First proposed by British economist Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834) who suggested that the population of the Earth would increase exponentially and soon increase past the amount of food available until controlled on moral grounds individually or growth was arrested by mechanisms such as famine or war.
MALTHUSIAN THEORY: “The Malthusian theory suggests that the only way of effectively controlling the population of the earth is through mechanisms such as famine and war due to the exponentially increasing number of people.”