Born Then1769–1771
Life during the Bengal famine of 1770
Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.
What it meant for ordinary people
A failed monsoon in 1769 brought famine to Bengal and Bihar, recently taken over by the East India Company. The Company kept collecting land revenue and did little relief, and grain hoarding drove prices up. It is reckoned to have killed a large share of Bengal's people.
Deaths: about 1 to 10 million; the East India Company reckoned a third of the population.
How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.
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