Find out the cause of the crisis more than 400 years ago

In the 1600s in Europe, the crisis was comprehensive with a series of social fluctuations such as war, inflation, starvation.

While historians blame the increasingly serious chaos of the war between feudalism and capitalism, a new study finds another 'culprit' .

This is due to the effects of climate change that prolong the cold weather at the Little Ice Age period - an unusually cold period in Europe and North America during the 1300s - 1850).

The painting simulates the cold period in London in 1677.
(Photo: Abraham Hondius via Heritage Images / Corbis)

The authors said that the period of Little Ice Age inhibited the development of agricultural production and eventually led to the crisis in Europe. This is the result of the study on the relationship between climate change and the large-scale crisis in human society.

Before the industrial revolution, all European countries were countries with a large area of ​​arable land, a 'agricultural society with an economy heavily dependent on the climate'.

A research team from the University of Hong Kong analyzed data in Europe and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere from 1500 to 1800. Accordingly, they conducted a comparison of climate data, for example. like temperature, with other variables including population size, growth rate, war, other social disorders, and data on agriculture and famine, grain prices, wages.

The authors say that some influences, such as food shortages and medical problems, show from the middle of 1560 and 1660, the harshest period of Little Ice Age, the area of ​​cultivated land. as well as a very strong reduction in fertility. The average height dropped to nearly 2 cm during the late 1500s, malnutrition spread . These were only overcome when the temperature rose again after 1650.

For other issues, such as hunger, the 30-year war (1618-1648), or the Manchu conquering China, 'temperature is not a direct cause of war and social disturbance. which is the value of grain. In general, climate change is the ultimate cause, the underlying cause of these chaos, " said David Zhang, the head of the study.

This new study is both a historical lesson and a warning.'As the climate changes due to global warming, developing countries will be more affected, because these are countries with significant dependence on agricultural production,' Zhang added.