One Little Climate Anomaly

This chapter discusses the Little Ice Age and its consequences. It starts with a description of such a climate anomaly and the causes of the Little Ice Age. These factors include changes in the orbital cycles of the planet, in solar activity, in volcanic activity, in ocean circulation, and in the world population due to the conquest of the Americas. This is followed by a discussion of the consequences of the Little Ice Age in terms of the challenges it posed to the status quo, which drastically changed our lives thereafter. These include challenges to the religious status quo as exemplified by the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War. Examples of challenges to the political status quo include the French Fronde, the French Revolution, the English Civil War, and the English Glorious Revolution. Challenges to the economic status quo were also discussed in terms of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The chapter concludes with the challenges to the social status quo in terms of persecution of minorities and changes to some cherished traits and revered values of some of these societies.