The%20Little%20Ice%20Age%20in%20Europe

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The Little Ice Age in Europe - Evidence for
Climactic Change
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Key Information

• Worst cold occurred between 1560 and 1850
• The climate cooled from the around 1250 onwards
• Well documented in both anecdotal and statistical
  evidence
• Much of the contemporary Europe affected,
  including

• Agriculture - reduced growing season, food
  production adapted to use the full-season warm
  climactic periods suffered, no extreme-weather-res
  istant seed varieties available, famines
  resulted. Snow-thriving parasites destroyed
  crops on Swiss farms. Hay stocks ran out -
  livestock fed on poor alternatives, and many cows
  needed to be slaughtered. High altitude farms in
  Norway were abandoned for relatively better land
  in the valleys.

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German Rye Prices
Price of Rye
Time
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Key Information

• Wine Production - grape cultivation in southern
  England absolutely stopped as crops could not
  stand the colder temperatures.
• Forests - tree populations much altered -
  warmth-loving beech replaced by oak and pine
  more resistant to the cold.
• Fishing - fish in more northern waters migrated
  southwards to avoid the cooling. Traditional,
  established fisheries failed altogether for as
  much as half a century, while new fertile fishing
  grounds appeared in areas such as Newfoundland.
• Health - huge impact beyond deaths from
  famine/poor nutrition. Cool, wet summers led to
  outbreaks of St. Anthonys Fire, causing
  convulsions, hallucinations, gangrene and even
  death. Immunity was weakened, and influenza and
  Bubonic Plague were assisted to spread all over
  Europe. Additionally Malaria managed to reach
  England.

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Evidence for Malaria in England

• Marshland conditions, combined with the colder
  temperatures, made a favoured habitat for An.
  Atroparvus, a highly effective malaria vector.
  The disease was a major cause of illness and
  death in the area until the end of the 18th
  century, coinciding with temperatures increasing.

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Key Information

• Social Unrest - the poor winters of 1708 and 1709
  killed many people in France, with conditions so
  bad that in the spring of 1710 the poor of
  several cities rioted to keep the merchants from
  selling what little wheat they had left.
  Highlanders in Scotland carried out cattle raids
  on the Lowlanders, leading to clan warfare.
  People thought to be witches were scapegoats, and
  subject to witch hunts, since it was believed
  that weather-making was among their powers.
• Art and Literature - both writers and artists
  were influenced by the great change in climate.
  Percy Shelly wrote
• and wall impregnable of beaming ice. The race
  of
• man flies far in dread his work and dwelling
  vanish
• Many paintings represent the conditions of the
  time...

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Art Depicting The Little Ice Age
Sports on a Frozen River Aert van der Neer
(Dutch) ca. 1660
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Art Depicting The Little Ice Age
Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap Pieter
Bruegel (Flemish) ca. 1565
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Art Depicting The Little Ice Age
The Hunters in the Snow Pieter Bruegel
(Flemish) ca. 1565
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Reliability / Limitation

• The shear volume of evidence and the wide range
  of sources provides an undeniably compelling
  argument, yet some limiting factors still need be
  considered
• The human tendency to exaggerate - must be
  assumed in a proportion of the anecdotal evidence
• Evidence not recorded at the time of occurrences
  may have distorted / become embellished through
  generations
• There is no way of knowing level of accuracy of
  documentation and statistical data.
• Art and Literature were created at least partly
  to entertain, and so evidential documentation is
  not their central purpose, hence they may not be
  100 accurate representations.
• Other factors will have contributed to many of
  the problems mentioned, beyond simply the weather
  effects of The Little Ice Age

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Consult the handout for more detailed information