Height seems to be mostly an epigenetic thing based on multi-generational nutrition, with a lot of fuzzy wiggle room to just do whatever. Like if multiple generations don't suffer famine then they get progressively taller and eventually start hovering around the 6' mark, while populations under frequent nutritional stress remain smaller and hover around the 5' mark. And that's even before getting into weirder nutritional diseases that can further stunt growth and development if a population's diet lacks certain things.
And then there are just wild outliers, like anyone going well above 6' is probably not genetics so much as random chance (unless they have specific genetic disorders that cause increased height alongside serious health problems).
Fun fact: napoleonic army had a requirement of height around 130cm to get drafted, though it is more indicative by the need to grab anyone breathing into the boots than by the average height of population, someone this short wouldn't probably be taken into line service anyway because he would have serious troubles loading the musket.
Height seems to be mostly an epigenetic thing based on multi-generational nutrition, with a lot of fuzzy wiggle room to just do whatever. Like if multiple generations don't suffer famine then they get progressively taller and eventually start hovering around the 6' mark, while populations under frequent nutritional stress remain smaller and hover around the 5' mark. And that's even before getting into weirder nutritional diseases that can further stunt growth and development if a population's diet lacks certain things.
And then there are just wild outliers, like anyone going well above 6' is probably not genetics so much as random chance (unless they have specific genetic disorders that cause increased height alongside serious health problems).
Fun fact: napoleonic army had a requirement of height around 130cm to get drafted, though it is more indicative by the need to grab anyone breathing into the boots than by the average height of population, someone this short wouldn't probably be taken into line service anyway because he would have serious troubles loading the musket.
Two short kings taking turns standing on each other's shoulders to load their muskets
Short soldiers in Napoleonic army were usually pontoniers or voltigeurs.