6.2: The Little Ice Age

In addition to religious conflict, a Little Ice Age occurred. A naturally occurring fluctuation in the Earth’s climate saw the average temperature drop by a few degrees, enhancing the frequency and severity of bad harvests. Starting in the 14th Century in the Northern Hemisphere, that change became dramatically more pronounced between 1570 and the early 1700s. The single most severe period lasted from approximately 1600 until 1640, precisely when the most destructive religious war of all raged in Europe: the Thirty Years’ War.

Figure 9.1.1: Overlay of different historical reconstructions of average temperatures over the last two thousand years. Temperatures continue to climb rapidly in the present era. (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unreported; Robert A. Rohde via Wikipedia)

Lower temperatures meant that crop yields dropped, outright crop failures became more common, and famines more frequent. In societies that were completely dependent on agriculture for survival, these conditions ensured that social and political stability was severely undermined. According to historians, major states across the world such as Ming China, the Ottoman Empire, and European colonial regimes in the Americas all suffered civil wars, invasions, or religious conflicts at this time. The climate was a major causal factor.

Thus, religious conflict overlapped with an economic crisis, with the latter making the former even more desperate and bloody. The results are reflected in some simple statistics: from 1500 to 1700, some part of Europe was at war 90% of the time. Indeed, there were only four years of peace in the entire seventeenth century. In addition, the single most powerful dynasty, the Habsburgs, were at war two-thirds of the time.