They say that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world can cause a hurricane on the other side. If you take it a little too literally, this old observation might make you wonder what hurricanes cause. Or what about another major natural disaster, if not a hurricane? If new discoveries by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe are to be believed, volcanic eruptions led to the outbreak and spread of the Black Death across Europe in the 14th century. in video aboveBritish history and environmental science expert Paul Whitewick describes the evidence from a visit to one of the plague-stricken and abandoned medieval villages.
as Sarah Collins of the University of Cambridge writes:“Evidence suggests that a volcanic eruption, or swarm of eruptions, around 1345 caused annual temperatures to drop for several consecutive years due to fog from volcanic ash and gases, resulting in crop failures throughout the Mediterranean region.” Desperate Italian city-states therefore retreated to trade with grain producers around the Black Sea. “This shift in long-distance trade routes due to climate change helped avert famine, but in addition to lifesaving food, the ships were loaded with the deadly bacteria that would eventually cause the Black Death, allowing the first and deadliest wave of the Second Plague pandemic to gain a foothold in Europe.”
An important clue came in the form of “information contained in tree rings in the Spanish Pyrenees. Successive ‘blue rings’ indicate unusually cold and wet summers in 1345, 1346, and 1347 across much of southern Europe.” Records of near-contemporaneous lunar eclipses and layers of sulfur trapped in ice cores further raise the possibility of volcanic activity. The key linking these disparate lines of evidence is changes in trade routes. On his map, Whitewick traces “increasing migration along these corridors in 1347, the importation of grain from north of the Black Sea and beyond to the maritime republics of Venice and Genoa.” According to written records, the Black Death arrived in Britain the following year, reaching “a country already shaped by poor harvests, weakened communities, and increased movement of people and goods.”
Some communities survived the epidemic and even bounced back over time. Some, like the village in the ruins of Whitewick, have virtually disappeared completely. “This was a global problem, but it has become almost a local problem,” he says, stressing that it has revealed risk factors that existed even in the early stages of what we now call globalization. “Volcanic eruptions thousands of miles away changed climate patterns, which transformed harvests and trade, and trade brought disease. And here, in the quiet fields of England, the effects took root in the ground.” It’s certainly a less poetic image than butterflies and hurricanes, but no less relevant to our world.
Related content:
History of the Plague: Animated map of all major epidemics
1665 advertisement promises “famous and effective” cure for the Great Plague
The bizarre costumes of plague doctors who treated victims of bubonic plague in the 17th century
How Pompeii survivors escaped Mount Vesuvius’ deadly eruption: TED animation tells the story
The Krakatoa explosion of 1883 was the loudest in history, and its noise traveled around the world four times
1,000 years of medieval European history in 20 minutes
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
