A century of famine
During the Little Ice Age famines hit Europe with regularity, striking some countries in repetitive years, others in years with gaps in between occurrences. Nearly all of the famines occurred in conjunction with wars, and often the famines were a consequence of war, while other times they were a root cause. Harsh winters, late frosts, dry growing seasons, early frosts, all led to bad harvests, which in turn led to severe shortages of food and eventually malnutrition, disease, and death. The nations of Europe were wracked, year after year, and efforts by governments to ease conditions often led to misunderstanding and unrest.
In 1693-94 for example the Great Famine in France led to the death of 1.5 million people from starvation or nutritionally related disease. The famine was caused by the harshness of the winter of 1691-92, which didn’t break until late in the spring months, when the already wet soil in much of the country was further inundated by heavy rains. Much of the crop was lost due to the overly wet soil. What did survive the bad spring suffered through a dry summer with drought conditions in many places, followed by an early frost. The bad harvest meant that during the winter of 1693-94 there were shortages of food and widespread disease. Only the Mediterranean region of southern France was spared.
Estonia suffered consecutive years of weather related bad harvests in 1694 and 1695. The following year the growing season was beset by continuing cold and wet conditions, including days in the summer months when near freezing temperatures occurred. After three straight failed growing seasons many Estonians lacked the strength to survive the bitter winter of 1696-97, with about 20% of the Estonian population dying of starvation over the winter months, even as Swedish merchants (Estonia being under Swedish control at the time) exported what grain there was to markets in Europe.
Between the years 1708 -11 crops failures due to the poor growing conditions in East Prussia led to famine conditions in which over 40% of the population succumbed to starvation or disease. In Finland a famine in 1697-98 killed more than a third of the population. Over the continent of Europe the cooling of the climate and the limitations thus imposed on the growing season made one nation after another unable to support itself, governments unable to do anything about it, and trade requirements unable to ease the situation, driven as they were by profits rather than charity.
The British Isles and Ireland were not immune. Both England and Scotland suffered from crop failures related to the weather and the Great Famine of Ireland, 1740-41, was a result too of the changes in climate wrought by the Little Ice Age. The Irish Famine was caused by successive crop failures, a result of too cold and too wet conditions, the destruction of much of the potato harvest through frost damage, and because of the inability to properly feed cows and goats, rampant shortages of milk. Over 900,000 Irish people died in the disaster, which was largely climate caused. The Irish have a name in their own language for this famine. It translates to “Year of Slaughter”.