part of the article contains defi nitions of GIS and a short history of the method development in the second half of the 20thcentury. Afterwards the article focuses on scant sources on the subject in the Polish language and slightly less so in English. Since an essential aspect of the issue is the software employed for the research, the author presents its short characteristics and systematization. The most interesting historical GIS projects, which may become an inspiration for other researchers in Poland, are also described in the body of the article. The author warns against excessive enthusiasm for this methodology, emphasizing that its proper application requires interdisciplinary knowledge comprising historical cartography, IT and spatial analysis. Alongside the use of GIS in space-related historical research, one should also bear in mind that it is an attractive tool for presenting the results and it may contribute to spread such results among a wider audience through the Internet.